AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 24, 2025

Bjorn Fratangelo

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Bjorn, talk us through how pleased you are with her performance this week and last night's match and just general thoughts on that.

BJORN FRATANGELO: I'm super happy with her. That was as gutsy as I've ever seen her compete. To do it on that occasion against you could already say is an all-time great in Iga. How she managed her way through all three sets really was awesome. Now she's in another final, so super pleased.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Yesterday Maddie talked at length about how she's tried to become, I guess, more comfortable and be open to change after so many years in her career. She mentioned you and how you helped her with this. Curious how you've seen your role in allowing her to be open to changing up things and doing things differently.

BJORN FRATANGELO: I think it kind of started when we kind of had a little more tennis dialogue in our relationship, sort of when I was finishing my own career. You know, she was just kind of bouncing ideas off of me and stuff. It was kind of the first time I would say I was giving input back.

Then it just comes to a point where when we started and decided that I was going to be with her full-time. You know, it was just kind of like how much do you want to get out of this? Are you happy with staying 11 through 25? Do you want to try to push for more? What do you want? You're almost 30 years old.

I think she's nowhere near her full potential, but kind of just, you know, staying the same way and kind of, let's say, I don't know. Sharpening the axe can get you so far, but sometimes you just need new tools. I think that's what I've tried to bring to the table.

She's obviously done it her way for so long. It's brought her great success and an amazing career. I just thought, okay, if we make a few changes and some subtle tweaks here and there, maybe being 15 in the world turns to 10 and 10 can turn to 8, then all of a sudden you're in the mix, and you're being talked about again, like she is now.

So that's kind of what I've tried to bring. And I think she's done an unbelievable job at being receptive and kind of taking that on.

Q. Madison was talking yesterday about how Aryna in some ways has been a reference point with her, someone with a big game, but her game has maybe evolved. From watching Aryna, as I imagine you've done pretty closely and will do, what stands out about how she's been able to elevate herself from a big hitter to a lot, lot more than that?

BJORN FRATANGELO: Yeah, I think she's No. 1 in the world for a reason. But I agree with you, maybe Aryna is a little more of the polished version of Madison. Similar in size, similar game style. Aryna I think just does things a little bit better over the course of a 52-week calendar year, you know?

But, yeah, what I've seen from her now is just what the greats do is they have the ability to raise the level when it matters most.

For instance, in that Pavlyuchenkova match, I was watching that at night in the room in the hotel, and there just wasn't a doubt in my mind that she wasn't going to win that match. That's kind of how you feel with Novak when he plays most matches, Serena when she played most matches, Roger, Rafa, you know. I think she has that now.

I think the difference with her and Iga is Iga brings that sort of Nadal mentality towards every single point, where I would say maybe Sabalenka's mindset is a little more Federer-like: you can throw in some errors, people will hold serve, but at the crunch moments, she's going to win. That's what she's been able to do so well. It's a credit to her and her team. She keeps improving year after year.

Tomorrow is going to be tough, but I have a good feeling about it.

Q. Two questions. The first is, I mean, you have known Madison for a long time, but you didn't necessarily know her when she was, like, a teenage prodigy. As someone who also was really, really good as a teenager, does that form something of a foundation or a basis of your relationship? Have you guys talked through that idea of being so good so young and sort of how that affects your brain going forward? How do you think it affects you? How did it affect you? Then the second question is, what's it like to sit on the court while all that stuff is going on last night?

BJORN FRATANGELO: Well, so I think, firstly, I mean, yeah, we were both very good young, but it was very different. I mean, she was a child prodigy. You knew from, I think, 14 years old, turning pro, which back then was not like it is now.

Doing everything that she was doing at such a young age, signing with IMG, all these contracts, things like that, yeah, that's like child prodigy stuff that a select few have.

Where I went through regular school until my sophomore year of high school. I had people from all walks of life in tennis and coaching telling my parents, Yeah, look, he's small, he's a chunky little kid, he's slow, he's probably not going to make it.

Then I just kind of bloomed at 16, 17 years old. I got a lot better and kind of left some kids behind and obviously had that junior success that I did kind of at the tail end of my junior career.

But I think it's very different what her and I went through. I don't think I was ever, you know, really respected like she was at such a young age for greater further-on success. I think that's very different for both of us and something that, you know, we can kind of relate to each other with, but I don't know what that pressure is like of people telling you at 14 years old, like, Hey, you're going to have Grand Slam titles when you're 21, 22. You're going to have multiple.

Nobody has a crystal ball. You don't know that.

So I can't imagine what that pressure is going to be like. Thank God I didn't have it, honestly. I had my own when I kind of broke out in juniors, but it was very different where all of it was very sudden. I felt like I went from an unknown to a known, where I feel like she's always been known.

Then the second question... Yeah, I mean, it's nerve-wracking. I try to stay as calm as I can in the box, but I'm not going to sit here and lie to you and tell you that I don't have a pulse, you know. It was very nerve-wracking.

When you can't do anything and you're just sitting on the side, you know, you feel kind of helpless. Like obviously if I'm playing in that situation, okay, you're kind of dictating what happens. But when I'm just sitting there watching, yeah, it's another level of stress.

I think I manage it well, and I try not to show her that I'm as stressed as maybe I am sometimes.

Yeah, I mean, that's kind of it. She did an unbelievable job last night to gut that out, and super proud of her.

Q. Were you talking at all to her during the tiebreaker?

BJORN FRATANGELO: Yeah, when she would come over and get the towel. I think, you know, something that I bring to the table is I have a very good eye for what's going on inside the match at all given moments, and I'm able to kind of adjust the game plan on the fly.

I think I've been able to bring that to her game, where I can see things a little bit quicker than she can. When she does come over, I can give her a gentle nudge of what's happening.

I think even if it doesn't help her, it kind of just snaps her out of, like, the scoreboard moment or I am nervous or things like that, and kind of gets her to relock in on the task at hand. I think that's kind of a little superpower of mine, I would say, and that's maybe made some subtle differences in these three-set matches.

Again, it's on her. She has to execute it. So I'm not giving myself credit here. She's the one playing, but I think it helps.

Q. Bjorn, when you say that she's not even close to kind of her potential or her full, what do you mean by that? Do you mean results and achievements, or is it game goals?

BJORN FRATANGELO: I think it's more game. She's pretty raw. You know, like a lot of power, a lot of ability. Not a shot that really you would say, Oh, that's weak. She has everything. She actually volleys quite well when she gets forward.

I've always said it's like you have all these tools to use, but you just have to know which ones to use at which times. I think she's starting to kind of understand what to do in what moments.

I think, you know, there's a lot of room for improvement, and that's the scary part, in my opinion. To do it at 29, almost 30 years old now, I think is pretty cool as well. It shows that your career doesn't have to end. You can always look to improve, and that's what the greats do.

So I think I try to take bits and pieces. You know, I was very observant as a player of other people, other teams, how they did stuff. I feel like now I'm pretty observant on the other end of it as well, kind of looking at coaches. I've had the fortune to work with some pretty good ones as well, including Stanford Boster and Brad Stine for a couple of years and things like that.

Just try to implement a few things from everybody that I worked with, but also put my own twist on it and kind of just apply it to her. I mean, at the end of the day I think she trusts me a lot as well, and she knows I have her best interest in heart.

I think she can do some pretty cool things as long as she stays calm in those moments and kind of lets her game do the talking.

Q. Just I guess what has this experience been like for you? Is it fun? Is it stressful kind of managing the whole team, being the coach, doing all this, going through it for the full two weeks, night before a Grand Slam final, all that sort of stuff?

BJORN FRATANGELO: Yeah, it's a lot to take on. Yeah, you don't realize it when you're on the other side. I think Murray kind of spoke about it in an interview that I saw. I always appreciated the people I was with, but you don't really realize how much goes into it.

I'm kind of a control freak. So I also took a lot on my own when I was playing as well, where I think I do a lot of the extra stuff for her that maybe I didn't let my coaches do for me. That's as simple as making drinks, gripping the racquets. Stuff that you don't have to worry about it, like I'll worry about it.

Then, also, managing days like today. How do you recover and kind of getting with the team and discussing things for tomorrow, just how to, you know, be the best version of herself tomorrow. She's played a ton of tennis over this month, probably more so than she ever has.

But it's good. I'm kind of learning on the fly. I tell her all the time, I don't know everything, I don't have all the answers, I don't pretend like I do. If I don't have an answer, I ask. I'm surrounded by some pretty good people.

Regarding her serve change and things like that, it wasn't all me. There was help. But, yeah, it's pretty cool to think that we're a year and a half into this, and here we are in a Grand Slam final, and she's playing for another one.

I think if you would have asked her maybe after the Sabalenka match at US Open or things like that, Do you think you'll ever be in another final? I don't know what she would say. But here she is. I think it's going to be pretty cool walking out tomorrow night to watch her compete for another one.

Q. Can you just let us in on the couple of hours after the match last night and sort of your conversations with her. At what point do they shift, and how do they shift from coach/player to it's my girl?

BJORN FRATANGELO: I don't have an on-and-off switch. When she came in, she was on the bike. We all hugged her, and we were obviously all super proud.

Talked a little bit about the match last night, but just very little. She had obviously all the media obligations and things like that she had to do on top of cooling down, recovery, treatment, get some food. It's 1:00 a.m. When do you sleep? Things like that. It's all a lot, especially when you are doing it in the wee hours of the morning.

But, no, once we got back to the room, she was with her physio a little bit with Kayla Epperson. Yeah, I got back. We went to sleep. Had breakfast this morning at, like, 11:30. We woke up at, like, 10:00.

Haven't really spoken about the match too much since. It's kind of just letting her soak it in and really enjoying this one. I think it's a little bit different from US Open. You know, when you are that young and you're a break-out star and you think, Okay, this is what I was meant to do, I'm doing it, so here I am.

I think now she can soak it up, appreciate it a little bit more. I think tomorrow is going to be a much better showing than what was in New York.