ROLAND GARROS

June 10, 2023

Yui Kamiji

Kgothatso Montjane

Press Conference

KAMIJI-MONTJANE/de Groot-Moreno

6-2, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations, ladies. Let's begin with English questions.

Q. Congratulations, both of you. Amazing partnership, amazing win for you both. KG, we have talked about this moment for many, many years, you winning a Grand Slam title. How does it feel right now to have done that, and how does it feel to have Yui by your side as you did that?

KGOTHATSO MONTJANE: Yeah, it's really a great feeling for me, and to have done it with Yui, I couldn't have asked anyone else. We are very close friends.

I know on court sometimes it's tough for us, but I wouldn't have chosen anyone better than her to really share this moment with, considering it's my first Grand Slam. But other than that, it was really amazing atmosphere out there and it's a great achievement for me.

Yeah, just proud of us with this new partnership (smiling). I'm hoping for many more.

Q. Both Yui and KG, you talked to me about Yui's increased aggressive Yui on court. Yui, on the scale of 1 to 10, how aggressive was aggressive Yui today? And KG, on a scale of 1 to 10, how aggressive was aggressive Yui today?

YUI KAMIJI: You go first.

KGOTHATSO MONTJANE: Well, she was very aggressive throughout. I could see she was getting frustrated when I was doing mistake because I was trying to slow the game down. She just wanted to hit everything. But in my head, I'm like, no, we've got to slow it down somehow. I think that's what we did on the first set.

Yeah, I mean, she really hadn't slowed down unless she was pushed back. But like I said, for me, I like it when she's aggressive like that. I just want her to let me slow the game down when I feel like doing it.

Q. And for you, Yui, good aggressive Yui today?

YUI KAMIJI: Yeah. In doubles I think we could mix it up, like we also use slices, slice and a high ball with spin. So I don't think, like when I wasn't aggressive, we just sort it. We haven't many mistakes, but we couldn't like make many winners. But now we can do, like we can go to the net and we can finish the point. I think it's really tough for our opponent.

Yeah, I'm not 100 satisfied yet, because we can be better than today. But yeah, still, like I'm happy with our performance today, yeah.

Q. You have mentioned it, the variety of shots that you make in coming to the net from the baseline. How important is it to play that sort of game when you've got somebody like Diede on the other side of the net, and also an untested partnership, because they're not really a partnership we've seen together on tour?

KGOTHATSO MONTJANE: Yeah, it's really important to really come to the net. Diede keeps a good pace. Today I feel like I volleyed much better than yesterday because of the pace that Diede gives you. For us, I think it's something we really need to work on.

Me and Yui, we go on court, we don't discuss tactics. We figure it out on the spot. As this partnership grows we can start to win more because we know we are much stronger when we play up and down.

Yeah, like we always say, it's a work in progress. So hopefully we can figure it out.

YUI KAMIJI: I think we, as we know, Diede and Maria, such a new partner, and we watched other matches. I think most of pair try to hit Maria many times. But then that gives Diede to get into her side to get ball and she can hit like full swing.

So we talk before the match, we talk like sometimes we need to, Diede stuck there on her side, and then we can switch them, and we need to use whole courts. It really worked today.

So we just, yeah, like even if Diede play with Aniek or Isca [ph.] or some other players, if we can do that, then we have more chance to win in the future, I think.

Q. Yui, I wanted to know, is it difficult after a defeat in the singles to pick yourself up and maybe forget about that and then come back out and play good doubles?

YUI KAMIJI: Well, I played same opponent, but yeah, totally different, singles and doubles. With my performance in singles wasn't I expected, but yeah, it's like new match. So I totally different to when I get to the court.

I have some partner here, so yeah, just talk with her after my match about singles and how we gonna play in doubles. Yeah, my mind was set to play for doubles, yeah.