BILLIE JEAN KING CUP

November 17, 2024

Samantha Stosur

Ajla Tomljanovic

Team Australia

Press Conference

R. SRAMKOVA/A. Tomljanovic

6-1, 6-2

Team Slovakia - 2

Team Australia - 0

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Sam, summarize what it's like being on the unfortunate result today.

CAPTAIN SAMANTHA STOSUR: Well, yeah, I mean, obviously it's disappointing. Obviously I think Kim was very, very close to getting that first match our way, which was great. I thought it was a really good, quality match.

That was unfortunate to be down 1-0, and then I think it was pretty obvious from 4-Love Ajla was really struggling. Yeah, it was a tough situation to then be trying to get ourselves back into the tie when clearly you can see that your No. 1 player is pretty hampered out there.

Yeah, not the way you ever want it to go.

Q. Ajla, nasty fall. Talk us through what happened and how are you feeling now? You okay?

AJLA TOMLJANOVIC: Yeah, I mean, it didn't feel good in the moment. I don't really have much more info for you than that. Definitely felt really hard to get back on track after that, because, you know, having a previous injury there, it never feels good to feel something go wrong.

Yeah, I mean, I always bounce back, so I will (smiling), but it's definitely a tough day, especially when you -- you know, it almost feels like I would have taken this a bit easier if it was just a regular tournament for myself, but you don't want to let your teammates down. You know, yeah, so it was a pretty bad ending to today.

Q. Well done on fighting through, but just your thoughts on Rebecca and how the match went overall?

AJLA TOMLJANOVIC: I mean, look, my brain was -- I don't even remember it. I'm sure she's a good -- she's obviously had a great year and she's a tough player, so she played well, but also, I can't really assess the match when, you know, I'm thinking about a lot of things and not so much about the game when it's hard to physically push.

But I can tell you that if I were 100% healthy, I would have had to play really, really high-level tennis to beat her today. You know, I hope I get a chance to play her again, because I think she's a fun player to play against.

Q. Sam, one last one. Such an accomplished player in this tournament as a player. As captain, how do you summarize your first year as captain, the highs and lows? What have the girls been like to work with?

CAPTAIN SAMANTHA STOSUR: Oh, it's a real pleasure to be in this position now. Obviously the tie in Brizzy when we got through, that was fantastic. Obviously that's the highlight.

But yeah, it hasn't been without its troublesome moments with obviously Storm being injured in that one before we got started. Now today.

So I'm hoping the next one is a bit more smooth sailing across the board, and we can just get down to playing tennis (smiling). But yeah, look, I'm looking forward to April already, because it's just such a great week to have everyone together and, yeah, we always pull together and do the best we can.

Yeah, looking forward to the next one.