BILLIE JEAN KING CUP

November 10, 2022

Petr Pala

Marketa Vondrousova

Katerina Siniakova

Team Czech Republic

Emirates Arena

Press Conference

SINIAKOVA-VONDROUSOVA/Kawa-Linette

6-2, 6-3

Team Czech Republic - 2

Team Poland - 1

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. Your first time playing together as a pair. You looked like you adjusted really well and gelled together really well. How was it on the court for you?

MARKETA VONDROUSOVA: I mean, I felt good. You know, it was tough match, and I think we played a great match for, you know, the first match as a team.

Yeah, Katka, she was leading the game. She was telling me what to do. I was just, Okay, okay, let's do this, let's do that. I was just listening and just trying to help her as much as I could.

Q. Was it a surprise, Katerina, to be in that position after the second singles? Did you expect it to go to a deciding doubles?

KATERINA SINIAKOVA: Like if I would play or if we deciding doubles?

Q. If you thought it would be a deciding doubles.

KATERINA SINIAKOVA: I mean, I don't mind. I was ready to play if it's deciding point or not. I was just happy that I could be here and that I can play.

I'm really happy that we won that match and that we played really great.

Q. Tomorrow a really big tie against USA, two of the most successful nations in this competition. How big is that match going to be?

KATERINA SINIAKOVA: Yeah, it's really big. I mean, we like to be here, as well. We have quite good history, as well. So of course we will try to show our best.

We will try to enjoy it, and I think we have a really good chance to win, so we will just try to show everything on the court.

Q. To win this title, you have to win a tie every single day for four days.

KATERINA SINIAKOVA: Easy (smiling).

Q. Easy (smiling). There we go, done. How much of a challenge is that, playing back to back?

MARKETA VONDROUSOVA: Yeah, I mean, it's tough, but I think we are used to it from the tournaments, also you have to play matches every day, if it's singles, if it's doubles.

Yeah, I think we have to be prepared for it. If it happens, then it's great for us. Yeah, we'll see. I think we are a great team, and we are really enjoying ourselves here, so we'll see.

Q. Congratulations. An important win. Your reflections on the tie today?

CAPTAIN PALA: Thank you. Well, the win is important. Gives us a chance to get to the semifinals. We play probably the favorite team here to win, U.S. tomorrow, and we have to get ready, recover from today, but I'm very happy the way we won.

Just have to sit down and think about who is going to play tomorrow.

Q. Was it a surprise the way the second singles went? Does that change your thoughts going into tomorrow?

CAPTAIN PALA: I wouldn't speculate on that. I think we could see that Magda played really well, and she was on the way from yesterday when she beat Madison Keys.

It looked in the beginning because she was used to it already, and Karolina wasn't feeling, you know, comfortable on the court, on the match. And we were trying to her to loosen up a little bit, because she has big groundstrokes and serves. Unfortunately we didn't find a solution.

But Linette played really good match, and we couldn't find any answers.

Q. You obviously lost Barbora before this tie, but first-time doubles pairing for you today. Looks like your doubles team is still very, very strong. That must give you a lot of confidence.

CAPTAIN PALA: Well, I guess all the girls on the team can play doubles on a very high level, and this was one of the options.

I'm happy it worked out, because we were favorites in the doubles, but with no ad scoring, it's sometimes too close or closer than it could have been.

Q. You've got to play four days in a row obviously to win this title.

CAPTAIN PALA: It will be perfect.

Q. Doesn't bother you?

CAPTAIN PALA: No, I love to play four days in a row.