D. VEKIC/E. Raducanu
6-0, 7-6
THE MODERATOR: We have a 7:30 flight to Berlin, so we'll roll straight to questions. Who would like to ask the first one?
Q. Congratulations. What do you think is your mindset when you win a set 6-Love? How do you not get ahead of yourself?
DONNA VEKIC: Winning 6-0 in tennis can be a curse sometimes, but I was just thinking -- you know, she started playing really well in the second set, really raised her level, and I was just thinking to myself, okay, just stay with her and try to make her play an extra ball.
I'm really happy I managed to come back.
Q. Obviously it wasn't an ideal start to the week. How did that, both losing but the illness you talked about, how does that affect your mentality going into the tournament for the past few days? And did you at any point feel like you had less to lose, in a way?
DONNA VEKIC: Not really. I was just really grateful that I had another opportunity to play. Yeah, it was tough, you know, with the wind, with the rain. It's been a long week.
But I'm really happy with the way I played. With each match I played a little bit better, and, yeah, today was pretty good (smiling).
Q. Well done. How was it with the crowd? Were they louder today than yesterday?
DONNA VEKIC: Yeah, today wasn't the easiest, but, you know, for me, I was, okay, I knew obviously they were going to cheer for her, but the atmosphere was absolutely incredible.
It was a full stadium, and yeah, I really enjoyed it, even though they were cheering for her.
Q. I can see you've got a glass of Pimm's there.
DONNA VEKIC: I told you I'd come back tomorrow with a Pimm's (smiling).
Q. You said the flight is later on today to Berlin. Is that the extent of your celebration, or will there be more celebrations?
DONNA VEKIC: This is pretty much it. Maybe one more on the way to the airport. Yeah, that's unfortunately how it is in tennis. You don't really have a lot of time to celebrate. There's always another tournament starting next week.
But don't worry. I'll celebrate it after Wimbledon (smiling).
Q. Well done. You mentioned on court about calling your old coach two weeks ago for the grass season. That's obviously panned out very well. Can you just talk about that decision to bring him back. How do you think that will go for the rest of the grass season and for the rest of the year?
DONNA VEKIC: You know, it's always tricky when you're changing coaches in the middle of the season, but I'm really proud of myself that I took this decision. I'm really grateful to David for being able to help me and being onboard straightaway.
You know, we worked together when I was 12 years old. He raised me as a player. He took me to Wimbledon for the first time. Like I said on court, I wouldn't even know what grass is without him.
So it's a little bit of a full-circle moment winning this title with him here. I'm really happy for him, for me, for us, and all the work, not that we did now in the last two weeks, but the work that we did when I was 12 years old.
Q. You were just talking about the fact that a 6-Love set probably doesn't mean much certainly on grass maybe, but as that second set became so tight, what were you trying to do mentally, physically just to stay ahead and to keep the pressure on her?
DONNA VEKIC: You know, things can go either way in tennis so quickly. I was just, okay, it doesn't matter. Because I didn't do much wrong. She was playing really well.
It's like, okay, if she keeps playing like this for the rest of the match and wins, that's too good, well done. But I was just trying to focus on myself, focus on my side of the net, and keep working on the things that I had a plan before the match, and it worked.
Q. We obviously have a lot invested in Emma going forward to Wimbledon. How do you think she's playing? And how high do you think the level was, particularly as you got down the home stretch in the second set?
DONNA VEKIC: I mean, she's playing really good tennis. Obviously she wouldn't be in the final if she wasn't. I think for her it's just the most important to stay healthy.
I think for everyone, the schedule is so tough. The level of tennis is so high. It's so physically demanding. I think that's the biggest thing.
You know, I think she likes to play in front of the home crowd. Yeah, no, I think she played really well.
Q. What does this win tell you about yourself, both in terms of your difficulties at the start of the week but also difficulties in general, difficult results in recent months?
DONNA VEKIC: Yeah, I think it really showed me that I have the level to be playing, to be winning titles, and to be playing against the best players in the world. Something that I was definitely doubting for last year, these couple of first months of the year.
But I really worked hard to get back here, and I'm really proud of myself and my team and the work we have done.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports