Doubles Only Tennis Podcast

Bibiane Schoofs & Katarzyna Kawa Interviews: ATX Open Finalists

• Will Boucek • Episode 162

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Bibiane Schoofs (Netherlands) is the 92nd-ranked doubles player on the WTA Tour. Her partner at the ATX Open, Katarzyna Kawa (Poland), is ranked #93 in doubles and top 200 in singles. Schoofs and Kawa made the finals in Austin.

This episode includes two interviews with the finalists, after their quarterfinal and semifinal victories. We spoke about each matchup, including the different conditions throughout the week. They partnered together for the first time in Austin and made the deadline by only 7 minutes!

You'll learn why Bibiane likes to scout opponents while Katarzyna likes to focus on herself. I also ask Katarzyna why she looks down until right before her opponent is serving, a unique ritual I noticed while watching her play.

At the end, you'll hear why both players laughed after Katarzyna missed volleys on consecutive poaches in the 10-point match tiebreak.

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Speaker 1:

You're about to hear another post-match interview from the ATX Open, this time with Bibian Schufs and Katarzyna Kava. They are the number 100 and 111 doubles players on the WTA Tour and I caught up with them after their quarterfinal win on Thursday. So they won the match 7-6-6-0, obviously two very different sets and we talk a little bit about that, if there were any adjustments they made or why the second set was so lopsided compared to the first. We talk a little bit about the match conditions it was again a cold and cloudy day on Thursday at the tournament and then we talk about their partnership, how it came about it was kind of a funny story that they share with us in this episode and what they did to prepare to play with each other. And then I asked them about their off day tomorrow the day after this conversation they were going to be off. And then we also talk a little bit about Katarzyna's singles career. She's inside the top 200 still kind of balancing a singles and doubles schedule. Then we talk about how to prepare, or how they're going to prepare, for the next match and then how to make doubles more popular as well. So this is a little bit longer than some of the previous post-match interviews, but still relatively short nonetheless, and it's a really fun conversation. I think you're going to like these two a lot.

Speaker 1:

So, without further delay, enjoy this brief interview with Bibian Choufs and Katarzyna Cover. So you are all into the semi-finals here. How has Austin been so far?

Speaker 2:

That's nice, unless the day was cold.

Speaker 1:

And yesterday.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it was a little windy. Yeah, they really do their best here. I really enjoy it.

Speaker 1:

What about the match today? Specifically 0-1, 7-6, 6-0. What did you kind of make of the match overall?

Speaker 3:

First set was very tight. It was like one point. If we lose one more point we'll be like what's?

Speaker 1:

that down.

Speaker 3:

So I'm really glad we played so well under the pressure and we hit very good shots and, yeah, it paid off. And in the second set we kept in the city and we were able to make it easier.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they got down mentally, I think a little bit, after such a tight match.

Speaker 1:

There are chances. Did you make any adjustments in the second set that worked so well? What was different about that?

Speaker 3:

We just continued. I think we just continued and they made more mistakes.

Speaker 2:

We also didn't make many mistakes.

Speaker 3:

We were more solid probably, but we didn't feel that pressure.

Speaker 2:

We took also the moments, because in the first set we were 3-1, 40-15, and then we had another one, 40-15, and we lost a few games. So we didn't took our chances. And now every time we just we went for it. Yeah, we talked about, okay, we need to do something different. When the moment comes, let's go for it more.

Speaker 1:

Okay, what does that look like? Going for it more? Does that mean committing to a poach more or calling a different player?

Speaker 3:

It's like we are deciding to be the first who are doing something different. Sometimes, the approach. Sometimes it's hitting a little line, sometimes it's just not just hitting cross-court and seeing how it is. It's us being more aggressive, I think.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so I was looking back through to see if y'all had played together before. I couldn't find that you had. Okay, so new partnership. How did this come about? And then, how do you prepare for a tournament with a new partner?

Speaker 3:

That's actually a really funny question. No, because the most funny thing is like I was supposed to play with another partner and BPM was supposed to play with another one and we didn't have a partner. It was almost midnight in my country and I was like, okay, wait till the deadline, I have no one. And BPM texted me like seven minutes before the deadline. I was so happy I'm not asleep.

Speaker 2:

She answered because some girls just go to sleep there like never mind, and that's how we prepared. Because we have that line, of course on the Monday and it's at 11 for me and I guess it's 12 or 11 in.

Speaker 1:

Europe at night.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, you're waiting, like okay, what's happening? And I was supposed to sign with someone else.

Speaker 1:

Do you usually stay up that late?

Speaker 3:

Normally not no.

Speaker 1:

But that night you did, but I didn't have a partner.

Speaker 3:

I wanted to come, so I was like texting girls, I believe I texted like 20 other players. I don't know why I didn't text BPM, but I texted like 20 players. Everybody was sad or didn't have a ranking good enough.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, because you have to have a ranking to get in.

Speaker 2:

We were like number 10 out of 11, I think to get in so yeah, you have to look because I want to sign with someone but we wouldn't get in as someone else was like no. But oh gosh, yeah she's looking. I'm like, oh good, so yeah, and then you get here and you try to go on court together to play practice doubles, to have a feeling a little bit, and you talk about okay, what do you like, what is the idea, what's your strength? Okay, you give it a go and let's go.

Speaker 3:

That's really helpful, that we are both, I think, quite experienced play it. We're older, no, not older, but yeah we had some experience, like from doubles especially. So it's really helpful that we can both play any position and we have some ideas that we tried and we know that what works and what doesn't.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 1:

Any plans for the off day tomorrow? Will you watch the Other matches or?

Speaker 2:

yeah, I'll watch my opponents, either through video or I mean. If the sun is shining, it's nice to hang around, but the sun is this cold. I don't like sitting in the stand yeah because you can watch it back on WKTV. Sure that's not too bad.

Speaker 1:

Okay, do you? Do you prefer to like be there and watch it in person, to scout a little bit, or do you not worry as much about that?

Speaker 3:

I'm not watching my opponents matches ever. You don't, no, no it's like my favorite tactic is to let the other or the opponent make the tactic. This is my actually favorite. I keep doing it because it works.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I'm not, I won't be. No, I don't want to say waste, but I won't be. I won't be watching any matches tomorrow.

Speaker 1:

Okay, got it Just two more. Did you have something else?

Speaker 2:

No, no, I mean, I just like to see some things, if something stands out you know but nothing.

Speaker 3:

And I'm lucky because Bibi will tell me.

Speaker 1:

We need to do this yeah.

Speaker 2:

I'm not even that much. You know Olivia Nichols, she is like Tactics. Yeah, that's funny. Every player is different, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So two more questions. Catarina, you are in the top side, the top 200 in singles, and then you're also Playing doubles as well. How do you kind of manage that schedule and what's your plan for the rest of the year to do that?

Speaker 3:

It's actually really difficult because with my doubles ranking I would like to play high tournaments and with my singles ranking I still think is good enough and to play big tournaments, but I cannot play the biggest events. So it's really tough to manage and sometimes playing doubles it can be really tiring, so I cannot play like as many as I wish. So it's a little bit compromising on both, I want to say, but I feel like singles is still my priority Because I mean the Grand Slamms and they still think that I can improve there.

Speaker 2:

Oh, you did three fish on last year. Yeah, I mean what was she ranked 20?.

Speaker 3:

When you beat her, 40 something, no, but so good, I mean yeah, so yeah, I want to improve in singles, but I feel like I'm a good doubles player as well and I don't want to just give up on that. So Because of my singles, so I'm just trying just to play both and not really think about Like the future so much. I will see how it is and just try to be the best singles players and doubles players possible.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. Last question how can we make doubles more popular? Hmm?

Speaker 3:

No, I know there are so many. Actually there are so many people, especially on the like a club level, that they are playing mostly doubles. They are really interested into doubles but doubles are not streamed in any TV. Like I think it could be really getting more popular if some doubles are streamed in TV Because it can be fun and the people like to watch doubles. And I had even the situation on the tournaments when people are coming especially for doubles, they weren't coming for single.

Speaker 1:

They were coming for doubles. Yeah, because club players, yeah, players, they love that. Where was this?

Speaker 3:

It was actually in Texas. It was Tyler Texas.

Speaker 1:

Oh, and Tyler, okay yeah they were coming for doubles.

Speaker 3:

Yeah and I was surprised. But then I figured out and I'm here with my mom, who is a mature player as well, and she's like anytime we're on the tournament, I want to watch doubles, I want to watch doubles, yeah. So I think it's the Approach, like the right people to approach. If it's like I don't know if it's if these are fans who love singles, we cannot like make them make them like watch doubles. But there are so many people who like watching doubles but they don't have the right platform. We're like they don't know where to find it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's hard to find.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, all right.

Speaker 1:

Thank you all for joining me, appreciate it. Next we talk with Katarzyna and Bibion after their very close semi-final win, so we get their thoughts on the match overall. I asked Katarzyna specifically why she looks down, kind of it, to her grip. This is something I noticed during the match. So when she's about to return she keeps kind of looking down at her grip or down at the ground and then pulls her head back up Right as the opponent is going into their toss or as the toss sometimes is already in the air. So it's a pretty unique ritual that I had never seen before. So I asked her why she does that and she had a very fascinating answer there.

Speaker 1:

And then we ask about their thoughts on the finals matchup against a player who Bibion has played with before, she's partnered with before. And then at the very end I ask why they started laughing after Katarzyna had missed two consecutive volleys on poaches during the third set 10 point match tie break. Obviously that's a very big pressure moment and they seem to have a very good attitude about it. That obviously paid off because they ultimately won that tie breaker. So this is another really short one, just a brief post-match interview, but enjoy this with Katarzyna and Bibion Obviously a really close match. Can you just share your thoughts on the match overall?

Speaker 3:

I felt like we're really close all the time and somehow we started complaining at one point at the way we play and we lost this good energy. We focused so much on the way we play and we didn't focus enough on how to win the match actually, and that's how we lost the first set, and the second set was very tight as well, but I'm really glad we managed just to find this confidence and energy together again back. So I think that brought us to the win.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think we didn't let our head down to one point like after we're losing the first set, and we picked it up. We stayed there, we stayed close and we finally took our juice point on four all so yeah just staying hanging there. We had to wait really long.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

On the juice points, katarzyna, I notice on your return. So you keep looking down at your grip and then you look up, and then you look down and then, right as their toss is in the air, you like look up again, and then you just blast a return winner down the line. What are you looking at?

Speaker 3:

It's just I want to look too long at my opponent because I start to focus on thinking like where she serves, where she's going. I want to focus on myself, so this is why I'm not looking at her. I try to look at the bold that is coming to me, not actually on the person who's serving.

Speaker 1:

Okay, interesting.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, I was, I didn't know. Because I noticed when I looked back you know there was a video, isn't it Okay? And I was the guard and I was wondering. I still want to ask, but I forgot.

Speaker 1:

You mentioned you played is it with Nichols a few times.

Speaker 3:

What's your game plan going into the finals?

Speaker 2:

since you played with them before. No, we agreed on that one. We're just gonna do our game. I mean not to Well, we know what they will bring. I mean we know how they play and I mean I know how she plays. But we just Focus on your game. We agreed from the first. Okay, we have to. It's fine what they do. I'm just gonna take our strength, gonna stick to it and if it doesn't work we will change. But yeah, we're gonna, that's plan A, that's plan A. We make our plan, what we want to do, and then we'll see what's happening and we can adjust from there. So we're good luck.

Speaker 1:

I've got one last question so up 3-1, I believe you poached twice. You missed the volley both times. I know we're both laughing about it both times. Was that something just to kind of ease the tension, or it just does seem like you're having a lot of fun out there anyway. That's our strike.

Speaker 3:

No it was like there was nothing wrong with it. No, there was a lot of wrong it was the right thing to do. Yeah, we made a good decision. It was just. You know, you cannot say anything smart at that point. It's like I felt, like I just said, like no comments, please. And we started laughing because if you comment, it's never a good comment.

Speaker 2:

It was the right decision and it's just unfortunately. I mean, one time it was a tough one, the other one it was easier. Shit happens. Okay, writing to do next one. You know it was the right thing, Just yeah. What else? Yeah, what do you want to be pissed about? I mean, yeah, we can be like, but then the energy goes down and it's tough.

Speaker 1:

It's a good attitude. I think we can all learn from that Awesome thing.