AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 21, 2026

Magda Linette

Press Conference

M. LINETTE/A. Li

6-3, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: First of all, congratulations for progressing to the next round.

MAGDA LINETTE: They think.

THE MODERATOR: How are you feeling right now?

MAGDA LINETTE: Relieved first of all. But just really happy with the way that I just stayed calm throughout the whole match. Obviously it was a tough ending of the match, but I'm glad that I just stayed calm.

Q. So you just talked about being relieved. I'm curious why that feeling since it is -- I know you're progressing to the third round but it is straight sets.

MAGDA LINETTE: You know when you lead 4-0 and then suddenly it's 5-3 and deuce, you're like... I don't want to be there because I feel like, you know, you can close it up a little bit earlier. But she started playing so much more aggressive, played some really good rallies. I didn't do too much wrong.

Yeah, she really deserved it to come back to be close. I'm glad when the nerves kind of settled in I was just able to stay calm and still stay pretty solid.

Q. So you really took advantage of her second serve. How important is it to capitalize on those opportunities.

MAGDA LINETTE: It always is. So the second serve it's often times the opportunity that you get, not always you get the opportunity within the score, but you get it to get even the second serve.

So like especially in the conditions that went a little slower today, I had quite a lot of time. It was important to take advantage and be a little bit, like gain of a little bit of advantage from the beginning of the point because later on she was quite dangerous, especially with the forehand. So I really wanted to make sure that she constantly feels some sort of a pressure.

Q. Alycia Parks or Muchova, your thoughts?

MAGDA LINETTE: Two completely different players so two completely different thoughts. Karolina obviously so talented. Can do everything at all times. You never know really what to expect. She, you know, can be a player that can really lead the game, but on the other side she can also get a little bit more nervous. So for me it will be crucial to stay calm and keep pressing her. That's what I will try to do.

Alycia is very much all in or all out. If you have a good day, it's tough because she's really taking -- it's not really on your racquet sometimes. So I will just hope that I can just stay solid, that I can read her game well. I have never even practiced with her so I will be, you know, very seeing what's happening as it's coming.

But obviously both really tough players. Both would have to win so both will be very confident.

Q. Then just generally speaking when you're playing potentially someone new and you haven't practiced with them, how much does studying film help or does it take playing the first few games with them to understand the type of player they are, just generically speaking?

MAGDA LINETTE: Yeah, so you try to watch and get something, but it's still something different to go on court and really feel the ball, see how it actually looking on the other side of the net. So it's two parts to it.

Definitely I would watch both of them. Even I know Karolina, I would watch her match just to refresh and maybe see if I can see something that somebody did something better than me.

But with just watching somebody completely new, you don't also want to go into too much detail because they might play so different against you. So I just want to get a sort of an idea. I do know majority of players so I don't get that much surprised, but definitely watching is one part of it. Usually watching a couple of different matches of different tournaments and trying to find an opponent that played similar to me.