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U.S. OPEN

September 1, 2015

Jack Sock

New York, NY, USA

J. SOCK/V. Estrella Burgos

6-2, 6-3, 6-2

An interview with:

JACK SOCK

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Do you feel this is a key breakthrough tournament here? Some Americans are disenchanted how we're doing.
JACK SOCK: I mean, potentially. Obviously, I've had a pretty good year so far. A lot of people like to say 'breakthrough year'. For me, try to stay consistent match in and match out.

Obviously, you know, play good tennis and just keep improving throughout the year. So far it's been a pretty good year for me - definitely better than the others. Obviously a career-high ranking.

As for this tournament, I always want to do well here, my home slam, my favorite two weeks of the year. I'm not going to put too much pressure on myself. If I'm going to go down, it's not going to be too disappointing, but I want to do the best that I can.

Q. You broke some hearts in the Dominican Republic.
JACK SOCK: I knew going in the crowd wasn't going to necessarily be all on my side. A lot of Dominican fans here. Tommy Paul, the qualifier, played a Dominican player in qualifying. Actually was more support for him. I knew going in there would 50/50 or maybe underdog.

I played well today and didn't give him a whole lot of chances to get in the match, so for me that was pretty big.

Q. What do you like to do when you're here in New York?
JACK SOCK: I go to some dinners and stuff. Other than that I usually have a lot of friends and family that come into town for this one. For me, it's spending time with them.

One in particular friend I see once or twice a year. More hanging out with them. Usually do some pretty relaxing thing, playing a lot of FIFA in my room, playing cards, go to dinners at night. Other than that, not a whole lot.

Q. Is there a camaraderie among the American players here?
JACK SOCK: Yeah, for the most part all the American guys, we're pretty good friends. I wouldn't say any of us really don't like hanging out with any of the others.

Obviously when it's crunch time and it's match day, whatever it is, we're obviously usually on our own or with our teams trying to get focused for the matches.

Other than that, yeah, we're all fairly close. Isner and I are pretty good friends. John is friends with a lot of guys. We hang out some, go to some dinners, but for the most part stick to our teams.

Q. I hear a lot of players play cards in their rooms to improve mental fitness. Do you know any?
JACK SOCK: I don't do it for mental fitness. I do it more for fun.

Q. Robby Ginepri just retired. To lose somebody like him...
JACK SOCK: He obviously had some pretty good runs here. His best result ever was here. He was a popular guy here. Spent a little time around him.

Wasn't around him a whole lot, but always a very nice guy, very positive, always tried to help as much as he could.

Yeah, it's always unfortunate to lose a guy like that on the American side. Hopefully he'll be around tennis for many years.

Q. What is a good tennis tip that somebody has given to you?
JACK SOCK: This one is kind of a personal preference. From James when he was helping me, he was kind of teaching me days off, days of rest are just as important as practice and training days. As grueling as our schedule is, as long as our year is, those days off really do help mentally and physically.

I incorporate that a little bit. Obviously results this year have done better. Felt more refreshed coming to these tournaments.

Q. Is there anything he told you to do during the days off?
JACK SOCK: No. That's personal preference.

Q. Do you still make Nebraska your home?
JACK SOCK: Yeah. I'm usually in the Midwest somewhere or Florida a lot of the time.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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