BILLIE JEAN KING CUP

November 10, 2023

Andrej Krasevec

Tamara Zidansek

Ela Nala Milic

Veronika Erjavec

Nina Potocnik

Kaja Juvan

Team Slovenia

Press Conference

DANILINA-KULAMBAYEVA/Erjavec-Milic

2-6, 6-4, 10-7

Team Kazakhstan - 2

Team Slovenia - 1

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations, Team Slovenia. We will take questions in English for Team Slovenia.

Q. Congratulations to the whole team. For the captain, I just wonder, can you sum up what the last few days have been like and your feelings right now?

CAPTAIN ANDREJ KRASEVEC: Well, I feel great. I really am proud of these girls. It was unbelievable two games, but we are not done yet. For tomorrow we're gonna prepare like on the other games, and we hope we win.

Q. Can you talk us a little bit about the Italian team? Have you had the chance to see the matches, or are you going to prepare in some ways or just like regular you did in the other matches?

CAPTAIN ANDREJ KRASEVEC: We didn't have chance to see them, but we will know them. So we're gonna prepare for tomorrow 100%, for sure.

Q. First of all, congratulations on the win and getting through to the semifinals. Tamara, how is the fact you have made history for the country, all of you, of course, but this is the best result for Slovenia in the history of Fed Cup or Billie Jean King Cup? Has the fact you have made history sunk in yet? Are you aware of that, or are you only thinking we are semifinalists, we still have more matches to go, we are not thinking about that yet?

TAMARA ZIDANSEK: Thank you. I mean, for me not really it hasn't sunk it. Once you're here in this moment, it's going fast, so you don't really know what's happening (smiling).

You're just trying to do your best, and I think that's what we have been doing. We have been taking everything day by day, match by match, trying to have fun, being focused on what we have to do, what we know we need to do. Just the results are here.

Maybe in a week when we all come home, we'll look back at this. Obviously we still have a lot to do. It's not finished yet. But maybe then we'll have a little bit more distance and see what we have done.

Q. A question for any of the players. Have you got a sense yet of the impact that this is having back home? Have you read about it in the news? Friends and family messages, that kind of thing?

KAJA JUVAN: I don't know if we are completely aware of the impact. We have seen some news, some messages. I hope that people are aware of it. But I think we are all just trying to sort of stay right here in the moment. We have another match tomorrow.

Like Tamara said, maybe in a few weeks, but right now we're still in the competition, so we are trying to stay in it (smiling).

Q. Tamara, congratulations, first of all. Can you just talk through your day and sort of how aware you were stepping onto court that you only need to win a set and kind of the decision to retire after the second set, as well?

TAMARA ZIDANSEK: Yes, I was aware of that. I mean, I played an unbelievable set, I think. And after that, the adrenaline from all of us, you know, it's a big achievement, like you're saying. So the adrenaline, like, everything was we made it to the semifinals, so it was, like, done.

So it's hard to follow up on that, because at the end of the day we all wanted to do what we just did, you know. We prepared for this and we made it, so given that, you know, we were working really hard for this, it was a great achievement, and I was really happy.

I have to say that I was trying to win it in two sets, but Yulia started playing really good. At that moment it was really tough. A lot was going on. A lot of emotions running through my head, through everyone's head.

So, yeah, I'm just happy that we did it, and now from that moment we are all just trying to already focus on tomorrow and to do our best.

Q. A question for Kaja. Maybe it's a little bit of an emotional one, but this is Billie Jean King Cup, special competition. I read that you said that the last matches that your father saw you play was in Billie Jean King Cup against China. Is this making you play with a special purpose, a more driven purpose, to make not only Slovenian country proud but also to make your father proud?

KAJA JUVAN: Yeah, that was definitely a really special moment for me. It is hard to play after that, because it does make me really emotional, but, you know, I have always enjoyed playing the team competition. I think I have been playing pretty well the last few years.

I think that in any case, I'm always thinking about him a lot. You know, we had a really special connection. So every time that something great happens, he's always there in my mind.

I don't know where he is, but I'm sure that he would love to see this.