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BNP PARIBAS OPENMarch 10, 2013Mallory BurdetteINDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA M. KIRILENKO/M. Burdette THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. What did you do right to get back into the match, and then what did she do right maybe to finish it off? MALLORY BURDETTE: I think in the second set I relaxed a little bit and just took my time in the points and really picked my targets well and just took it to her. Was a little bit more aggressive on the backhand side and was willing to come in and finish points off and kind of step inside the court when she hit a short ball. Q. Then what changed? Did she do something in the third, or did you... MALLORY BURDETTE: I think she did a little bit of the same thing. She tried to take it to me and stepped up on my serve, and she returned well. I think her first‑serve percentage went way up, and she basically just stepped it up and was a little bit more aggressive there in the third set. Q. Now that you have been out here a little bit, what in your mind do you think you need to do better to be in, say, the top 20ish area eventually and maybe top 10? MALLORY BURDETTE: I think right now my serve is something that I can improve quite a bit, continuing to work on my fitness and movement and things like that so that, you know, when I'm in my fifth match of the week, I, you know, feel a little bit better than I felt out there today. You know, I think my backhand can definitely work on that a little bit. You know, I'm just learning a lot out here playing at this level, and, you know, looking forward to getting back to the drawing board for a few days and heading down to Miami. Q. It's your first pro season. To prepare for it during the offseason, what did you do that was maybe different than obviously you have done before? MALLORY BURDETTE: 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. fitness every morning, you know, just really, really working hard in the gym. And it was tough, you know. It was 7:00 to 9:00 in the morning fitness, and then you go 10:30 to 12:30 and then 2:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon. It was just a six‑hour kind of grind each day. But I think it's really paying off, and I'm proud of the work I have done so far and how far I have come in such a short period of time. But, you know, there is definitely a lot more work to be done. Q. Is there anything you take out of this particular tournament? What do you take away? MALLORY BURDETTE: Just a great experience, and also I feel a little bit more, you know, like I belong here, you know. It's always something I think that you question sometimes when you're surrounded by such great players. And so I think it's just, you know, feeling a little bit more comfortable on these big tournaments and just, you know, learning how to enjoy it and not, you know, let the ‑‑it's a little bit stressful and there is a lot going on. Just kind of learning how to relax and go with the flow at these tournaments I think is going to be a big part of me, you know, doing well and moving forward. Q. Were there any off‑court interaction that made you feel more welcome, or are you just talking about how you felt sort of on the court? MALLORY BURDETTE: Just on the court and getting organized on a daily basis, like it's all very, very new to me, especially at these big tournaments. I think I definitely got the hang of everything by the end of the week, and I was also here ‑‑I didn't really have a coach or anything here, so it was kind of like I was kind of handling everything on my own and trying to figure out warmups and things like that. But I think I handled it pretty well for the most part this week. Q. Most of the players have come up through juniors and are pros. You took time off and were at Stanford. Is it hard socially jumping into the pro tour, or do you have friends at the USTA or the other Americans or something? MALLORY BURDETTE: Yeah, I think there is a great camaraderie between all the American players. That's always fun. You feel like you have kind of a crew when you're on the road. I always love hanging out with my good friend, Sloane Stephens. She's like a little sister to me. You definitely have a good group. Being on the road and playing pro tennis it's definitely a different life, but I can't say that, you know, it's been bad in any way. It's definitely different, but there are lots of other upsides to it, as well. Q. What are the upsides so far? MALLORY BURDETTE: You know, getting to play at such a big event here, making it to the third round, playing against, you know, the No. 13 player in the world. I think I'm very fortunate. And, you know, I have my sister here today and my family and they're all very supportive, so I feel very lucky. Q. Have you got your eye on any tournaments around the rest of the year you're looking forward to, some experiences? MALLORY BURDETTE: I haven't really looked at the rankings, but I guess I'm really, really excited to be in the main draw of the Grand Slams, I think. (Smiling.) So that's very, very exciting for me and something that was a goal for me before the French Open that I really, really wanted to be straight into the main draw. It makes a big difference not to have to go through those qualifying matches. So I'm very, very excited about that. It's all exciting to me because it's so new.  It's everything‑‑ all of these tournaments are all new experiences, and so I think ‑‑ I'm definitely looking forward to Wimbledon. I think that's just such a great event. I only got to play there once in juniors, and so I'm really looking forward to going to Wimbledon. Q. When you're here on your own and you're organizing warmups and all this, do you feel college equipped you well to multi‑task and do that kind of thing? MALLORY BURDETTE: Most definitely. I mean, at school my junior year I was captain of the team, so you're dealing with team responsibilities, you're dealing with your classes, and you're also trying to stay sharp on the tennis court so that you can compete and do well for your team. So there were a lot of things on my plate, and now that I'm a pro tennis player and it's just tennis, you know, sometimes it feels like there's a lot of down time. I'm very ‑‑tournaments like this, the days are long and you have a lot going on, but when you're just training sometimes it doesn't feel like I'm doing too much. So I definitely have to try to keep my mind sharp, like read and work on, you know, some language stuff here and there just to, you know, keep my mind going. Q. Did you take a lot of geography? Do you know where to fly to get to some of these places that you're going to have to go? MALLORY BURDETTE: I don't think I took a geography class at Stanford, but I get a lot of help from the people who have done it before. I talked to Sloane and her mom, you know, what I should do and things like that. And also, Troy Hahn at the USTA has been a great ‑‑actually, all the coaches at the USTA, I've gotten a lot of advice from them just about what tournaments to play. Q. There was a Serbian player last week who flew into the wrong SanDiegoin New Mexico and didn't know why there were no tennis players when she got off the plane. MALLORY BURDETTE: Oh, no. Q. No regrets? Don't miss Stanford at all? MALLORY BURDETTE: Of course I miss Stanford. It's fantastic, everything from the campus to the students to the student athletes that you're surrounded by. But at this point, no, no regrets so far. I love my team. I still stay in contact with a lot of the girls. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to get back out there and visit them this year, but, you know, taking on this new life and kind of letting that go. I had a great three years there, so I'm very fortunate for that. Q. Will you stay here or go right to Miami, or do you know what you want to do yet? MALLORY BURDETTE: I'm not sure yet. I don't even have a flight, so I've got to go figure that out. I will definitely take at least a day, maybe a day and a half, just to rest up. Just decide where I want to do that. Q. Last year in this tournament, in our research center, we showed that men only had 2.2 seconds between hits now on ground rallies. Women are only 2.5. Very close. Only 300 milliseconds behind the men. But there was a large discrepancy on the serve. Do you think the women will ever catch up like that on the serve with the men? MALLORY BURDETTE: I'm not sure. I don't think so. I mean, I think the men are just so strong with their upper body strength and things like that, so I think ‑‑I'm not sure if we'll ever catch up to them on that stat. I guess you can just look at serve speed. Q. How do you account for the groundstrokes being so close to the men now? MALLORY BURDETTE: I think a lot of that is just ‑‑you know, we hit the ball pretty darn hard, too. (Smiling.) I think a lot of that is also just your positioning in the court and really taking the ball early and taking time away from your opponent. It's not all about hitting the ball hard; if you step up in the court three or four feet, that takes away a second or two right there. So you can also cut down that time with your positioning. Q. Serena has a male hitting partner. Would you ever go that way on a permanent basis? MALLORY BURDETTE: I practice with boys all the time. So down in Florida at Saviano's I hit with other, you know ‑‑they're teenage boys. I think it's fantastic to hit with guys, because, you know, the speed is just a little bit faster. You know, girls hit a little bit more flat, but I feel like I enjoy the flat ball. So it's good for me to change it up and work on some of the spinnier shots. I love hitting with guys. I think it's great. Q. What sort of things do you like to read? MALLORY BURDETTE: Right now I'm reading Life of Pi. It really varies. Anything from Life of Pi to the Power of Now to, you know, every once in a while I will sneak in a girly Nicolas Sparks book. It's just however I'm feeling at the time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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