AUSTRALIAN OPEN

February 9, 2021

Karolina Pliskova

Press Conference

KA. PLISKOVA/J. Paolini

6-0, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. 47 minutes must feel pretty good as a start for the tournament. Just talk us through the match.

KAROLINA PLISKOVA: I think I started really well, and I was playing quite fast. I was aggressive, and everything went a little bit my way. I was serving well, so I think there was not much what she could do today, and quite happy with my first-round performance.

Q. It was very easy today versus Paolini. When you win matches like that, is it a big release or sometimes you would prefer to have a little more competition so you can practice better? And what do you expect about your match versus Collins?

KAROLINA PLISKOVA: No, I always prefer to have a match like this, to play well, no matter the scores. I don't really follow the score, so it's not my goal to win easy, but my goal is to play well and to play the way I played today. So of course I would always choose that. But of course since the Open is going to get harder and harder, it's going to be different scores, I guess.

And of course I think I played really -- like there was not much I did wrong about today, so I just want to continue on doing what I was doing today the next day, the next round. Of course it's going to be much more harder. We played last week, so there is some things I want to improve, some things I want to keep because they were working, and hopefully there's going to be a chance. It was very close. It was about a couple of points, the match, so there is a chance, big chance for me. I just need to do some things better.

Q. Are you one person that looks at the draw, or even if you play match by match, you don't go too much forward? But let's say you know that Karolina Muchova, the Czech, is in your part of the draw or you don't even know it?

KAROLINA PLISKOVA: I didn't know, and I don't look. I mean, I don't mind to know because there is Collins for me now, which I lost last week, so that's my main focus now.