PORSCHE TENNIS GRAND PRIX

April 15, 2024

Laura Siegemund

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Laura, welcome back to a tournament you're very familiar with. How are you feeling after the BJK Cup on the weekend and ready to play here in Stuttgart?

LAURA SIEGEMUND: Yeah, it was a quick trip after the match right into the plane and then to come here (smiling). But to come home is always great.

Yeah, it's my home tournament, let's say, and I felt pretty good. I practiced today, and I was, yeah, surprised how good I felt for the first day.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. It seems to be a popular topic amongst many of your peers at the moment that are coming towards the end of their careers. Some are even saying that this is my last year on tour. Others get annoyed by this topic that we keep probing about. How do you feel about it? Yeah, I mean, do you know your plans beyond this year?

LAURA SIEGEMUND: Yeah, I think the reason is there are more and more players that play really, really long and really deep into their 30s, even, you know, even close to, until their 40s.

So I think, yeah, it's a normal question. Of course if you get it all the time, it can become annoying (smiling), but me, speaking for me, I'm just kind of enjoying the moment. I'm really happy that physically I feel pretty good for my age still (smiling) or again, let's say. It hasn't always been that way. So I really try to make the most of the moment, and honestly I'm not looking that far.

I mean, in doubles I have a lot more goals so I can definitely see myself playing doubles longer. But, you know, the singles is going great too. As long as I feel like I can, you know, play my kind of tennis and I'm physically all right, of course it's challenging and I need to, you know, do a lot of recovery and stuff, but as long as I feel good and that I can perform well, I really enjoy the game. I'm really not thinking much further than that for the moment, no.

Q. I mean, the Olympics is just a few months away. It's going to be on clay, as well. I believe it's a surface you like. Doubles, gold, do you have these thoughts and hopes for this year?

LAURA SIEGEMUND: No. Concerning that, for me it's just crazy that I, you know, that I have the chance again to play the Olympics. It's still a little while to go and I definitely want to keep making points that I really qualify.

But when I look back to Tokyo, I was in a really bad situation with my knee. I had surgery right after the Olympic Games, and I remember thinking then that, you know, that Paris seemed so, so far away, I would have never thought I'd be still playing at all and then playing on this level in both singles and doubles.

So that's a great feeling to have that I have come that far and I'm still around playing really good tennis. That's really much all that I can think about the Olympics. Of course, you know, you have goals, you want to do well, but it's still far away, we have a lot of big tournaments coming up, so I'm honestly not spending too much time on, you know, results at the Olympics. I just take it one step at a time.