ROLAND GARROS

June 7, 2023

Beatriz Haddad Maia

Press Conference

B. HADDAD MAIA/O. Jabeur

3-6, 7-6, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Bea, congratulations. You have defeated a lot of top-10 players before, but this is the first time you've defeated a top-10 player in a Grand Slam, and the first time you reach a semifinals. How are you feeling right now?

BEATRIZ HADDAD MAIA: Well, I'm feeling happy, for sure. The last time we played I lost 6-3, 6-Love. So it's not easy stepping on Chatrier for the first time. I didn't play there before.

Yeah, to play against a very competitive player as she is. Also, I know that she could make me feel dropshots, and I was trying to be aggressive. Yeah, I'm happy that I could keep trying to improve my tennis, keep trying to step in, to go forward.

I'm happy with also my mentality today because I had to be very patient and to wait for the opportunity. Yeah, I'm proud because of that.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Beatriz, how important is momentum for you within a match, and then in the scope of the tournament itself?

BEATRIZ HADDAD MAIA: Sorry, I didn't understand.

Q. Momentum. How important has it been within each match to build momentum and then across the whole tournament at this point?

BEATRIZ HADDAD MAIA: Well, as I said yesterday, I think a tennis match is like a marathon. It's not 100 meters race.

I think one of my qualities is that I wait and I'm very patient and I never give up, so I wait for the moment because I know that my level is high. So even if I'm not playing well or even if I'm missing a few shots one moment, the tennis will appear, and, yeah, I'll have my opportunity to go for it.

Today was like the momentum changed in the tiebreaker, so I was almost at home because I was serving 5-0, I think 15-40 in the second set. So, yeah, she was almost there.

Yeah, I think because of that I could change, and I had the momentum for me.

Q. Bea, at the end of the match you put your hands on your head. You were looking around, and it was like you could not believe what was happening to you. If this is all a dream, what's going to happen when you wake up?

BEATRIZ HADDAD MAIA: Yeah, I think I did not think to do that. But yeah, I came to Roland Garros, my first goal was to be in the third round. Yeah, I never won before a second round in a Grand Slam. I know that the goal had to be real.

I remember when I won the third round, I said, Okay, now I reach another goal. Yeah, when we have eight players in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam, everybody is playing well, so everybody can believe.

I was prepared for the game. I knew that it would be very hard. It's not easy to be set down against Jabeur, and she was playing well.

So, yeah, when the match was done, I just looked to my team and said, We made it. Like, We did.

Yeah, I was happy, and I'm very excited for what is coming as well (laughing).

Q. Looking at your face on that match point when it all finished, have you ever been in a state of shock and disbelief as you were right at that moment?

BEATRIZ HADDAD MAIA: No (laughing). Yeah, I think it was one of the biggest and special wins for me.

Also because Jabeur is a player that I respect a lot. It's very tough to come and, yeah, to go for it because one thing is to win a set, one thing is to have 5-3 and serve, and one thing is to go and win the match.

Yeah, I was very proud, and I think my face showed that, yeah, I think hard working, it works sometimes (laughing).

Q. How do you stay at that level going into the semifinals -- looks like it will be Swiatek -- maintain that without having a bit of a drop after a big result like this?

BEATRIZ HADDAD MAIA: Yeah, I think during my career I had also moments like this when I reach the first final for a Master 1000, and also my first WTA Final, when I was for the first time the top 20 when I won my first big tournament in doubles.

So I think every step we pass through makes us stronger. So, yeah, I think now I will take care of my body. My mentality keeps the same. I already played against Iga as well, so we need to still wait. Tennis is long.

If it was my match, even if it is set and 4-2, the match can change, everything can change very fast in tennis. So I will be ready even if it's Coco or Iga.

Yeah, I'll take care of my body, my thinks, and try to keep the same mentality tomorrow.

Q. Two quick questions. One is that the match has just finished. It is Iga.

BEATRIZ HADDAD MAIA: Okay.

Q. So if you could just give us a little addition to what you were saying there to Craig about the challenge of playing Iga and how you will convince yourself that you can win.

BEATRIZ HADDAD MAIA: Well, we played once, and it was last year in the middle of the year. It was three sets, and I won in the end of the match. So it's a very tough one. She's the No. 1, and she's one of the best players we have from the last year.

She's young. She's a nice person as well. So, yeah, she already won twice here.

I'll try to enjoy. I'll try to play every single point. I'll leave everything on the court. Yeah, I have nothing to lose.

I will try to go for it, and do my best shots and think about the things that I need to improve as well.

Q. Just finally from me, forgive me if you have answered this once before earlier in the week, but I know that you're I think 27 years of age, and it's taken you until the last couple of years to really break through at this level and now you're having your best tennis now. Why did it take so long, and what has changed that has made you able to do this?

BEATRIZ HADDAD MAIA: Well, I think four surgeries are not easy, yeah, to come back. I had tough moments in my career. Also a part of the surgeries I had two bones that I broke in the back and the shoulder that I had to stop again.

So for the body I had to stop six or seven times in my career for months and starting again. Also, I was one year out from the tour, so it's not easy to keep the level and improve the tennis when we are always, like, coming back.

Also, the level that you play. When you play futures and challenger tournaments, you have different level of tennis as well, so you need to build your mentality, your tennis.

I was, yeah, consolidating myself in these levels, and I had to fight a lot to be here, to build my game. Also, I think my team works very hard, and they are young people who dreams the same thing as me. So I think that's why we are now having our best moments.

Q. You mentioned that you read one of the interviews Novak said and his words got into your head, and you started believing that you can. What was the interview? What were those words? Have you maybe met him or spoke to him about this?

BEATRIZ HADDAD MAIA: Yeah, I think I said in my speech after my win that I was very nervous when I was playing against Sara Sorribes.

The day before my coach sent me the interview that he was saying that he feels the nerves, he feels the pressure. But, yeah, I understood that everybody feels. If Djokovic feels, if Rafa feels, if everybody feels, why I'm not going to feel?

So we need to accept. We need to be humble, and we cannot play against these thoughts.

Yeah, I think mentality makes me feel, okay, I'm a human being, I'm a normal person. I need to work harder, yeah, to press through this moment. It helped me, yeah, to think differently.