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AUSTRALIAN OPENJanuary 27, 2013Matthew EbdenJarmila GajdosovaMELBOURNE, VICTORIA EBDEN‑GAJDOSOVA/Cermak‑Hradecka THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Needless to say, a couple weeks ago you wouldn't have been expecting to be sitting here with the trophy sitting in front of you. How does it feel now? MATTHEW EBDEN: You know, it feels amazing. I guess extremely exciting to be given the chance to play a Grand Slam final, first of all, and then to win it. So I think it's one of those things in life. You never know how many chances you'll get to play a Grand Slam final. So to come out with a win in our first final and get a title straightaway and to become Grand Slam champions is an amazing feeling and something we'll always have. Hopefully we can both use this is as a springboard and give us some confidence looking forward to Davis Cup and Fed Cup, and for the rest of the year for singles, too. Q. Why does the chemistry work? JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: Good question. I don't know. It was kind of a new thing for both of us to work together, but I think our personalities and style of game kind of gel pretty well. We use each other's weapons we have and kind of cover up the weaknesses we have. So it was really good, and I hope this is not our last win and we get to play again. Q. How did you come together? How did you decide to play? MATTHEW EBDEN: I chased her up. Back in December I got hold of her number from a secret person, and she was over in America and I just texted her hoping that she would she would be available to play or wanted to play. You know, she's been to the semifinals of other Grand Slams twice with another partner who she sometimes plays with, but he wasn't available so she said, All right. Let's do it. I was pretty happy. We went out there to enjoy it from the first round and give our best and fight hard ‑‑ but enjoy it as much as anything. As it got towards the quarterfinals, semifinals, it became a bit more serious as we went and a chance for a Grand Slam, so it's an unbelievable feeling to win it. Q. Did you hit together before you got here? JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: I think we just warm up together, and that was kind of the thing. Oh, do you want to hit for 20? Oh, okay, well, let's hit. So that was about our training session and preparation for the mixed, so I think we should try that for singles, too. MATTHEW EBDEN: Yeah, definitely had a few practices before we played. It's important to get on the court together and to just gel a bit and hit with each other and get used to each other on the court. Yeah, we had a lot of fun. It worked out amazingly. Q. To each you, what does Grand Slam champion mean? JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: I think it's something that every person, ever girl or guy are dreaming when they are little. I know it's mixed, but it's still a Grand Slam title. To get that far, you have something that you can talk about for a very long time. You can tell your kids, Oh, I won a Grand Slam and I won in Australia, especially, which is very special. I think you will have something forever and you will have something you can remember, so it definitely means a lot. Let's hope it's not the first and let's hope it's not just the mixed. Q. You read the names off the top of trophy when you walked in. What names jumped off the page at you? MATHEW EBDEN: Well, you know, we Toddy Woodbridge come and congratulate us. He's obviously done a lot for me through the last few years. His name is on here, along with Mark Woodforde, someone I've worked with before. Stubbsy, who has helped Jarka in the past and congratulated us, too. Mainly the Aussie names we look for and search out, but there is obviously a lot great names on here. Even Margaret Court as well. Pretty special for her to be able to watch us today. It's an amazing honor to have our name on a Grand Slam trophy. Q. Matt, what does it mean to you? MATTHEW EBDEN: Yeah, like she said, I think if we had the choice we would take a Grand Slam in singles. Got to start somewhere. I think we're still very young in our careers and we're still building and learning a lot. So I think this will give us a lot confidence and a lot of experience to win a few matches on the on Rod Laver Arena. It wasn't packed house crowd, but other nights there were some decent crowds out there and we had incredible support. So just amazing to go through those emotions and feelings. There has been a lot big pints. We've had five matches and a lot of break points, a lot of match points, and we've actually clutched really well on a lot of those big points. Tennis at the top level is about those big points and finding that in yourself to tough it out and fight and stay aggressive and take the big points. Credit to Jarka, and I hope I helped, too. You know, we got through a lot of those big ones, so I think we can both take a lot from that. Q. Have you had time to talk about the French or Wimbledon or anything else? JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: No, not quite. I think we have to work on our rankings a little to be able to get‑‑ we are not that fortunate as here by Mr. Craig Tiley to give us a wildcard. So I think we'll have to work on that. It's still only January, so we still have a few months to do that. I think with this win it help our games and confidence as well. So we definitely are going to work hard, and hopefully he doesn't ditch me for somebody else. MATTHEW EBDEN: No, I've already sinned her up for next year. Q. Jarka, what went through your mind when you had to step up and serve for the match? JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: First I always listen to what he says. He's the calming part of my game. And also, he usually tells me where he prefers that I serve so he can help me at the net. So I was mainly waiting for the instruction and I was trying to concentrate to hit a good serve so he can do his Ninja skills on the net. It was a bit nerve‑wracking, I'm not going to lie. But I thought I served most of the matches pretty well. I knew that he's on the net, so as long as I hit a pretty decent serve, I think we had pretty good chance of winning it. That was my main concern, to make the serves right. Q. What was your instruction? MATTHEW EBDEN: Well, she has an incredible serve, very powerful, one of the best women's serve on the tour. For me, she's one of the best players on the women's tour. So she's going to take a lot confidence from this and head right back up there even further than she was, for sure. She's shown that again. All the guys in the locker room playing mixed said, She hits harder than the guys and hits bigger. She's tough and big on the big points. I definitely believed in her serve all week, and today again I was pretty confident. In tennis you never know. Sometimes they hit good returns too and you might have to go to a tiebreak. We were up a break and they got a couple close points back. You know, there was a few nerves, of course. Never easy serving out any match, never mind a Grand Slam title. So she did incredible to make some good serves there. We're just happy we did the right things. We stuck to winning tactics and patterns that have been working for us. I guess under pressure, if you can do that, stick to a wining game plan. Q. What's it like to have a calming influence next to you in a mixed doubles situation? JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: Well, I always get a pat on the back from him. Don't matter how good or bad I play right now. It's great. Look, obviously it's different to when you play singles and you're by yourself and you have to keep fighting and supporting your own self. So it's definitely helped a lot. You have someone who believes in you and obviously chose to play with you for a reason, so you know there is something behind you and you know that you have someone good that you can win with. So it's definitely very helpful. Yeah, I'm hard on myself because I don't like playing badly. I guess that's everybody. It's enjoyable. I think that's why I like playing doubles and mixed, because you have somebody next to you that's good to you and helps you in the tough situations. It helps bring you up and helps you to play better. Q. You must tick off January 2013 as being a really positive start to the year now after last year? JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: Definitely. Look, I thought, you know, I didn't know what to expect since I haven't played for few months last year. I beat pretty good players to start with. I won few matches, probably more than I did last year. Unfortunately, my Australian Open didn't go as planned. I still was pretty decent match. I think I need a little bit more luck with the draw as well would probably help. Look, I won a Grand Slam and I was here for two weeks. I got to watch everybody hit and train very good and get ready for Fed Cup and all kinds of things. Worked very well for me, so definitely January was a very positive month. I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of the year. I will take a lot of the positives out of it. I'm sure it's going to get better and I will work hard. It's going to come back. Q. How does it work with the trophy? MATTHEW EBDEN: I'm keeping it. JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: He has a house so he may as well. MATTHEW EBDEN: No, actually, I think we just get a small replica each or a smaller one each. JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: Yeah. Q. You touched on it earlier, was it disappointing to play in front of such a sparse crowd considering it's a Grand Slam and you're the hometown team? MATTHEW EBDEN: No, not at all. It's a massive stadium, and we played Margaret Court, showcourt, few times inside there when it was at least probably two thirds full the one night, half full, and I don't even know. Yesterday was Australia Day, so hopefully everyone was having a good time themselves. The crowd that came out to support us was great. All week we had incredible support. Australian Open for us has been incredible time, as always. You know, I think we're going to take a lot confidence from it and hopefully build a lot more support in. The support we've always gotten has been incredible here, so we hope we can attract even more people to the game. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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