Elina Svitolina – Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How are you feeling? Silly question.

ELINA SVITOLINA: I mean, it’s big relief that I could win this match, because I knew that if I gonna win this match, I’m gonna be top 10. There was extra pressure. When I was warming up, added even more pressure because they announce it. It didn’t help (smiling).

Well, I’m really happy the way I played the match. It was the way I was working on, and, I mean, I’m really happy that I could play my game today.

Q. Obviously a big win yesterday. Mentally, how did you manage to move past that and focus on to the next one, especially rain and waiting? How did you handle all that mentally?

ELINA SVITOLINA: I tried to, after the match, I tried to straightaway analyze and try to focus on the next match. Don’t really think about what I did wrong or what was not working, because yesterday was up and down and the end of match was very frustrating for me. I lost lots of energy, mental tiredness, as well. It was very tough.

But in the end, you know, I said to myself, Come on, you can do it. Give everything what you have. This is the final. So just last push, and then you can just enjoy.

Q. So what are you going to do for yourself? Buy yourself a present or…

ELINA SVITOLINA: Well, I don’t know. I’m going to go with my coaches finally somewhere in Dubai, because it’s been very tough week for me. Been all the time matches, so I’m going to go and have first maybe tomorrow lunch somewhere nice. So many nice places in Dubai to go.

Q. What do you like about being here?

ELINA SVITOLINA: Actually, it’s very well organized, this tournament. The hotel is just on-site. The courts, you can practice whenever you want. Everything is well organized. So it just feels very, very comfortable to play here.

Q. You have won 12 matches in a row now. How do you explain the rhythm that you have in your game? Is there anything special?

ELINA SVITOLINA: Well, I don’t think about it. Of course, I have confidence now in my game, and I just tried to go out there and win the matches. This is the main goal for me.

If it happens, it happens. If not, then I’m going to analyze, work hard, and then come back stronger.

Q. What do you do between now and Indian Wells?

ELINA SVITOLINA: I have flight tomorrow to go to Kuala Lumpur.

Q. After the lunch?

ELINA SVITOLINA: After the lunch, yeah. It’s actually in the evening.

Q. Obviously you have won five titles before this one, but this is your first Premier 5. Did you have it in your mind that you really wanted to win one of those bigger titles? Was it weighing on you a bit that you were getting these big wins but not necessarily amounting to a big title?

ELINA SVITOLINA: Well, I didn’t think specifically about it, but of course those small titles, it was just building, and then it was like, Come on, you need to try to take those good things from small tournaments that you win and play very consistent into the big tournaments and big matches, you know, this consistency.

So I’m now very happy that I could play great week, very solid tennis for me. Of course, there have been some downs, but the way I recovered, I’m really happy the way I did it.

Q. Are you in touch with Justine? I know she’s having a baby, I think, but do you keep in touch with her?

ELINA SVITOLINA: She send me some congratulations yesterday, so now I don’t know. I didn’t see. But yesterday she said, Congrats and amazing.

So I knew that she won here many times, and last year when I have been here, I was very disappointed that I lost in semifinal and then I was very disappointed that I couldn’t do it last year, but this year I did it (smiling).