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QATAR TOTAL OPEN


February 10, 2019


Elina Svitolina


Doha, Qatar

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You have taken a wildcard to play here. What made you want to change your schedule?
ELINA SVITOLINA: Well, yeah, I didn't plan to come here. I thought I'd have some more rest. But I was ready, I think, a little bit earlier. I always remember coming here with good memories, so it was a decision last minute.

Q. And what have you been doing since Australia?
ELINA SVITOLINA: Had some time off because I needed to recover. Had some injury. And for me it was, yeah, important just to take some time, some days off to recover, to do everything properly because, you know, I had some tough matches in Australia. Yeah, it was good just to take my time to think how was the trip and everything.

So, yeah, it was also a little bit of training which helped me to get stronger for, you know, for the big tournaments now upcoming weeks.

Q. What was the injury problem?
ELINA SVITOLINA: The injury was my shoulder and my neck. So, yeah, I was struggling during the Australian.

Q. All okay now?
ELINA SVITOLINA: It's slowly getting better. It's work in process, I would say.

Q. Knowing that Kvitova is not here and Osaka are not playing here, do you think that the draw will be more open for you?
ELINA SVITOLINA: Well, there are still lots of good players, you know. We have lots of players who play well, who is consistent. I think top 5, top 10, lots of strong field of players. It's not going to make it easier.

And from the first rounds you have very tough matches, very interesting. So this tournament, you know, here is always tough. Everyone wants to play. Everyone wants to play well. That's why it makes it not easy at all.

Q. You're one of the highest seeds here. Do you usually expect when you're seeded so high to win a tournament? If so, how is it handling expectations to go so far at every single tournament?
ELINA SVITOLINA: I always have high goals for each tournament I set for myself. Any tournament that I play, I always try to win it, to give everything what I have and to fight for every match, you know, every point.

So for me I try to just stay focused each match. Of course there is expectations when you are high seed that you'll play well, that you'll go far in the tournament, but, you know, I'm sure that everyone has that, and it's just a part of being high seed. You know, it's kind of a good pressure to have, but in the same time, you have high expectations.

Q. You talk about the high expectations. On tour you have had some very good results. In Grand Slams, not so much. How is the frustration levels, given you have these high expectations for Grand Slams, obviously?
ELINA SVITOLINA: For the Grand Slams, I mean, I try to think very positive. I like to take every Grand Slam as another step. I try to do everything what's possible.

I still, you know, 24 years old, so I have lots of Grand Slams in the future and hopefully will take one step further and, you know, go from there.

Each Grand Slam has a different story, different atmosphere. You have always something different going on, different matches. So, you know, I try to adjust. I try to, you know, take only positive, because, you know, we have enough of negative. We almost lose every week, so there is no point of getting down on yourself. You just go back on court and work.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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