Australian Open Sunday, 14 February 2021 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Paul McNamee Press Conference She was playing a match in Eastbourne one day, she THE MODERATOR: Take us through Hsieh Su-Wei's was hitting -- she missed two balls in a row by three performance today. meters. Change ends, keeps going. She's missing balls by so far. That's not Su-Wei. She misses by millimeters PAUL MCNAMEE: It was excellent because she'd never normally. been in the quarterfinal of a singles at a Grand Slam. She knew it was an opportunity. She missed a couple of I noticed she was playing with broken strings in her opportunities before. You don't know how many more racquet, literally playing with broken strings. you're going to get when you're at her age. She knew it was an important match. I said, Su-Wei, your racquet. I thought she was very relaxed and very in control of the Oh, yeah. match, which is good when there was a lot on the line. She's not a player that's going to be in contention very I mean, she hadn't broken a string for three years. You often. I know what that is like. tell me a player that uses the same racquet for three years and doesn't change the racquet. Now, she has to I thought she handled that really well today. buy racquets, which is very unusual. She doesn't have any contracts at all. That's why she's like Times Square Q. She was just describing her personality. I was on the court with the different logos from the different wondering how you would describe it. companies. She went three years without breaking a string. PAUL MCNAMEE: She's a free spirit. It's important that she's allowed to express herself. That's the same with We had a bit of trauma before this tournament because her tennis. It kind of reflects the way she is off the court. she had to get a restring before the tournament. That's She kind of acts on a whim sometimes, doesn't like to once a year. Players change racquets on the change of plan too far ahead. balls, right? She'll go years with the same racquet. Even finding out if I'm going to be helping her or coaching It is different. You've got to accept that. She didn't know her, I normally only find out a week or two before what it was like to play with a broken string, so she didn't (laughter). So she's a free spirit. You don't want to box know it was broken. One of the reason is she hits the that spirit. You got to let it rise and be free. That's the ball so purely in the center of the racquet. Most people important thing. break strings when they hit it around the frame. She doesn't frame balls. I mean, she would rather not play if Q. As someone who has been in the game for as she did that. Enough... long as you have, how would you characterize her personality compared to all the other players? Q. How do you then as a coach harness all that? She mentioned obviously she credits you a lot with PAUL MCNAMEE: There's only one Su-Wei. There's helping her to bloom late in her career. She said the times when she's kind of focused and other times when biggest thing is you didn't try to change her game. she really is not motivated at all to practice. I've How do you manage those two things? experienced it where she'll just go and hit one or two balls, didn't hit them well, that's it, she won't play any PAUL MCNAMEE: Well, I think it was being old enough more that day. Wasn't feeling it. to recognize that she was different. As I said, you can't put that talent in a box. You've got to let it run free and I've seen her play a game. She's so precise the way she just wait for your moments to throw a morsel of helpful plays. No one can redirect traffic as well as she can on advice. You have to wait for your moment. both sides. Doesn't matter which way it's coming from, she can redirect it either way. A lot of times she's not really interested in advice, yeah (laughter). So you got to wait for your moment. You got 104664-1-1044 2021-02-14 03:33:00 GMT Page 1 of 2 to make sure that it counts because you don't get many like when you first started working with her, to adjust moments to give some input. to someone that unique? Yeah, I mean, the person who deserves the credit really PAUL MCNAMEE: It was an adjustment. Yeah, I mean, is her life partner Fred. They live together in Paris. She I'd seen her talent. I mean, like most people, I enjoyed likes Paris. Fred has been an amazing influence on watching her play. I felt like that she had the potential to Su-Wei the last few years. It's a team effort absolutely. have the best finishing volleys in the world. In the end, she was able to achieve that. It's borne out by she's the It's nice of her to give me some credit, but really Fred has current No. 1 ranked player in doubles. Her finishing been the one that's helped her actually be more volleys are incredible. So I recognized that. professional, if I can say that, yeah. I said to her, I think you got the best finishing volleys in Q. What is your take on the job that Craig Tiley and the world. I could have had two heads. She was very his team have done to pull this off in the middle of a humble, very far removed from that. She was ranked pandemic and have sizable crowds for the first five over 300 in singles, 40 something in doubles. days? Yeah, she kind of got to work. Winning that first PAUL MCNAMEE: Yeah, it's been six, eight months of Wimbledon was amazing with Peng Shuai. The doubles torture really for Craig and the organizing team. I know kind of came first, then the singles came. how hard they've been working to pull this off with the restrictions that are so tough here... I remember the very next week we went to Budapest. I wanted to go for a run. She had never gone for a run In a way, you could have imagined it would have been before, never, never. I mean, yeah, it was amusing. easier in Paris or New York. Over there it's acceptable if there's some outbreak. It's a manageable situation in I realized it was going to be difficult, some things were terms of PR anyway, a little bit better. I think they both going to be difficult. She stuck around. To think she's 35 did a great job. So here, there's one case, it's years of age, in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. She's catastrophic. been in the round of 16 a few times, won three WTA singles titles. I always believed she had a Grand Slam So the number of things they had to go through to quarter at least in her, quarter or a semis. That's what I actually get the players here, put them up, arrange all of felt like. She's achieved that now. She ticked that box. these matches that are going on. I mean, it was actually hard getting a practice court the last couple of days Singles-wise this is her most significant. More significant because of the other tournaments that are starting again. than winning the three titles. Last eight in a slam, a major, it's a big result. It was a process. The hard thing They've done an amazing job to kick-start this year. I for me was I was kind of super professional, I guess, mean, I was obviously Craig's predecessor, tournament right? I worked hard. I'd warmed down with a file-mile director before Craig. I experienced a flood on center run, 8K run, that was the warm-down. She'd never been court during the tournament. That was the hardest thing on a run. Just getting used to someone different. I ever had to face. That was the night before the women's singles final, which was a really difficult It's had its challenges along the way. Sometimes you situation to manage. But it came and went in 24 hours. just have to back off and say nothing, is really the best This has been a long, long time. thing to do. I've learnt the joy of silence a lot working with Su-Wei (laughter). He was doing a conference call with the players every single night of hotel quarantine, every single night, at FastScripts by ASAP Sports 7:30. That was pretty good effort. I think the players raved at the fact that he fronted up every night and sometimes with some bad news. This was not a walk in the park, what he's gone through. It's horrible bad luck that the crowds are not here for a few more days.