ROLAND GARROS

May 27, 2022

Diane Parry

Press Conference

S. STEPHENS/D. Parry

6-2, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Good evening, thank you for being with us, Diane. Of course after the end of the tournament you're already talking about the results, but let's speak about that afterwards. Let's come back to the match and what was missing today to manage to take the upper hand a little bit more maybe in the second set to maybe put the set in your direction?

DIANE PARRY: Well, I think there was quite a lot missing because she's really a top-level player and she really showed it today. She shows us everything that is not going right, everything you need to improve in your game, so it's positive also because it shows me what I have to work on for the future.

I'm disappointed that I couldn't do better in this match but in any case congratulations to her, because she played a very solid match.

Q. What is the feeling after this type of match? Do you think you could have done better?

DIANE PARRY: Yes, that's what I just said. Disappointed because I thought that if I had maybe given away a few less faults and I had done a better backhand then I could have managed to do better.

So I'm disappointed at that, but it shows me everything I have to work on. There's quite a lot to do before I can reach her level.

Q. You said that you have a lot to work on, so what in particular do you think you need to work on?

DIANE PARRY: Well I think I need to work on my whole game. You have to be very robust at that level, shouldn't give away any points, you have to be very solid in the rallies. So quite a lot to do there.

Q. Do you think that you lacked patience in the rallies today, because you often took the initiative without being able to win the point due to unforced errors?

DIANE PARRY: Well, she pushed me to do it, because I tried to build my game, but at one point I had to take the initiative to finish the point because she wasn't about to give it to me.

She covers the court extremely well and she obliges us to do an additional shot each time or force the shot or look for a more risky zone. So she's the one who really pushed me into playing this way and that's where she's good.

Q. You said yourself that if you had done a better backhand today that you felt in difficulty maybe on the slides or you were hitting wood quite a lot. Was your backhand just missing today?

DIANE PARRY: Yes, because she has a very difficult ball, it's really bouncing a lot today and I was falling off on the line to give myself more time so the ball could come down a bit more. But I still had to hit it above the shoulders so it became tricky to play.

So, no, I didn't manage to use her ball and find how to give her a better backhand today.

Q. Emotionally when you went on to the court today were you tense or is there no explanation?

DIANE PARRY: No, absolutely not. I felt really good and I was focused on my match and I really tried to get myself right from the beginning, but no particular stress in any case.

Q. Apart from the disappointment of this evening do you take anything positive away from it? Have you had a good week here at Roland Garros?

DIANE PARRY: Yes, I'm disappointed now because it's straight after the match. But when I look at my, where I've come from, I'm rather satisfied.

Today is the best game I managed to play. I reached the third round and I played some good matches, so I have to look at the positive sides of the past two matches I played and put the negative of today's match to one side.

Q. I had a question about the audience. A lot of French players said that this year was extraordinary in terms of the atmosphere. What did you think about this and did this impact your results during this tournament? And I have a question on the court, Philippe Chatrier, which is very big, very impressive. How did you manage to feel comfortable in it, was it difficult for you even though you had won against Krejcikova on that court?

DIANE PARRY: With regard to the audience I felt this right from the beginning. I saw that they were all really happy to come back to the tournament without any constraints, number limitations or masks. We could see that they were happy.

And it is the first year where I feel such involvement in the matches and courts that were full for every match. So it was really nice to see that. All of the French players felt a great deal of support for each match.

Regarding the court, I saw that Krejcikova, Krejcikova and I played a match on it with her before, so it wasn't new, but it was different today with the roof open. But it didn't, you know, frighten me more than that.

Q. So third round of a Grand Slam, you're going to move up to the top 100, what's coming next for your season, do you have an idea?

DIANE PARRY: Well I was already in the top 100. So I think I'm going to continue, I'm going to train for one week next week to continue to work well and be ready for my next tournaments.

Then I think that I'm going to do another WTA tournament on the clay court and then move on to lawn courts. I'm going to talk about that with my coach afterwards, but I'm going to continue to play on the big circuits with big tournaments and big players and that will help me to progress.

Q. Do you like lawn, how do you feel about it?

DIANE PARRY: Yes, I do, I love the surface, I love playing on lawn. I'm happy to be able to go back to Wimbledon this year.

Q. You really underline the quality of Sloane Stephens on the fact you're playing against players such as that. On the court do you really feel the difference of level?

DIANE PARRY: Yes, I really felt it today because you can maybe feel it if you're on the same level at some point in the rallies and the strokes, but at the end you can always see that she's obliging us to play one shot more which leads to errors most of the time.

She plays the important moments very well and so it's like that in a lot of different areas.

Q. Normally you should be playing this evening in doubles with Alize Cornet?

DIANE PARRY: No, there won't be a doubles. She has an injury, so she, a bit of a problem, so she prefers to keep fresh for the singles.