Australian Open Wednesday, 10 February 2021 , , Garbine Muguruza Press Conference

No one has the virus. G. MUGURUZA/L. Samsonova But this is not the case in the other parts of the world. I 6-3, 6-1 mean, of course it's great that they are doing an event and there is no risk and there's crowd. That's excellent. THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. But I'm not sure in other parts of the world they're going to be able to do this because it's not free of COVID. Q. Difficult conditions out there today. Talk us through how the match went from your perspective. For me of course it's great. But without any risk, I don't know how they're going to do it. That's my concern. GARBINE MUGURUZA: So today was finally like a Melbourne day. Was hot. I am very happy the way I Q. A little bit of a tricky start to a slam to have to played. I had an opponent that I didn't know much. We play back-to-back matches without an off day haven't met before. It's not often that you play someone because you got the Tuesday start. Did that make you don't know anything about. anything more complicated or change anything about your preparation for the ? I was happy that I got the first set. That was a tight set. Then in the second set I kind of knew more about her GARBINE MUGURUZA: Honestly no. I just had to game and took the lead early, then could close it in two adapt. I had the day off after the tournament, after the sets. With this heat and everything, I was happy it didn't final. I had that day off. When you reach the second got complicated and long. round, there is a day that you kind of have to play back-to-back. It depends which half you are. It is not Q. What sort of hope do you hope to give fans something new to me. I just felt like, Okay, this is how I around the world by having this tournament, you have to do this year. You don't have to go through two being in it, there being fans in the stands? matches back-to-back, then I would get the 48 hours for my next round. GARBINE MUGURUZA: I said it already in the tournament that we played before, the WTA that they I was just kind of match after match after match, like a held here, that I was so excited to step on the court and regular tournament kind of. have crowd. I really thanked everybody that came to watch us play because after almost not a full year, but Q. Now that those two matches are done, are you quite the whole year last year empty, it felt really able to slip into regular slam mode? Is it going to different. feel more normal going forward now?

The lack of just energy that we felt, energy that the crowd GARBINE MUGURUZA: I feel like yes. I feel like now gave us, the nerves, the excitement to go and play. it's a Grand Slam mode. The part I like about the Grand When I step on the court and we had crowd, even if it's Slams also is that you get a day of competition and a day against me, just to have crowd, I was already excited. of rest, a day of competition. I think that really helps players to recover, to have time to prepare, whatever. Q. What message do you hope having this tournament with fans sends to people around the Yeah, now I'm happy I have a day kind of, a normal day world? at a Grand Slam off, yeah, just to get ready for my next round. GARBINE MUGURUZA: That's a tricky question because Australia is kind of in a bubble compared to the FastScripts by ASAP Sports world. I mean, they went through hard lockdown, the whole people here. They did great. Now they don't have any COVID case in the country. That was because they were early, they worked hard and they kind of cleaned.

104517-1-1044 2021-02-10 05:53:00 GMT Page 1 of 1