OMNIUM BANQUE NATIONALE

August 8, 2023

Peyton Stearns

Press Conference

L. FERNANDEZ/P. Stearns

6-3, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Peyton, obviously a tough result today, but can you just give us your overall thoughts on the match and playing out there on center court?

PEYTON STEARNS: Yeah, it was a lot of fun playing on center. This is my first time playing this event, so it was definitely a good experience.

Didn't go the way I wanted to. I didn't play the way I wanted to, but Leyla played very well. So at the end of the day she's going to come out on top.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I just wanted to know how you felt heading into the match physically and where you think things sort of started to go wrong for you?

PEYTON STEARNS: I think things were going wrong with my movement, to start. I wasn't moving as fast as I wanted to, and because of that, I was catching the ball late a lot of times.

I think I was just a tad bit slow. Played a lot of matches in D.C. and had a very quick turnaround. Had a really long day of travel on Friday. I got in actually at 1 a.m. Saturday to play the match on quallies, so it was tough to have time to recover.

It was nice not playing yesterday, but I don't think it was enough time to fully get back and grooving, but I did my best, and that's all I can say, so...

Q. If my math is right, so you just played seven matches in the last two weeks or so. How do you feel having played that kind of volume so quickly?

PEYTON STEARNS: It definitely takes a toll on you physically, but I think it's a good thing that I'm getting a lot of matches because in grass court season I caught a parasite, so I was out for a little bit and didn't get a lot of matches, so I feel like I'm kind of getting that groove back.

I got lucky last week getting the lucky loser in D.C. and was able to get two more matches out of it.

Q. You've faced Leyla back on the clay back in May, I think. How different was she from then? What did you see different from her?

PEYTON STEARNS: She was definitely making a lot more of her shots today, going after them a little more. I played her on red clay, so there's a big difference on red clay and hard. You have a little bit more time there.

But, I mean, she came out swinging and played very well.