ADELAIDE INTERNATIONAL

January 10, 2022

Storm Sanders

Press Conference

S. SANDERS/K. Flipkens

6-3, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Talk us through the match and how it feels to qualify for the main draw.

STORM SANDERS: Yeah, it feels great. Obviously I had a late night last night, winning the doubles, which was awesome. Yeah, I knew today was going to be tough even just mentally. I was pretty tired I think from the high of that and then going back and resetting for today.

I played on one of the outside courts. It was pretty hot. The sun was beaming down. Flipkens, she's an unbelievable player. Her ranking at the moment doesn't reflect the quality player that she is. I have played her before about eight years ago, lost 7-6 in the third.

It was really nice to get the win today. She's a tough opponent. She uses the slice and her variety really well. I definitely had to fight pretty hard today and definitely earn that win.

I'm really happy to qualify here. I love playing in Adelaide. It's good to play another day.

Q. Take us through the confidence you get when your doubles form is so good, taking that into your singles game.

STORM SANDERS: Yeah, it is kind of hard sometimes to manage the doubles and singles, but I definitely love playing doubles. I definitely think it helps my singles, and also my singles helps my doubles. I definitely think they complement each other.

For me it definitely helps definitely returning, serving as well. In doubles you have the sudden death deuce, so you have to be kind of serving very well because you can actually lose your service game pretty quick if you're not focused.

Also just beating top quality opponents. Last week in the doubles we had tough matches. We played McNally and Coco first round. That's not an easy match. Semifinal was against Mirza and Kichenok. We played tough matches.

To kind of come through that gives me confidence on the singles court as well. Yeah, today was just more mental I think, just trying to reset and focus on a new tournament. I was able to do that well today.

Q. Last week playing Rybakina, is that something that gives you confidence, that you played the seventh seed in the tournament and for large parts of the game you were the better player?

STORM SANDERS: Definitely. I played a really good match against her. I lost the first set, but I definitely felt like I had chances and was in control of that first set. Then the second set I had a lot of the momentum. I was serving really, really well.

Yeah, my game style, I'm a very aggressive player, I like to take time away. When I'm doing that really well, I'm good enough to beat anyone. I think for me it's just trying to be able to consistently do that. When I'm not having a great day, making the bottom level of my quality a little bit higher and being able to be solid and match it with the top girls.

Now that I've qualified here, I think they haven't done the quallies, who fits in where yet, but there's a few tough first rounds. The first round here is nails. It's pretty strong. I might get a look at playing a top 20, top 30 player first round, which would be awesome because I love competing against them and testing my level.

I think I'm at that stage where I've had a lot of matches against high-quality opponents and I'm starting to believe I can win those matches as well.

Q. Does your approach to the match change because you know you have the wild card for next week? Do you go out differently knowing that's secured?

STORM SANDERS: Not really, to be honest. I view each tournament as a way to get better, an opportunity. I really want to crack top hundred. That's kind of my goal.

Every week that I get an opportunity to play, it's like, Okay, let's see how we go. If it doesn't happen, it's fine for me. I want to try to stick to the process, try to give myself the best chance, which is what I did against Rybakina.

I was lucky enough to get a wild card into the 500 because my ranking isn't high enough to get in. For me to have the opportunity to play top quality opponents at home and having the Aussie support is always a great opportunity.

The wild card for me doesn't really change anything. Obviously it's nice not having to play the Australian Open qualifying, to have another week to get matches under my belt. I kind of view each week as its own separate week, just an opportunity to get better.