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AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 27, 2020

Conchita Martinez

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Is it too easy to say it just feels that you and Garbine, every time you team up together, good things happen? How do you explain that?
CONCHITA MARTINEZ: It's happening right now, so let's just stay that. I don't want to jinx it or say. I'm sure it's going to be tough times. It's been good times. It's great to enjoy the moment. It's going well. Let's just enjoy what we have right now, yeah.

Q. Talk through your past few months, ending with Karolina, starting with Garbine. How was the transition for you?
CONCHITA MARTINEZ: It was quite quick actually. Ended with Karolina after the Championships in Shenzhen. We started the pre-season with Garbine on the 28th. We went to San Diego. We did almost five weeks pre-season until we flew to Shenzhen again and Hobart. Here we are.

I feel like pre-season was very, very good. There was a lot of time actually to work on things, on things that were needed. I think the results are here. It's very nice to see things that you been working in pre-season, and you see her on the court, she's doing these things.

For a coach, is always nice for the team, for everybody that is taking care of Garbine right now. So far so good.

Q. If I have it right, you are on the ballot for the Hall of Fame. If you achieve that honor, what will that mean to you?
CONCHITA MARTINEZ: Well, I mean, a great honor, no? Is my third time being in the ballot, so let's hope is my third time lucky (smiling).

I guess we will know soon. But it's a great honor. There is amazing names out there. To be there with them, it will be amazing. I will feel complete and great for my accomplishments in my career, no?

I mean, I'm just enjoying what I do, what I did as a player. I'm doing this as a coach right now. So I'm always connected to tennis. It will be a great honor, for sure.

Q. If you do get in, have you thought of who you might have present you?
CONCHITA MARTINEZ: Yes.

Q. And that person is?
CONCHITA MARTINEZ: We should wait, no? We should wait.

Q. Garbine was working with Sam a long time before you. Where do you think she was at tennis-wise and mentally at the end of that partnership when you joined her again?
CONCHITA MARTINEZ: You know, we started working from the beginning. I think they ended their partnership in Wimbledon. She then traveled with Annabel until the end of the year. That was very, very good for her, to have the Spanish Fed Cup captain help her and everything.

After that, everything sort of happened. She's good. As you can see, she's good, in a good space, working hard. That's the most important thing.

Q. A lot of people talked about you and Garbine as this obvious pair who should be working together. Have you heard that same conversation, feels like fate?
CONCHITA MARTINEZ: Well, yeah, you do hear. It's like couples, we all want Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston to get back together, right?

Sometimes it happens like that. I was very grateful to have the opportunity to work with Karolina. It was a great partnership. We had an awesome year. Now being back with Garbine, it feels great to be back and united, working hard. For me to see her doing well is great, great.

Q. You have been very successful with many different players, also as a captain. What do you think makes you that good coach? What is your philosophy of a coach, the way to approach players?
CONCHITA MARTINEZ: I mean, there is no secret. I mean, I love, I'm very passionate with what I do. Hard work is always very, very important.

I feel like I have a good relationship with the players, being there before, knowing what the players feel at that moment. It gives me that extra that I think is very good to have as a coach.

I think people know that I'm a very serious person that likes to help and work hard. To have the trust from the players I think is key. So far, yeah, I been successful with that.

Q. You said in the off-season you worked on certain things with Garbine, you see they're working now. Can you say precisely what those things are?
CONCHITA MARTINEZ: Well, I mean, you can see it on the court now. She's very, very aggressive as she was when she was playing her best tennis. Physically I see her very well. She's getting to the balls early enough. You can see she's holding her ground really well, accelerating, finishing at the net a lot. That's always nice to see.

Things like that that you can see a little bit more and more. So it's good to see.

Q. When she has won Roland Garros, Wimbledon, getting to the net was almost a key. When you're working with her on that particular aspect of the game, what do you have to work with her to do to get her to do that?
CONCHITA MARTINEZ: It's everything. It's everything together. First of all, you have to feel really good about your groundstrokes. You cannot just go to the net. She's not going to be a serve and volleyer just like that.

First you work on everything, her groundstrokes, preparing the point. To go to the net, you have to prepare the point first. When she's feeling comfortable with that, trusts herself with that, then that's when you can start going to the next step.

In our mind, it was very clear that's her type of game. But, like I'm saying, you first have to work here, start building to feel more confident going to the net. That's why having, I don't know what it was, five weeks or something like that, it was very nice for us to work in all of the aspects and go little by little.

I think by now she feels comfortable from the baseline. She can build up to the net many times. Some matches you will do it more, depends also of your opponent. That's the way it should go. She's playing really aggressive, which is good.

Q. In tennis obviously the mental side and technical side go hand-in-hand. How much are you doing from the mental side, as well?
CONCHITA MARTINEZ: I am trying to help as much as I can with every aspect. Not only coaching, that goes with what I was talking about, the experience as a player, the mental part. I gone through that and more things.

So, yeah, I'll try and help her. We talk a lot. But we understand each other. Sometimes you don't need to, like, talk for three hours. You go straight to the point. She understands. She's trusting right now. So it's good.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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