THE MODERATOR: Can you talk us through your match tonight.
EMMA RADUCANU: I think Aliaksandra played a great match. She’s an extremely experienced opponent who has been on the tour for many years. Yeah, I mean, I had to get used to the conditions. It’s my first time playing in Indian Wells.
Yeah, I mean, she was better than me today so she deserves to win.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. Your sense of how you felt on the court? It was weird to go from obviously playing on the biggest court in the world on Ashe, to this is the second biggest court. What did you make of the conditions and how the ball was reacting off your racquet?
EMMA RADUCANU: Yeah, I mean, playing at night is always going to be different. I haven’t had much experience with night matches. I’ve only played one before on Ashe. I’m still very, very new to the tour. I think that experience just comes from playing week in, week out and experiencing all these different things.
Yeah, I’m kind of glad that what happened today happened so I can learn and take it as a lesson. So going forward, yeah, I’ll just have more experienced banked.
Q. In the second set it looked like you were getting your momentum back. What made the difference in terms of not being able to close out that set?
EMMA RADUCANU: Well, I mean, her experience probably. She’s been on tour, probably been 4-2 down like hundreds of times whereas I’ve been 4-2 up. It’s my third WTA tournament this year.
I mean, it will come in time. Just got to not rush it and keep going and get my head back to the drawing board really.
Q. You said you go back to the drawing board. What do you think you will work on now when you head back to the UK and get back into full training? Do you think that lack of sharpness was that you had not played many matches for about a month?
EMMA RADUCANU: Yeah, you definitely get sharp by playing matches. I’m not match-tight right now. Like I haven’t played a competition in a month, since the US Open. That will just come just playing week in, week out.
What do I need to work on? I mean, I’ll probably just go back and review the match probably tomorrow when I can look at it with a clear head. Yeah, from then I’ll be able to plan.
Q. What were your emotions like, how nervous were you, and what were you expecting? Certainly no doubt there’s great disappointment, but how are you feeling at the moment?
EMMA RADUCANU: I mean, there’s going to be disappointment after any loss. I didn’t go in there putting any pressure on myself because in my mind I’m so inexperienced that all these, I’m just taking it all in.
I mean, you’re going to have highs and you’re always going to have some lows where you’re disappointed with how you performed.
Aliaksandra played an extremely great match. She has played; you could tell she’s more experienced than me. She went out there and executed her game plan better than I did. She, of course, deserved to win that.
Q. Walking out on court, did you have any nerves? In what way did they manifest themselves?
EMMA RADUCANU: I didn’t have nerves because, yeah, Indian Wells is a beautiful place and I’m really grateful for the wild card opportunity that I got here. I just want to thank everyone who was part of that. Also just happy to play in front of fans again.
I didn’t feel nervous because I’ve played on big courts before. It was just a matter of tennis and her experience at the end of the day I think.
Q. Handling change can be a challenge within the tennis realm. How is that working for you right now? What else can you take from this?
EMMA RADUCANU: I think it’s going to take me time to adjust really to what’s going on. I mean, I’m still so new to everything. Like the experiences that I’m going through right now, even though I might not feel 100% amazing right now, I know they’re for the greater good. For the bigger picture, I’ll be thanking this moment.
So, yeah, that’s the lesson I think, that you can easily get sucked into being so focused on the result and getting disappointed.
I mean, I’m 18 years old. I need to cut myself some slack, so yeah.
Q. Looking forward you have quite a few tournaments lined up in Europe. What are your thoughts playing tour-level matches in Europe? Are you still going to go into those without any expectations on yourself?
EMMA RADUCANU: Yeah, we’ll see what happens when I get back. I’ll probably discuss with a few people on my team and see what’s right for me, what the next decision is going to be.
Yeah, we’ll see what happens.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
