OMNIUM BANQUE NATIONALE

August 9, 2023

Belinda Bencic

Press Conference

B. BENCIC/A. Parks

6-3, 5-7, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Belinda, just to get things started, tell us how you felt about your performance today.

BELINDA BENCIC: Well, it was a really tough match. It was very up and down. It was hard for me to find a rhythm, but I toughed it out. I'm happy about that.

Happy I fought until the end, but yeah, there's still lots to improve.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. When you're down in a match and trying to get yourself out of those tricky situations, what are you telling yourself?

BELINDA BENCIC: Well, I'm just trying to kind of think about what I have to do different, how I have to play active, how I have to be the player that's dominating the rallies.

Of course, there can be many reasons why you are down in a match. But, yeah, just kind of trying to think about what I should do next.

Of course, I also try to push myself up, try to, yeah, not give up, fight until the last point, and always try to think that my opportunities will come.

It's also difficult for the other player to close out the match. It's not easy. So I always feel like in the end of the match there's chances.

Q. What did you make of Alycia Parks' game? She's a player that has been rising up through the rankings, but inconsistency, the serve, you never know what you're going to get. What did you kind of make of it?

BELINDA BENCIC: Well, I mean, she hits the first and second serve the same, so it's either an ace or -- I mean, she didn't double fault so much. But, yeah, I mean, it's just very coin-tossy vibes, I would say.

So, yeah, my game plan was to put the ball in the court and just try to make her play more than three shots per rally. Then I feel like the chance was pretty high she would make an error. But obviously it's not easy when she's serving like, I don't know, 190 or 200.

So, of course, on my service games it was a bit easier, but sometimes it happens. She just hits three winners off the return, but generally I just felt like you have to get into the rally.

Q. So the Olympics are coming up next year, and is there anything you're thinking about in particular or a training routine that you are doing in particular for that as the reigning gold medalist?

BELINDA BENCIC: Well, I'm doing push-ups (laughing). No, I'm kidding.

For tennis players, of course, you have so many tournaments per year, so you prepare the same. I mean, we're not, I don't know, track and field athletes or maybe even, I don't know, figure skaters or someone that the highlight is really on the Olympics.

We really play the whole year, and then there's Olympics, and then you continue to play. So, I mean, your training plan stays the same, but obviously my emotions get higher.

I'm really excited. I'm looking forward to seeing an Olympics also with a crowd. And, also, I would love to be a flag bearer, so hopefully.

Q. Belinda, now with the clay and the grass over and obviously you had such a great start to the season in the first couple of months, where are you right now just physically and just confidence-wise and everything as we head to your best slam at the US Open?

BELINDA BENCIC: Yeah, I definitely feel the same. I feel really confident. I feel like my start of the year has been great, and weirdly, I didn't lose the confidence when I was injured.

So I didn't play the whole clay season, and then I didn't play the whole grass season basically. I managed to play the two slams barely. But still, I think I did really good at Wimbledon.

So I definitely feel like I didn't play for a long time, and I'm playing well, so my confidence didn't go away. It's just really like I have to manage to be able to play.

I really feel like I'm physically fine finally. I had two different injuries. So the first one, and then I started to play again, and I had a second one, which was really frustrating, of course.

But, yeah, I just had to accept it, and I still feel like I didn't feel like it was a negative thing because, like I said, I kind of believed that my tennis is pretty good. So I knew that when I get back, it's going to be good.

Q. Coming back to your match of today, it was a very long match. How do you plan to recover quick to be ready for tomorrow?

BELINDA BENCIC: Well, I just spent one and a half hours in anti-doping not being able to pee after a three-hour match, of course. So I don't know what they expect, and I don't know why I have anti-doping when I won.

So I just did that. I didn't even eat yet. I'm here now. I had a quick ice bath. I had to beg them to have an ice bath and to have a shower actually. So it's new rules.

So, yeah, that's how I recover, I guess. Not ideal.