ROLAND GARROS

May 29, 2023

Belinda Bencic

Press Conference

E. AVANESYAN/B. Bencic

6-3, 2-6, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Belinda, welcome back to the tour, first of all. I know you've been gone since you made that great final in Charleston. Just give us your overall thoughts today on the match.

BELINDA BENCIC: I don't even know what to say, honestly, for the match. I mean, I was fighting with what I had, but I don't think my level was anywhere where I wanted to be.

Yeah, I had chances in the end, so I think that was even more frustrating in a way because really in these pressure moments you normally rely on something that right now you're not even -- you don't even have that.

So it was a little bit frustrating, but I'm happy I'm back. I'm happy my leg survived. It didn't hurt at all. That's the positives, but I think I really need more weeks to get back to where I was and then more weeks to improve my level.

That's the plan now to go back to the practice court and get ready again physically and also tennis-wise and then continue to the grass.

Q. How do you feel? Which shape are you right now after the game? Is there any injury, or I don't know, how do you feel it, or was it hard I mean physically?

BELINDA BENCIC: No, physically the leg doesn't hurt at all, which is a very good sign. I didn't feel it any more after I started to practice, which was also a very good sign because we didn't know how it's going to react to the load again.

I did the MRI to check if it was better, but it was not guaranteed that it's not going to hurt. I think I'm very glad that since the moment I started to play, it didn't hurt anymore.

Physically injury-wise nothing hurts, but physically I think I definitely need to get better.

Q. How do you see the future for you? You say, okay, I need more weeks to reshape me physically. What does it mean? Do you have goals already?

BELINDA BENCIC: Well, yeah. The goal is definitely, first of all, to get to where I was. You always say that the weeks that you've been out or haven't played a tennis ball, that's the same amount of weeks you need to get back to the same level.

Then, of course, you need to get better because, meanwhile, everyone else is getting better. So it's definitely a bit frustrating for sure that I've been stopped again, but on the other side I really wanted to come here.

I wanted to be here. I'm competitive. If I'm healthy, I want to try and play with whatever I have in this moment.

Of course, it's not pretty, you know, and today was definitely not pretty also for me, and I'm aware of that. At least I gave myself a chance, and I'm going to build up from that.