home jobs contact us
Our Clients:
Browse by Sport
Find us on ASAP sports on Facebook ASAP sports on Twitter
ASAP Sports RSS Subscribe to RSS
Click to go to
Asaptext.com
ASAPtext.com
ASAP Sports e-Brochure View our
e-Brochure

DUBAI DUTY FREE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS


February 23, 2019


Belinda Bencic


Dubai, United Arab Emirates

B. BENCIC/P. Kvitova

6-3, 1-6, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: First question for our champion, please.

Q. Has it sunk in yet?
BELINDA BENCIC: No. I've just come off the court, doing press. It will sunk in later when I will be on my own, maybe relax. Maybe even tomorrow while skydiving.

Q. What are your thoughts on that? Kind of an up-and-down match.
BELINDA BENCIC: Yeah, obviously very up-and-down match. With Petra, it's like this. She's hitting full power, so it was incredibly tough first set, as well.

Second set, I think I missed by little in the start of the games, then she gained a lot of confidence. She was playing great. She was serving great.

I'm really happy about how I managed to turn the momentum around in the third set.

Q. What does it mean to you to win this?
BELINDA BENCIC: It's unbelievable. It's incredible. I mean, I still cannot believe it. Especially I'm realizing after two rounds, we were already saying, Wow, this is a great tournament. Now it's only bonus.

Then I won against Sabalenka after being out already. We said the same thing again. Really, the expectations after two rounds were not there any more. So many times I was close from defeat. It's unbelievable that I ended up winning this.

Q. You've beaten four of the best players of the last few months all in a row. Do you feel differently now about your level stacked up against the top 10, or is it validation at this point?
BELINDA BENCIC: Yeah, I mean, of course they are very high-quality players, all of them. I'm so happy about the consistency that I could back up my wins. After playing a tough match, I could mentally win another one. It's very difficult.

Yeah, just very proud of that.

Q. You'd never taken a set off of her in previous meetings. What was your mentality? What do you think you did differently?
BELINDA BENCIC: Yeah, I have huge respect from Petra because she's amazing player. She's such a champion. I really didn't believe all the match that I can beat her. Really, that was my mentality. I was just trying to get from point to point, getting closer, getting closer. I was not thinking too far ahead.

After when I won, it was incredible. Of course, even to win a set already, it would have been amazing. I just tried to get closer this time than I was in Australia. I hoped that it would be enough.

Q. When you come into a tournament like this, most of the top 20 were here, how do you approach that? How do you see your chances?
BELINDA BENCIC: I mean, obviously I'm not coming into this tournament thinking about winning at all. It's really seeing who I play first round. You just see the first round, you try to win that.

As I said, after I beat Voegele, to be in the third round, the tournament was great for me, solid. To beat Sabalenka was a bonus. I didn't have to beat her, she's top 10, she had the pressure.

Basically after these two rounds, I was just going forward.

Q. You mentioned on the court your fitness, that you feel good. Is this the fittest you've ever felt?
BELINDA BENCIC: Yeah, definitely. I actually wanted to say that on the court. This is definitely the fittest I've ever felt. I think it's showing a lot in my game. I definitely need it. I think we did amazing work over there last year. Martin is my fitness coach for the past year now.

Yeah, I mean, we did amazing work. It showed.

Q. Is it a good time to start going skydiving? Are you worried about injuring yourself?
BELINDA BENCIC: No. We are in the plane anyway all the time, so...

My dad is saying, Why risk your life, stuff like that. There is no risk, I think. Bunjee jumping is worse (smiling).

Q. You want to bunjee jump, as well?
BELINDA BENCIC: No, I don't want to do that. Skydiving, it's on my to-do list. We have to do it anyway in my life. We can do it now.

Q. You plan on doing the one above the Palm Jumeirah?
BELINDA BENCIC: Yeah, it's the first thing we will do in the morning. I'm providing a lot of heart attacks on the court. Now I'm going to provide heart attacks off the court. I mean it very seriously, yeah.

Q. The match might feel kind of like a blur. Do you remember how you were feeling early in the third, how important those early games were to you?
BELINDA BENCIC: Yeah, actually surprisingly I was feeling less nervous than yesterday, even in the second set. Petra was playing very good. I started to miss a little bit, as well, because she was putting pressure on me.

Yesterday I felt like it was slipping away from me a little bit. This third set, I was not thinking about the victory at all. That's why I was calm. That was my mental plan actually.

Of course, in the last game at 5-2, I was super nervous. But I'm happy I just somehow put the ball in and won the game.

Q. I asked your father at the beginning for an interview. He said after the quarters. Is that the sense you had from the beginning, especially after the quarters?
BELINDA BENCIC: I don't know why he said it. Maybe he wanted to get rid of you (laughter). But now he has to give you the interview, yeah.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP sports

tech 129
About ASAP SportsFastScripts ArchiveRecent InterviewsCaptioningUpcoming EventsContact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297