AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 14, 2024

Jodie Burrage

Press Conference

T. KORPATSCH/J. Burrage

2-6, 6-3, 6-0

THE MODERATOR: Jodie, how are you feeling coming off court?

JODIE BURRAGE: A bit of a tough one today. Still pretty raw, to be honest, so still a lot of emotions there. It was just a tough end to a match really.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You had such a good first set. She played better after she came back from the bathroom break. Did that disrupt you at all?

JODIE BURRAGE: Not massively. I mean, it was quite long, to be honest. I was asking the umpire how long be she had. I thought it was only three minutes, but I don't know, gave her a lot longer.

But, yeah, I think she just regrouped herself. I don't think she played too well in the first set, but I also obviously managed to dominate. Yeah, I just kind of lost my way in the second set and didn't enjoy playing in the conditions as they picked up a little bit.

Q. It did get quite breezy. Was that what was difficult?

JODIE BURRAGE: Yeah, I found it tough to serve in that wind and just my game in general. I tried to adjust as much as possible, but yeah, when you hit a bigger ball I guess and don't grind it out, when it gets windy, it's not as easy to play, but that's just what I need to learn to do. I need to learn to have a bit of a plan B because there was no plan B there today.

To be honest, she went through a really hot patch as well. You've got to give credit to her for sorting her game out as well, and she then literally didn't miss. So it made it tough for me and didn't really give me any foothold into the match in the second and third.

Q. As a player, Jodie, bathroom breaks now are used so often by players. Is it something that you kind of have to factor in? It seemed to be, like, ten minutes pretty much that one today. I don't know why it should take so long, but is it something that you kind of think, All right, okay, now I'm going to be sitting around for ten minutes?

JODIE BURRAGE: Yeah, I thought it could only be three minutes. I thought that's what they changed it to. When you get changed, then it's five minutes. So I'm not sure why it was so long.

I did ask him, and he said, Yes, she's used her three minutes, she's just on her way back. But then that took another few minutes. I get that it's a big park, though, so maybe it just took a long time for her to get there.

But, yeah, I went over, spoke to Craig, spoke to my coach. Tried to use some time there, got up, started moving around. It's just, yeah, something that you've just got to keep play matches and get used to how you want to deal with when your opponent is changing up the rhythm of it and try to disrupt your rhythm, which is what she did in the second and third because it seemed like every change it was something different, whether it was her shoe or her racquets or towel, like, something. I just need to get better with dealing with that.

Q. As you said, they have brought the rule in, but if they're not going to properly implement it, it just seems to be they're lacking something. Did they even give her a warning when she comes back or something like that?

JODIE BURRAGE: I don't know, because I don't really know the rules in and out, but I know when I was in China and stuff and I was getting changed in between sets, they were pretty tough on it there, like straight five minutes you have to be out.

Yeah, I don't really know. It would be nice if there was consistency, but it's up to the umpire at the end of the day, and every umpire has a different take on it, so...

Q. It was obviously quite noisy. I think Alcaraz was practicing on the next court. How easy was it to block that out? It was a very busy court, I thought.

JODIE BURRAGE: Yeah, there were so many people there, and actually I received so much more support than I thought I would have got. There was so many people out there cheering for me even when we walked out on court. You know, people saying, Come on, Jodie. It kind of felt like I was at home, to be honest. I wasn't expecting that at all.

Kind of figured out that there was someone big on the court next to me, but to be honest, I have played on a few bigger courts now, and that's something I've learned to deal with. Once or twice it still puts you off a little bit, but I didn't feel like that really affected me much.

The crowd did their best to get me through and tried to back me until the end today, so that was really nice of them.

Q. What do you feel like you need to do if you are going to really establish yourself in the top 100 and getting to these slams regularly?

JODIE BURRAGE: I think I just need to keep learning, to be honest. I obviously haven't learned from the last two times I played her. My coach wasn't there the last two times, and maybe we didn't have as big of a debrief as what we normally have, but I think it's just trying to learn as much as possible.

I know I'm 24, which in tennis age isn't that young, but for me I'm a newbie coming up to this level. I'm still learning week in, week out. It is a tough level.

If you're not on top of your game, if you're not there mentally at certain points, it's not good enough. It's learning off the top players. I'm constantly looking around, looking at what other people are doing, watching matches a lot more. I think it's just giving myself a little bit of time to learn and take all of the experiences and bank them.

It's the first time I've been here, so just trying to learn as much as possible from these players and the matches that I get.

Q. Following up on that, is that part of the self-belief and confidence as well that you belong at this level?

JODIE BURRAGE: Yeah, and I think ultimately that's what I struggle with a lot. If I'm honest, I've struggled with that my whole career. I've probably said it before. And especially in a match like today when someone just stops missing and puts balls in court, it's not easy to have the confidence to hit through them, and that's what I need to learn how to, yeah, back myself on the court because at the moment I don't in those situations.

You could see it today. It was just absolutely panic stations at some point. So, yeah, that's what all of these experiences and being at this level and hitting with these types of players, you just get more experiences like that.

I just spoke to my coach there, like, how am I going to practice against someone who plays like Korpatsch because they are my worst types of players? You look at who you are training with back home. There's not many people who play like her, and it's those people that you want to practice with. So it's trying to, yeah, bank as much experience when you are at the tournaments as well as obviously trying to compete and win matches.

It's a tough one, but that's what we've got to figure out, and I've got to do some work and trying to back myself and believe a little bit more.

Q. When the match went on, did you start thinking back to the defeats last year? Was she in your head a little bit?

JODIE BURRAGE: It kind of felt like the same thing was happening again definitely, but it was I think one of those things where she knew what she needed to do against me. I knew what I needed to do against her and just who executed it better.

I mean, the last match was like a proper tussle that I couldn't actually get my foot in the door in that third set. So it kind of felt the same, but kind of not. Yeah, I always knew it was going to be a battle, but I guess maybe I went on with that in my head a little bit, and I knew it was going to be tough instead of just thinking, okay, I've played a great first set. Yeah, the conditions are getting a little tough now, but I can do the same thing. Yeah, maybe it did, maybe it didn't. Who knows?

Q. What sort of tournament is your ranking getting you into the next sort of couple of months?

JODIE BURRAGE: So I'm playing Linz and Midlands quallies and Cluj. I think I may be, like, seven out of main, so I will probably have to play quallies there. I did think about playing some 75s to get a few matches, but I don't have a lot coming off my ranking.

With the way the points have changed now at the ITFs, you actually are not getting many unless you win those tournaments, and it's not easy to go back and win those tournaments. I don't feel like I'm at that stage yet.

I've had some good matches, and it's going to click at some stage. So I'm going to play, yeah, those two, and then I'm planning on playing Austin or San Diego and then Indian Wells, Charleston, Miami, that swing, and then kind of see where I'm at after there because I'm not really losing points until after Miami.

Yeah, that's the plan at the moment, and we'll reset after that, but I'm still going to take a stab at these bigger tournaments and the bigger players because, like we saw today, if I get my game on the court and I'm on it that first set, she couldn't do anything. That's what I need to learn to do for the duration of the match, but I can play at a high level. It's just, yeah, getting it for two hours instead of 45 minutes.

Q. You said before that you felt that you didn't really have a plan B today. How do you kind of develop that and develop your game so that when things aren't going well, you have another option?

JODIE BURRAGE: Exactly what I said to my coach after because he was saying to me, you know, try and open up the court with a few more angles, maybe try to use a bit of slice and drop shot a bit, but I haven't really practiced that too much. But it's become evident in a few of the matches recently that I do need a plan B, but getting to this level that's what you realize because the matches that I've played in the last year, me committing to hitting the ball and waiting for their error or forcing them to make an error has worked, but now because you've stepped up a level, it's not.

It's just changing training a little bit and planning for things not to go well and just becoming a little bit more diverse, but it's only an hour and a half after my match, so that's something me and my coach will talk about a lot more in the next few days.