00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Yeah, I've been getting off to a good start in the matches,
00:07 playing aggressive game style.
00:10 Yeah, and I think physically have played really well.
00:16 And yeah, I'm not really sure.
00:22 [LAUGHS]
00:31 Danielle, congrats.
00:33 When you say you're not really sure,
00:34 is it like you're stumped as to how this has happened,
00:37 or are you just stumped as to how to articulate
00:40 how it's happened?
00:41 Well, I think a little bit of both, right?
00:43 I mean, I'm playing well.
00:45 And so I feel like anything--
00:49 I don't want to be tooting my own horn here.
00:52 And I want to be able to articulate
00:56 some thoughts on the match.
00:58 I'm curious to hear what you guys have to ask.
01:01 [LAUGHS]
01:06 How would you compare how you're playing now
01:10 to other times when you've played well in your career?
01:16 Is there a certain feeling you have at this moment?
01:19 And is it different, better, worse than other times
01:24 when you got on rolls?
01:27 Yeah, I mean, I think in a lot of these sports psychology
01:30 books and things that they talk about, like high-level sports,
01:34 and they talk about being in the zone
01:36 and almost feeling like you're hitting beach balls,
01:39 I think it can feel like that at times.
01:42 And that's a good thing.
01:44 And in other times that I've played well
01:49 and have had deep runs in tournaments,
01:51 it's been like that.
01:52 And then in other times, there's days
01:55 it's like going out to the golf range and having a bad day,
01:58 and you're missing shots.
02:00 But right now, I'm timing the ball really well.
02:03 And I think I've made some physical adjustments, too,
02:06 that's kind of helped me be able to kind of control my shots
02:10 more and hit them with more accuracy and precision.
02:14 I've been working on that for a while.
02:15 And it's hard to sometimes make those types of changes,
02:20 not big changes, but small changes.
02:24 And so I think that that's kind of just
02:25 helped me get a little bit more consistent in these points
02:29 and bring it in the court a little more.
02:32 Is it something specific, these little changes,
02:38 is it something you thought of, someone else
02:40 thought of it?
02:41 And is it, like you said, it's at this stage of your career
02:44 when you do have to make a change like that, how hard is
02:46 it?
02:46 The other thing I wanted to ask you is about your dog.
02:49 You mentioned that you have your dog with you
02:51 when you're close to home, that it feels more--
02:54 it's just more comfortable maybe to be in Florida,
02:57 close to home.
02:57 You can bring your doggy along.
02:59 What's the dog's name?
03:00 What kind of dog is it?
03:01 Thank you.
03:02 Yeah, so two different questions.
03:06 So going back to the first part of that,
03:11 I don't want to give too many of my secrets away, right?
03:14 Yeah, but I can give a little bit of insight.
03:17 I feel like one of the things that I've
03:21 been working on over the course of my career
03:24 is having good body control.
03:28 I think in our sport, and it being a rotational sport,
03:31 the tendency to rotate and to use a lot of power and force.
03:36 Well, I'm still doing that.
03:37 I think I've improved a lot of my core strength.
03:42 And so that's helped me be able to stay a little bit more
03:47 still.
03:48 So I think that's helping.
03:51 And that is something I think a lot of coaches
03:54 that I've worked with over the years and people in general,
03:59 even at a basic level, if you're taking tennis lessons,
04:01 they tell you to do.
04:02 And so sometimes it's the really simple things
04:04 that you have to remind yourself of.
04:06 I hear coaches on court with really high level players
04:09 here telling their players to stay still and keep
04:11 their body under control.
04:13 And I hear that at the country club
04:16 when you're playing next to a 4.5 player
04:18 and they're working on their forehand.
04:20 So yeah, I've been working on that.
04:23 I've gotten that idea.
04:25 I've been in tennis for a while.
04:27 So yeah.
04:30 And the second part, Quincy is my little dog.
04:34 He is very adorable.
04:36 He is a sophisticated gentleman.
04:38 And I call him Mr. Q. He has been here with me
04:45 during the entire event.
04:46 He's at daycare right now.
04:48 He is a very spoiled gentleman with a very big personality.
04:54 I'm sure some of you have probably
04:56 seen him running around here at some point.
04:59 But he doesn't come with on the match days
05:02 because he's my Velcro dog.
05:04 And he doesn't like leaving my side.
05:07 He has a lot of anxiety when, even if he was sitting there
05:13 and I'm here, he doesn't want the distance.
05:15 So yeah.
05:18 So he's my little baby.
05:20 He's lived a very spoiled life.
05:25 I like to cook.
05:26 Quincy gets to partake in some pretty fabulous meals.
05:29 What kind of dog is Quincy?
05:34 Quincy's a mix.
05:35 Yeah.
05:36 He's cute.
05:36 I think he's mostly poodle.
05:38 So yeah.
05:39 He's a cutie.
05:41 I'm sure people can check him out on my Instagram.
05:44 I saw on television you were saying
05:49 that these kind of positive results
05:52 don't really make you change your plans for the future
05:55 in terms of leaving the sport at the end of the year.
05:59 But has it actually, in a way, has it helped you?
06:02 Do you think psychologically, do you play with more freedom
06:05 when you don't have the stress of looking
06:08 beyond the horizon as much?
06:10 Well, I mean, I guess it just depends, right?
06:13 You can think about it in many different ways.
06:16 I don't really think about it that much, to be honest.
06:19 I mean, I feel like as a professional athlete,
06:21 you're so consumed in your day to day and your routines,
06:24 getting ready, preparing, recovering,
06:26 maintaining your strength.
06:27 All of the things that go into our day to day
06:30 can be very consuming.
06:31 And so I don't really have a lot of time, quite honestly,
06:33 to be like, well, I'm retiring at the end of the year.
06:36 So yeah, I think I don't have as much pressure on me
06:39 because I've only got a few more tournaments left.
06:43 Or I could sit there and be like, well, I've
06:45 only got a few tournaments left.
06:47 And if they don't do this now, what the heck am I doing?
06:50 So you can have different ways of thinking about it.
06:53 But I just don't really feel like I have the time
06:55 to kind of sit and ponder and get too deep into the thoughts.
06:59 Because honestly, yeah, the day to day,
07:03 like with us as athletes, is a lot.
07:06 I feel like the fans don't get to see that as much.
07:10 It's more than a 9 to 5 job because it's just
07:12 around the clock.
07:13 And so honestly, I'm just so consumed
07:16 with doing all the things I need to do
07:18 to get prepared for the next day.
07:19 And so yeah, I mean, I think I feel pretty relaxed.
07:25 That could be due to a number of things.
07:27 I've got a new hobby.
07:29 I'm playing some more golf, running more, pilates,
07:34 all of these different things.
07:35 So my dog's here.
07:37 I'm feeling relaxed because I get to be with him at night.
07:40 I don't know.
07:42 Yeah.
07:44 But it's a good question.
07:45 I'm still trying to figure it out too.
07:48 [LAUGHTER]
07:49 Danielle, in January, the loss to Iga, from the outside,
07:54 it would have been very easy for us, for me--
07:56 I guess I'll speak for me-- to assume, wow,
07:59 it's going to take her a while to get over that.
08:01 She was so close, things like that.
08:03 But you continued to play so well, especially
08:05 in the Middle East, and bounced back well.
08:06 And I'm curious, given the circumstances of everything,
08:10 why do you think that was that it didn't sink you in a way
08:13 that it could have sunk any player?
08:16 Well, I do think I am a professional athlete.
08:20 And I think professional athletes
08:22 have a different mindset between success and failures.
08:27 And the reality is that match was very close.
08:31 I had some opportunities.
08:32 Iga played extremely well.
08:34 I didn't do a whole lot wrong.
08:35 Iga played at a high level.
08:37 And the reality is that she's number one in the world.
08:40 She has a whole list of accomplishments.
08:44 And I was underdog that match.
08:45 I was not supposed to win that match.
08:47 And I think it would be worse if I lost to someone who was
08:54 ranked outside of the top 200.
08:56 It would be worse if I lost to O and L.
08:59 It would be worse if I would have rolled my ankle.
09:02 And so at the end of the day, yeah, the match was close.
09:05 But it's really-- we have tournaments every single week.
09:08 And I don't think anyone's defined by one match or one
09:12 loss.
09:13 And I don't think anyone's--
09:15 it's certainly something that I haven't
09:17 been hanging my head up over.
09:18 I think people that aren't as involved in professional sports
09:25 and maybe fans probably think, ouch, that really hurts.
09:29 But we're very resilient.
09:31 All of us are.
09:32 And I think our ability to recover quickly
09:37 from when things don't go our way,
09:38 whether it's a tough couple of points on court,
09:41 whether it's a tough match, whether it's injuries,
09:43 whether it's losing a loved one, whether it's--
09:46 we're very resilient people.
09:47 And I think that's the biggest difference,
09:50 is that for professional athletes,
09:52 we have a totally different mindset with how we
09:55 deal with success and failures.
09:57 The last two.
09:59 I want to ask back to the question that Simon had asked.
10:02 What if you just have a great year right now?
10:05 You're on this role right now.
10:07 If you just have tremendous results,
10:09 is the decision to retire, is that a hard decision?
10:11 Or is that a soft decision that could maybe change based
10:14 on how you do this year?
10:16 I find it so interesting, because I kind of
10:18 felt like when I was announcing my retirement,
10:22 everyone's been so congratulating me
10:24 and so excited for me.
10:25 But then on the other hand, I feel
10:27 like I've had to justify my decision a lot.
10:29 And I feel like if I was a guy, I probably
10:32 wouldn't have to justify it that much.
10:35 And it's really-- that part really--
10:37 If you're playing really well, or you're a guy or a girl,
10:39 if any guy is playing at the top of his game
10:41 and rolling through tournaments the way you are,
10:43 you would think, I don't know, maybe there's more in me.
10:46 Maybe I should stay.
10:47 I don't know.
10:48 I don't know.
10:48 It's a gender thing.
10:49 No, but I mean, I think it's really interesting how I've--
10:53 in a lot of different situations,
10:56 I've had to kind of justify the reasons behind retirement.
10:59 I'm living with a chronic inflammatory disease that
11:02 affects your ability to get pregnant.
11:05 And so that's a deeply personal situation.
11:08 And I've kind of explained that from time to time.
11:10 And yeah, I think it's a good question.
11:14 But I think at the end of the day, my choice--
11:21 this is my personal choice.
11:22 And this is so much more to do than just tennis and my career.
11:29 And I'm enjoying my career.
11:30 I'm having a lot of fun.
11:31 I love coming out here and competing.
11:34 But at the end of the day, this is a really big--
11:37 decision.
11:38 And yeah, I think that that should
11:42 be pretty understandable.
11:44 Yeah.
11:44 That thing you said before about mindset
11:52 and being resilient and things like that,
11:54 did it take you a while to learn that?
11:56 Or did you always have that from the moment
12:00 you started on the tour?
12:01 And what was the process like of adopting that?
12:05 Yeah, I think as we go from being young juniors
12:12 and learning how to play tennis and then competing, right?
12:16 And at a young age in junior tennis,
12:19 you play a lot of tournaments.
12:21 And a lot of those weeks, you're not always winning.
12:24 You have sometimes more tournaments
12:28 you're losing in than winning.
12:30 And then you go to college, and you play for a team.
12:32 You play for something bigger than yourself.
12:35 And I think as you--
12:37 through each different stage, you're
12:40 trying to evolve mentally, right?
12:42 Like, you're trying to make improvements in your game
12:44 physically.
12:45 You're trying to evolve tactically.
12:50 You're trying to expand your skill set.
12:52 But the mental part's one of the most important things.
12:55 And I do think that the evolution of that for me
12:59 has been something that I've focused on,
13:01 just like pretty much every other player on tour.
13:05 I don't think that when you start your career,
13:07 you always handle wins and losses in a way that
13:13 is super healthy.
13:14 I think it can take some type of--
13:19 it takes a concentrated effort.
13:21 It takes reframing how we talk about wins and losses,
13:27 how we sit down and talk about the matches
13:30 and draw on the positives and the negatives or the things
13:34 that we can improve on.
13:35 So it has been something I've spent a lot of time working on.
13:38 And I think with me, I definitely
13:42 have that kind of perfectionist mentality.
13:46 And I'm very hyper-focused when I'm out on court.
13:49 And so a lot of times, it's present, present, present,
13:54 like being in that.
13:55 But then sometimes when you have a hard loss,
13:58 it can be really challenging.
13:59 And you can feel kind of down in the dumps for a few weeks.
14:02 So that has been something that I've had to work on,
14:05 I think, just like most of the players on tour.
14:08 Because it's not easy.
14:09 This is an individual sport, too.
14:11 You don't have the camaraderie of being on the team
14:14 and having people to kind of pick you up and lift
14:19 your spirits when you're down in the dumps.
14:22 So I have had to spend a lot of time working on that.
14:25 And I give a lot of credit to the different sports
14:27 psychologists that I've worked with,
14:29 because I feel like they've been able to help train my mind
14:35 to have a healthy outlook on wins and losses
14:38 and that kind of thing.
14:42 I could just ask, looking ahead, obviously, you
14:45 could play Jess in a all kind of Floridian final here,
14:50 or semifinal in Miami.
14:51 Or you could play Alexandra.
14:53 Can you talk, first of all, just about what
14:55 it would be like to play Jess for one of the biggest
14:58 finals in your career?
14:59 And then, obviously, Alexandra, who's
15:01 been a wrecking ball so far.
15:03 Yeah, Jess and I have known each other for a long time,
15:06 both from Florida, and have had some really great battles.
15:11 I've played Jess here, I think, once before.
15:15 And then, obviously, many times outside of this event.
15:20 Been teammates.
15:21 We have a lot of fun together.
15:23 So yeah, it'll be a great battle.
15:26 And against Alexandra Ova, she has
15:30 had an incredible run and an incredible couple of months.
15:34 It's been great to see how her game has evolved over the years
15:38 and the way that she's playing has been really exciting.
15:41 So I mean, no matter who I play, it's going to be a battle.
15:44 And yeah, I just look forward to getting out there and playing
15:48 in another semifinal.
15:49 [MUSIC PLAYING]
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