BILLIE JEAN KING CUP

November 6, 2023

Petr Pala

Marketa Vondrousova

Linda Noskova

Marie Bouzkova

Team Czechia

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Good morning. Welcome to the Czech team. Questions, please.

Q. This question goes to Marketa. You have a super-impressive series of victories for the national team over the years, and how does it boost up your confidence before the upcoming Finals?

MARKETA VONDROUSOVA: Yeah, it's very important for me to know that I can play good in those matches. Yeah, I hope I can keep up with it here.

Q. Linda, you are the youngest player in the team, but your improvement is super impressive and the quality is surely there. The question is how are your feelings before the event? And about the value which you can bring into the team.

LINDA NOSKOVA: Yeah, I'm obviously very excited to be here for the main event. Obviously I have been practicing and playing the whole time before this time has come. I'm super excited to be in the team.

Q. Petr, is there an update on Barbora and Katerina's arrival at all?

CAPTAIN PETR PALA: Well, if everything goes well, they should be arriving tonight, which is not perfect, I would say.

Q. In terms of the girls that you've got here, how has preparation been with the ones you have?

CAPTAIN PETR PALA: Well, they have enough time to practice because we were two for a couple days, and Marketa joined us yesterday. They will all be ready, and we'll see how it goes tomorrow. Hopefully it will give us a chance to play on Friday against U.S. to be in the semis.

Q. This is Billie Jean King Cup. 50 years ago there was a famous 'Battle of the Sexes' and Billie Jean broke a lot of barriers to make female sports grow. Maybe, I don't know, Marketa, Linda, Marie, can you say how Billie Jean King inspired you?

MARIE BOUZKOVA: Yeah, I think Billie talked about it yesterday in our official dinner how significant that match was against Bobby.

Yeah, I think for us, like, women, I think it gave us kind of a different maybe, yeah, just gave us a different position maybe, not just in sports but in life in general, just that we can be viewed more equally. I would say that's the main point of her encounter at that time.

So, yeah, I think that was the most important for all of us.