Transcript: Ekaterina Alexandrova def. Zheng Qinwen, 6-1, 6-4

Ekaterina Alexandrova def. Zheng Qinwen, 6-1, 6-4

Quarterfinals

MODERATOR: Congratulations on the win. Can you share your thoughts on the match?

EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA: Well, yeah. It was a difficult match. Even like the score doesn’t say that, especially like in the first set. She’s a really good player and a really good server. So I was trying to use every opportunity on the return that I had. Overall, good match. Still kind of difficult to play against her, but I think I’m very pleased with my game today.

Always tricky, of course, when you’re playing somebody and they’re having an issue, medical timeouts, et cetera. How do you keep your focus during that period?

EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA: Basically I think you just try not to think about it. So like she’s playing, so it’s just like a regular match. Nothing is happening. It’s very dangerous to think that something is happening on the other side. So, so far like the game is going and everything is fine.

You’ve had success over the years here on the surface. Just talk about what works well for you on these courts.

EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA: I think it’s still clay. It’s still not my favorite thing, but this green clay, I don’t know, for me, doesn’t seem it’s as, I don’t know, unpredictable as red clay because on red clay almost every bounce is different and it’s always, I don’t know, something going on. Here it’s more like hard court, but like slippery, so I feel much better on the green court clay than the red one.

You turned 30 in November, and sometimes these big benchmark birthdays can mean something more in someone’s life. Did it change your perspective Katya on your tennis or life in general?

EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA: Honestly, I don’t think so. I was quite nervous before the birthday because, yeah, it was kind of like, you know, before that it’s just like a regular birthday and everything is the same. But when you hit like 30, it seems like it’s just like something completely different. But like the day after, it’s everything the same. You kind of like let it go and kind of forget about it. So just for like maybe a few days before and during, and then it’s fine.

We know how much the players love, I think, the fans and the atmosphere, but you made the quarterfinals here a couple years ago, semifinals three years ago. So you’ve spent a good amount of time here. Do you have a favorite restaurant or what’s your favorite — sort of away from the fans, what’s your favorite thing about Charleston?

EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA: I really like the atmosphere of the city, especially downtown. It’s very nice. Like the houses, they’re small. I don’t know. It’s so historical here. Like the whole city seems like huge history like things. You can go wherever you want and everywhere is going to be something like beautiful to watch. I didn’t went to many restaurants here. Basically I was staying at the hotel, and there’s like Palmetto Cafe for the breakfast, and they’re really good for the breakfast. But most of the time I’m eating here on site, because the food here is actually great, too. So, yeah.

When you make a deep run at a tournament, are you a player that has — do you have to do the same thing every day or you’re not quite like that?

EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA: Sort of, yeah. Because, I don’t know, for me, it’s easier like to do like a routine. So when you’re at a tournament, the new tournament, the first couple days like you see, like you try, like the restaurants. You see what you can take or like on the practice court, like how far is it from the locker room. But after a couple days you kind of like finding the right routine for you and you just stick to it. And, I don’t know, for me makes like everything easier because you know you’re waking up like at a certain time. You’re going to the breakfast at a certain place. Basically you’re taking like for the breakfast almost the same thing. And you just focusing more on the game, not the other things. So it’s easier.

Can you just talk about facing Jess? You’ve gotten her the last couple of times. Why does your game match up so well against her?

EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA: Well, I don’t know. It’s a good matchup. But it’s always difficult to play against her because I remember last two matches that we played it was three sets, and like every match was super difficult because she’s so consistent on the baseline. She’s not giving you any easy point. So everything you’re winning, like, you need to earn. So you need to do something to win, so there’s nothing like super easy, so you just need to wait and she’s going to hit some errors, no. But the last matches, they were on the hard court, and still, it’s a completely different thing. And I think we played once on the clay, but it was like so many years ago. So hard to tell how it’s going to look tomorrow, but, I don’t know, we’ll see.

End of Interview