MUTUA MADRID OPEN

April 29, 2022

Garbine Muguruza

Press Conference

G. MUGURUZA/A. Tomljanovic

7-5, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. Can you just talk through your thoughts on the match, just what it felt like to get back into competition and whether you felt the refreshness that you were kind of chasing with the slight break?

GARBINE MUGURUZA: Yeah, I did feel refreshed compared to other editions. Obviously because I haven't played so many matches, so I took the time to rest and train, both, both very important, and felt good out there.

Went out without a lot of expectation, not knowing with lack of matches how it was gonna feel in there, but that's it. I went out there, and I love play. I took the energy from the crowd more this time than other years. In other years I can't get over sometimes the nerves. But this year I was, like, You know what? I'm gonna use the crowd. If they cheer up for me, you know, if I put the ball in the locker room, then who cares, right? So yeah, happy with that.

Q. Why do you think it was different this year? Why was the approach different in terms of opening yourself up to the crowd and accepting kind of what they could do to help you win matches on the court?

GARBINE MUGURUZA: Well, I think that I all the time thought that being the only tournament in Spain is, you know, it's a lot of pressure, because you only have one opportunity to really shine.

You know, this year I said, you know what, the opposite, I'm here, it's a great tournament. Just go out there, play your best tennis and whatever happens happens instead of just putting that baggage, you know, in my back all the time.

Q. I know you spoke about this a little bit more before the tournament, but in terms of deciding to go on vacation and get a little bit of a break, get into training and things like that, can you talk through kind of why you felt like you needed it and what you felt you got out of it?

GARBINE MUGURUZA: Yeah, I felt like I needed it because I was training a lot, and my body was not really taking on the training. It was one pain here, one pain there. It was accumulation of pain.

So I said, you know what? I told my team, I think we should take 10 days at least off so I get to recover naturally my body.

As soon as I stopped playing, my shoulder start healing, my leg, my back, everything start to be where it should. I said, I think we should focus more this year on clay court. It was a natural feeling. You know, also the schedule, it's pretty intense.

So I felt, you know, nothing's going to happen if I skip one or two tournaments if after I'm gonna come back and feel better.