WTA FINALS

October 29, 2022

Gabriela Dabrowski

Giuliana Olmos

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to Fort Worth. How are you finding your WTA Finals experience so far?

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: Good.

GIULIANA OLMOS: So far so good.

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: Yeah, this is our first day on-site. We're getting the lay of the land. Seeing how everything is going. We had a practice on the second court and it was perfect, so yeah, all good.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. In terms of preparing for this event and looking also at the draw and the groups that everyone was drawn into, can you break down what your thoughts are on your chances of how the matches match up this week?

GIULIANA OLMOS: I think just preparing for this tournament. I think I'm just really excited to be here. I know I am. For me personally, I just like to prepare for every tournament the same.

Maybe there's something I need to work on or we need to work on as a team, but I don't like to approach things too differently or make too drastic of changes because I don't think any tournament is more important than another. So I don't want to give things too much significance.

It's part of my job to show up every day regardless of what tournament I'm at. I think for me at least showing up just the same as I have all year.

We have a tough group. Both groups are tough I think. The advantage we have is that we've played everyone, and I guess everyone has also played us. Gabby mentioned we lost to all the teams once.

I think we've played everyone. We haven't played some of the teams in a while. I think we are playing much better than maybe we did last time.

Everyone is going to be tough regardless. I'm really excited to be here. Just want to do a little bit better than I did last year and just kind of enjoy this tournament, the atmosphere, and hopefully we have a good run.

Q. Where do you place the importance of this tournament in the year, and what is the significance of an event where it is such a limited field based on a season's results?

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: I place it as one of the top events of the year. It's always a goal of mine if I'm playing with a consistent partner to be able to qualify for the WTA Finals. I think I mentioned that a few times throughout this year.

It matters a lot to me to qualify for this event and to try to do well. I think it's a huge honor to be part of it because it is the culmination of our season and it is indicative of everyone's level throughout the year and their consistency as teams.

It's just the best tennis that you can find right now. So I think it's really special to be here.

GIULIANA OLMOS: Yeah, I think it's really cool to be here. This is my second time qualifying. I think, like Gabby said, it's kind of a culmination of the hard work and the results you've had throughout the year.

Yesterday being at the dinner, seeing all the teams, all the singles players being called up, I'm really here with the best players in the world. Even though we're in that group, it's still kind of surreal to me that I am here, that we are here. I think it's really cool.

I think it's just an honor and privilege to be here. I definitely think it's kind of like a fifth slam. I would kind of put it at that caliber. Kind of like after US Open, I feel like we kind of started a swing again and you're preparing for that next slam. This is kind of that tournament. It's the last one of the year, so everyone obviously wants to end on a high note.

Yeah, just want to enjoy it and do the best we can.

Q. Just one team in the doubles field that are also players in the singles competition here with Coco and Jessica. Would you like to see more singles players in the doubles competition, which might elevate the attention paid to the doubles, or are you just fine with the way it is?

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: It depends. I think if you have a team like Coco and Jess that play a lot of doubles, and they really respect the game of doubles, and they always show up and give their best no matter what tournament they're playing or what match they're playing. You can also see how much fun they're having at the same time.

I know sometimes playing a full singles and doubles schedule is very demanding, and it's hard mentally and physically to do that week in, week out. I'm really impressed by both of them this year to be able to have the results they're having in singles and doubles.

I think when you have those kinds of tennis champions, like absolutely I'm all about it. I think the struggle that we find is that there are some girls who over the last 10 years that I've been playing predominantly doubles is when you have withdrawals in the draws. Then I think that decreases the value of the doubles game, and also just sheds a little bit of a dark cloud over the draw and stuff like that. You don't want to see that.

As a players council representing doubles full members and also lower-ranked singles players, I've just always advocated for players. If you want to play, play full. If you're not sure if you want to play full or not, don't because if you play full and you your try your best, that's awesome. We love to see it. Everyone loves to see it. Especially the marquee names like you mentioned, it's a lot of fun.

The trouble we run into is when you see the withdrawals. That just casts a cloud over the draw that we don't want to see.

GIULIANA OLMOS: Like Gabby said.

Q. On your opening-round opponents, Danilina and Haddad Maia, what did you make of their run to qualify? It was a pretty tough draw. They were able to manage to get that last spot. What do you make of that opening match?

GIULIANA OLMOS: I think it was great that they qualified last week. I think it was very entertaining for everyone to follow, both for the singles and the doubles just because we knew some of the spots were open.

They're playing well. I think we always knew they were good. We played them earlier in the year. I think probably 'cause kind of what Gabby mentioned, playing both singles and doubles, Beatriz started doing really well in singles, so I think sometimes she was winning a lot in singles, so I think it was just a lot on her body to do both.

I think at the end she focused a little bit more on doubles, and they did well. They made it obviously.

It will be tough. They're probably coming in probably with a lot of confidence, but I think we're also a lot in a much better place than the last time we played them, which was almost a year ago now.

So I'm really looking forward to the matchup. I think it will be a great match, a lot of great tennis.