Australian Open Tuesday, 9 February 2021 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Alex de Minaur Press Conference

A. DE MINAUR/T. Sandgren I would say maybe pressure-wise I've got a little bit more here just for myself because I want to perform and go 7-5, 6-1, 6-1 deep, but that's a separate issue.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Can I just ask you about Nick, as well. He sort of really looked like he played his best tennis of the Q. Alex, can you talk about that win today and summer last night. He seems a bit more mellow getting off to a good start here? around us, as well. Have you noticed any difference in him -- you saw him the first time in a while a ALEX DE MINAUR: Well, obviously very happy. It's couple weeks ago. Have you noticed any difference never easy first round at a slam, and especially this slam to what he was 12 months ago? in particular. I had a bit of nerves coming in. It had been a while since I was playing at the Aussie Open, so it was ALEX DE MINAUR: Well, I think the first thing that we all great to be able to come out with a win today. have to realize is that he hasn't played in a year. Now, it's not easy to just turn it on. So I think he played some Q. Did you sense that he might not have been as fit matches in the first week and was able to kind of dust off as he otherwise might have been? He spoke just a the cobwebs. Look, it's going to get better. I think second ago about his preparation wasn't great. Did everyone is expecting him to just flick the switch and just you really try to round home that advantage? play like he did last year. I'm sure he's doing everything in his power to play like that, but you can already see ALEX DE MINAUR: Look, he got unfortunate with the yesterday he played some great tennis. He's coming flight he was on coming into Australia. He had to do the back, and it's going to come. It's just a matter of time. hard quarantine. But look, I had a match to play. Happy I did everything on my end as well as I could, and that Q. Are you looking forward to your next match? was the main thing. What are your thoughts?

I mean, I've got to stay focused and try to do everything I ALEX DE MINAUR: Well, I'm playing Pablo Cuevas. can on my side of the court. He's a very tough opponent, very solid. He's going to make me play a lot of balls. It's another tough match, Q. (Question regarding focus.) similar in ways. I'm going to have to try and focus on my side of the court and do what I have planned and try to ALEX DE MINAUR: I think the way I stayed positive and execute. held my focus. That's the thing that I've been working on very hard, and during ATP Cup I had a couple matches At the end of the day that's what we've been working on where I was playing some great tennis and at moments I to try to control the controllables and stay positive. dropped, and I don't think I did that today, so very happy with that. Q. This time last year you were pretty devastated to not be able to play, or last January. Can you recall -- Q. How do you rate that performance compared to you went back to Spain, what you were doing to try your ATP Cup performances where you were up to not be watching the tennis? How did you cope against players that are high ranked in tennis? with that?

ALEX DE MINAUR: Look, it's different types of matches, ALEX DE MINAUR: Look, I had to switch off, off social different types of pressures. At the end of the day this is media. It was devastating. I mean, it was a tough time. a slam. There's four tournaments like this, only one on All my mates, all my teammates out here in the summer home turf, and it's definitely a very special tournament for doing what they do best, and I really didn't want to -- a me. I want to come out here, and I want to play my best part of it. Honestly, I think I might have turned it on to tennis in front of these amazing fans. So it's different. watch maybe Nick play Khachanov and Johnny, but I

104479-1-1044 2021-02-09 08:02:00 GMT Page 1 of 2 probably watched about five, ten minutes, just because it was good to watch but I didn't really want to have that in my head. I was around family and friends, and I just tried to switch off.

Q. Making the second round, does that success motivate you?

ALEX DE MINAUR: I think it definitely does. I mean, look, tennis is an individual sport, but I truly believe what we're doing in Australia, especially in tennis, all the players we've got, we've got so many knocking on the door and so many in the top hundred, so I think we're in a great spot, and it definitely does motivate me because I know that we've got all these teammates pushing top players. It's amazing to see. We've got Chris O'Connell beating his first top 40 or 50 opponent in Jan-Lennard Struff, he played an unbelievable ATP Cup. We've got Popyrin, who just beat Goffin. I mean, I think it's truly exciting. It's exciting times, and it's amazing. Us Aussies, we always seem to play really well here in Australia. Now it's time to kind of hopefully take this momentum with us and go conquer the world.

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