DANILINI-KHROMACHEVA/Pegula-Muhammad
6-3, 7-6
THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the doubles championship press conference for Anna Danilina and Irina Khromacheva.
Congratulations for winning this title. Please share your thoughts and feelings right now.
ANNA DANILINA: Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. It's amazing. It's our first-ever 1000 title together. Well, not together, just in general, first-ever 1000 title.
Yeah, I don't even know. So many emotions right now. It's been amazing. Yeah, I'm really, really happy.
IRINA KHROMACHEVA: Yeah, as Anna said, it's our first 1000. Going through the match, definitely there have been some nerves. We wanted to stay aggressive. We wanted to play our game. That's what paid off in the end.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. You've been on fire since you teamed up over the summer with all the titles. You won 25 of 30 matches. Not bad.
IRINA KHROMACHEVA: We didn't know that. We didn't count (smiling).
ANNA DANILINA: We didn't know.
Q. I'm curious about how the partnership came to be. When did you decide to team up full-time? Why do you think the success has come so immediately?
ANNA DANILINA: Yeah, we started with the 125s. Yeah, I think starting maybe, like, smaller tournaments helped us build up the confidence, find out each other's game better because we never played with each other before that. We never played together.
Starting there, gradually we played more and improving, improving. I think that's what helped a lot, just matches consistently, getting to know each other's game better every day.
IRINA KHROMACHEVA: I mean, we know each other since we were young. We were born in the same city. Actually the mother of Rublev is my first coach. She's helping, as well, Anna sometimes. She already told us actually in Australia that we should pair up. Anna played with some different partners. I had some agreements, as well.
But yeah, then we played 125 in Italy. From there on we said, Okay, maybe let's try and let's play until end of the year and see where we will end up. Yeah, here we are. I'm speechless. I don't know what to say.
We had a lot of matches, as you said. I think when the season going to be over, we will just then understand what we did. But now tomorrow we're leaving to Ningbo, so that's it.
Q. Can you share a little bit how you built such a good partnership and confidence for each other besides the match, off of the court.
ANNA DANILINA: Yeah, for me it's always been hard work. We've been putting a lot of work with the coach. For me, the hard work pays off eventually. For me, that's the main key. Somewhere, sometime it will pay off.
IRINA KHROMACHEVA: I mean, in my opinion, with playing matches more and more, the more you play, the more you get confident, for sure. You get to know each other in the tough situation, what she likes to do, what I like to do.
Also when it's tough, we get stressed sometimes, we can help each other better while we're playing a lot of matches. I think, as I said, from playing a lot together, we feeling this step by step better and better.
Obviously there have been a lot of work putting in. We came here a week before, (indiscernible) 125 in Hong Kong, to put the work in. Yeah, it paid off.
Q. Anna, I know you played some NCAA college tennis in United States, right?
ANNA DANILINA: Yeah.
Q. 2015 to 2018 I think. How has that experience helped you? On tour, there are many college players from NCAA. How does college tennis help you to build as a tour player?
ANNA DANILINA: Yeah, no, it definitely helped me a lot. First of all because in college you have many, many matches, that helps you build up your game, your confidence. No matter whether you win or lose, you have another match coming up, another match coming up. That definitely helps you don't focus too much on wins or losses. It's a very quick turnaround.
For me it was a key to play many, many matches. Yeah, it definitely also helped my doubles game a lot. Yeah, I really enjoyed my college experience.
Q. As of a few days ago, I think the calculation was you had to win Wuhan to stay in contention for Riyadh. Is that all something you guys are now thinking about or has the calculation changed?
ANNA DANILINA: I usually prefer not to look. Yeah, maybe Irina will answer.
IRINA KHROMACHEVA: It is me who is calculated everything (smiling).
We didn't think about that definitely because I think to qualify, we have to win every single week we going to still play. But our goal was to just stay day by day.
Yeah, as I said, tomorrow we are leaving to Ningbo. That's going to be our last tournament. Then we see if we end up first alternate. Definitely if we are first alternate, we will go.
We just want to enjoy the moment first. We will continue to play next year, then we see next year.
Q. In the tiebreak, your opponents were ahead of you. In these kind of situations, how did you adjust yourself?
ANNA DANILINA: Yeah, I'm always trying just to stay in every point because tiebreak is very short so every point counts. Even if we're down, the next one, it's a very quick turnaround in doubles in general, especially in a tiebreak. Consistently stay on top of it and try to win every single point. Whatever happens happens.
IRINA KHROMACHEVA: I mean, just to try to stay as positive as we can. We won the first set, so we were up. We wanted to stay aggressive. In case we lose the second set, we have a super tiebreak ahead of us.
Yeah, we just wanted to stay aggressive, pick the right shots in the right moment.
Q. Irina, in 2011 Wimbledon, you were in the junior final, and you lost to Barty. Do you still remember that final?
IRINA KHROMACHEVA: That was long ago (smiling).
I mean, definitely Wimbledon experience to play final junior, it's an amazing experience. I mean, sometimes, yeah. I think there's even a video on YouTube where I can see the highlight of the match. It was a good match. She end up being No. 1 in the world in senior tour, WTA.
For me it was just a great experience.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports