THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

June 27, 2022

Yuriko Miyazaki

Press Conference

C. GARCIA/Y. Miyazaki

4-6, 6-1, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: How was your first experience at Wimbledon?

YURIKO MIYAZAKI: Yeah, it was absolutely amazing. I've never played at Wimbledon before. But, yeah, just to play on the literally perfect grass court in front of home fans, yeah, it was an incredible experience.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What was the difference in a very close match?

YURIKO MIYAZAKI: I think ultimately it came down to serving. She has a great serve. I think that's something that I need to work on. I'm not saying I can hit serves as big as her. I think maybe sometimes my first-serve percentage dropped a little bit. Yeah, that was maybe the ultimate deciding factor.

Q. Where do you see yourself moving forward after this match? Do you see yourself pushing into the top 200, even the top 100 in the coming year?

YURIKO MIYAZAKI: Yeah, for sure. I mean, last few weeks throughout the grass court season, I played against many, many girls in the top hundred. I feel like I've competed really well with them. I feel like my level's there.

Yeah, hopefully I can push on from here and get into the top 200 first, then who knows, into top hundred as well.

Q. The quick decision to represent Britain, how you decided to make that choice from Japan?

YURIKO MIYAZAKI: I mean, I've lived here for the majority of my life really. This is my home. It's always been in the back of my mind.

But I think ultimately I felt like for my career, for my life, I thought it was, yeah, just the best decision. Yeah, I'm happy with the decision I made.

Q. I think you played for the NCAA, Oklahoma Sooners, right?

YURIKO MIYAZAKI: Yes.

Q. How did you get the opportunity to play for Oklahoma? How did you decide to play at the professional level after you graduated from university?

YURIKO MIYAZAKI: I mean, I think when I was in the juniors, I was never really like a highly-ranked junior, and maybe physically I wasn't as developed. I always thought going to college was my option.

How I ended up with Oklahoma, yeah, I was recruited by a few schools. A coach at Oklahoma at the time was an Irish guy, he got in touch with me, he came over here. Yeah, I liked it. And yeah, that's how I decided to go there.

Then what was the second question? Sorry.

Q. When did you decide to be a professional?

YURIKO MIYAZAKI: I think even throughout college my goal was to play on the tour after I graduated because there's a lot of players who have gone through that college route.

Yeah, there's so many players even in their late 20s, 30s, still playing really well. So, yeah, I thought, yeah, it was always my decision to go pro after college.