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Q. All right, here about Hira after her first round at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards. Just a nice 6&4 win over Lydia Ko. Just take us through the round today, what was working well for you.
HIRA NAVEED: Yeah, kind of coming into the week, I mean, I wasn't even supposed to play. Having Lydia as the first girl to play, I knew I had task at hand. Just went out there and played fearless golf and hit some great shots and made putts, so that was good.
Q. Aussies have a real affinity for match play. Is there something that brings out maybe some of your strengths during match play or anything like that?
HIRA NAVEED: Yeah, think I'm pretty competitive and I have that fire in me, so, match play. I love the format. When I played it in junior and am years I used to love it. Had a pretty good record.
I knew coming into the tournament I was really again enjoy it and enjoy the format, so, yeah.
Q. And then you kind of mentioned it, came in late as a first alternate. How were you able to kind of tame the Shadow Creek beast, if you will, and play as well as you did today?
HIRA NAVEED: Yeah, we got in early last -- I mean on Monday night or late on Monday night and then played really early yesterday. Just tried to get some sort of looks at the course, and luckily got in 18 before the pro-am.
It was just kind of last minute and you kind of go out because you don't have much expectations. So, yeah.
Q. When you're in the match and you're seeing your score go up and up, what is the mindset? Is it no foot off the brake, foot off the gas?
HIRA NAVEED: I mean when you're playing somebody like Lydia who's a Hall of Famer you can never put your foot off the gas. I knew she was going to push and I just had to push, keep hitting my shots and keep playing my game, and thankfully it paid off.
Q. Can you just talk about getting the call or email or I can't remember what it is, when you found out you were going to be playing this week? Where you were?
HIRA NAVEED: Yeah, we were still in Arizona from last week and we were playing a practice round for a U.S. Women's Open qualifier we're supposed to play next month. I was with my caddie and got a call on the 5th hole and we were like, oh, sweet, let's go.
We pretty much finished that round, wrapped up, got in the car, and drove over here. Got here late, 8:00 pm on Monday night. Yeah, it was fun.
Q. Can you talk about how you mentally prepare when you see you're paired with Lydia? Like you mentioned, Hall of Famer, very decorated.
HIRA NAVEED: I kind of have like a little fire in me and kind of like that dog in me. I just got to -- doesn't matter who it is. You got to go play match play. It's so different from stroke play. Doesn't matter who is on the other side. Just got to play your game. Anything can happen in match play.
But it was definitely fun to play Lydia for sure. She's such an awesome girl, human being, and golfer. So, a lot of respect for her.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports