AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 20, 2026

Jelena Ostapenko

Press Conference

J. OSTAPENKO/R. Sramkova

6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Jelena, congratulations. A great match today against a tricky player. Can you give us your thoughts on the match and your performance.

JELENA OSTAPENKO: Thank you. It's not easy. The first rounds are really tough. She was playing some great rallies and she was playing well.

I'm really happy with the way I managed the match even from 5-1 and 5-4 and won it.

Q. Congratulations for your win today. And next round you will play against Xinyu. It's going to be a high-profile match for the Chinese fans. How much do you know about her game and looking forward to this match?

JELENA OSTAPENKO: She's a good player, for sure. There will be some rallies. Like, she's hitting the ball strong. I think we kind of will have a good match.

Q. I believe this was your first singles win in a little bit. How much of a confidence booster was this performance today for you to carry that to the rest of singles this year?

JELENA OSTAPENKO: I mean, I did a good pre-season and obviously didn't play well the last few matches. But I feel like the game was always there, and especially in the practices I play a lot of practice sets. I win most of them. So I just try to bring the same thing and to be fearless on the court like on the practice.

Q. Was there anything in particular you were looking to improve during the pre-season?

JELENA OSTAPENKO: I was just working on different things. Yeah, just doing what I have to do. I cannot really say much what I was focusing mostly on, but pretty much on everything (laughter).

Q. I've heard the courts are playing quicker this year. I'm curious what your perspective is or what it felt like on the court today?

JELENA OSTAPENKO: Yeah, I think it was kind of quick and it was a little bit difficult. I felt like the court was -- the ball was, how do you say, sliding on the court?

Q. Skidding.

JELENA OSTAPENKO: Skidding a little bit, like in a few moments. So yeah, maybe that was because of the shadows that come again. I'm not sure.

Q. Do you prefer a quicker hard court? Sometimes players don't like the courts that are too quick.

JELENA OSTAPENKO: Of course, I like with my playing style I like quick courts. I feel like in so many tournaments the courts are really slow so it's great to have some quick courts.

Q. So tomorrow you start your doubles tournament here and you have a very successful partnership. Just talk about how I guess compared to last year and building that momentum, talk about how excited you are to play doubles here as well.

JELENA OSTAPENKO: Yeah, I think it's great. Su-Wei is a great player. I think our chemistry is working well. And I hope finally we can get the Grand Slam title this year because we were so close two times last year.

So, yeah, I think we start to feel each other better as a team and we kind of help each other out when we need to. So I think the more we play, like, the better we are as a team.

Q. When you first played together, who approached who? Was it Su-Wei or was it you?

JELENA OSTAPENKO: It was her coach Paul. He texted me. At that time I think I was not available. Then I was after some time available. So I kind of texted him. We decided to play together, yeah.

Actually, it was the second tournament last year was AO finals, so that was pretty good.

Q. Had you ever wanted to play with her before? Like, just seeing her style, did you think it would complement yours?

JELENA OSTAPENKO: Yeah. I mean, I always thought we could be a great team, but she never asked me. She was playing with someone else. So I was, like, That's fine, maybe she has partners already for a long time.

I mean, there were a lot of girls who were asking me obviously as well. But then it worked out at some point, and now we're playing together.

Q. Obviously before the tournament there was the 1 Point Slam. I'm curious your thoughts on that and what would be your strategy?

JELENA OSTAPENKO: I don't think there can be any strategy. Just to have fun. Because it's, like, only one point. And there's so much stress I think, especially for tennis players.

I think for the actors and, like, who were playing here, some different people from different areas, for them it's less stress because they just enjoy it and, you know, it can happen anything. But I think for tennis players it's so much pressure. But I think it's a nice show.