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AEGON CHAMPIONSHIP

June 16, 2016

Kyle Edmund

London, England

K. EDMUND/P. Mathieu

[Retirement]

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. So how are you going to beat Andy, then?
KYLE EDMUND: That's not very fair to Aljaz. He's obviously the favorite to win, but you've got to wait and see who wins. That's the professional thing to do.

I've got good respect for both players. I know Andy will respect Aljaz a lot. Aljaz will respect Andy a lot.

Yeah, we'll see what happens. I guess it's nice that there are two British matchups now in two days. It's good for the fans and stuff.

Yeah, both will be tough players. I have played Aljaz three times. He's beat me twice; I have beaten him once. I have never played Andy but I have obviously practiced with him a lot so both could would be tough matches.

Q. If it were to be Andy, how would you approach it? Would you try and block it out who you're playing? How would you approach it?
KYLE EDMUND: It would just be a very tough match. I'll use what I know from practicing with him. You know, he's No. 2 in the world for a reason. It's because he's a very good player, and I have a lot of respect for him. It will be a very tough match.

I will go in there and, first of all, play my game. When I get on court, it doesn't matter who you're playing. If you play your game to give yourself the best chance to win, there's no point going in there playing a different game than you're used to. Whoever you're playing, I will just go on and do what I can do.

Q. When you were younger, was there ever a point where you had posters of Andy on your wall? Did you get his autograph from a training session where he came along to help out with the younger players?
KYLE EDMUND: No, not really, none of that. I never had really posters of any tennis players, to be honest.

No, I've never gotten an autograph. The first time I met him was when I was 14, an Orange Bowl trip in Florida. We were on the trip during Eddie Herr in Orange Bowl. I think he was practicing in Miami.

He's obviously good friends of Ian Hughes who was taking us on the trip at the time. He came over and introduced himself. That was just sort of my first experience of him, meeting him. Ever since then I have gotten to know him a little bit more.

Q. Have you ever hung out with him, been mates and done things together?
KYLE EDMUND: Yeah. In the off-season there is a lot more time to do stuff. During the year in tournaments you don't really hang out outside of the tournaments because we are doing different schedules throughout the years.

In Miami we have been to some basketball games or had days off and done stuff as a team together. You know, he's let me stay in his apartment in Miami. We obviously hung out then and chatted. So, yeah.

Q. When you stay in his apartment, how does it work? Do you do the cooking or washing up or how does it work?
KYLE EDMUND: No, just sort of what you use you wash up. I mean, yeah, none of us really know how to cook.

Q. You obviously have played sets against him. Have you ever taken a set against him?
KYLE EDMUND: I think I did, yeah. I think I took -- it's tough to say, really. We have played points. I think maybe in San Diego on the clay before, I think I got -- I was certainly winning. I think I was up a break. That's the thing. You don't play matches. You just play points.

I mean, it's irrelevant, really, to be honest. It works in different ways, because during when you're doing training blocks, we do play points. And after the end of the practice, one would be up on the other.

But preseason is just very tough on the body. So some days, you know, I could have an off day, have a rest and come back and be fresher, and Andy has been training for five days and he's been tired. You know, you just can't train at the intensity you can and -- I certainly remember practice where I have been very tired and haven't turned up to practices with Andy physically, and he has comfortably beaten me.

Yeah, it's just tough to read into practices. They're nothing. They're not match conditions. You're training on stuff. You know, when you're training you're doing physical blocks off the court, so you're already going into court a little bit fatigued. So, yeah.

Q. You mentioned how you first met him at the Orange Bowl. Over the years, how much of an example and inspiration has he been to British players of your age?
KYLE EDMUND: He's been the biggest inspiration, I think, for players my age. That's the guy who we have looked up to. Maybe a little bit when we were younger, when Greg and Tim were at the end of their career, you look at them.

But certainly Andy has had all, you know, all the pressure, all the expectations, and he's dealt with it very, very well on the court, with his results and stuff. He's been a good role model for everyone.

As I said -- I have been asked the question lots of times, and it's a good thing I get asked and I enjoy answering the question, because it's a privilege for me to be able to have someone like that to look up to and also to engage with, as well, on the court and off the court.

You speak to him about the game. You look at him and see what he does. His work ethic is something I have always found that's been extremely high and has shown why he's so good.

Yeah, it's very fortunate for me that he's allowed me to come into his environment and shared stuff with his team, stay with him and stuff. It's good that he's opened up to me and let me learn from him. It's definitely helped me get better, that's for sure.

Q. When you say work ethic, what do you mean by that? His discipline off the court or his training?
KYLE EDMUND: Yeah, his training on court, the intensity he trains at, the length, the physicality he goes, the length, the rallies, the hours he puts in off the court, as well, in the gym. A lot of the time, everyone has their own way of working and what they want to do, but, you know, you spend loads of hours on court, three to four hours on court, and then you go and do an hour in the gym and weights. After weights, it's then an hour doing an ice bath and recovery and then treatment on the bed.

It's not just like the day is finished once you walk off court. Days are very long. Before the tennis starts there's probably 45 minutes to an hour of stretching and Pilates and stuff. There is a lot of commitment going into that. That's something, obviously when you're a junior at 16, 17, you don't see that side of that because you're still kicking a football around because you're that age. But when you really need to knuckle down and you realize this is a job, this is a life, a commitment, then you realize what it takes.

And when I was 17, doing my first training block, all that kind of stuff, for me since then that's what I do now a lot. You know, days are very long now because you have to start the day, you know. The tennis and the day, that's the professionalism of the commitment. If you don't look after the your body, your body won't look after you and you'll break down.

Q. Though you might not have beaten him in a professional match, you have taken a very important tiebreak off him before. What are your memories of that?
KYLE EDMUND: Yeah, I don't -- I mean, it was just very quick. That's what I remember. It was sort of go in there and play. It probably helped me that he last played on clay at the Davis Cup and change of surfaces. He was probably a little bit tired and stuff.

I mean, that was a good night for me in different ways, but we've spent lots of hours apart from that. I don't really think about that just because we spent lots of hours on different courts and playing points in different ways.

Q. Is there anything in particular from those training blocks in Miami, was there a time to see I will try and match what he's doing and you tried it and it didn't go so well?
KYLE EDMUND: We don't generally do the same off-court stuff. We have different programs off-court just because we've got different bodies. You know, everyone is different, so you work on different things.

We have done Versaclimber sessions together. I've never actually beat him in a Versaclimber session. We didn't do one last year, but we did one two years ago in Miami. So in my defense, that is very much Andy's thing, Versaclimber. I don't do that as part of my training.

I do a lot of running and on-court conditioning. I know he really enjoys the Versaclimber. He has one at his house here in London, he has one in Miami in his apartment. He very much enjoys doing it, and he's very much good at it.

Q. What would you beat him in training if there is anything? You mentioned running.
KYLE EDMUND: I don't know. I haven't really seen him run. We haven't really done head-to-head stuff apart from tennis. That's all I can really compare, to be honest. Maybe in golf I might get him. He says he's not really a keen golfer. I play a bit of golf, so that's probably where I'd get him.

Q. Do you think he'd take it well if you did beat him at the Versaclimber? How would he react?
KYLE EDMUND: Oh, I don't know. He's obviously very competitive, so probably not very well. I don't think he's ever been beaten. I can't see any of his off-court team beating him with Matt and Shane. I think he always gets on top.

Q. How do you put aside all that respect you have for him when you get onto the court? How do you separate that?
KYLE EDMUND: It's just -- when you go out on court, you try to play the ball. That's what I feel works best for me. It's similar to a matchup -- I do have more of a relationship with Andy than to Novak, but it's a similar matchup to know that you know it's going to be a very tough match. You know what he's achieved in the game, have so much respect for him. They're role models for the sport. They've done a lot for the sport. You have every respect for them that way.

But at the end of the day, it is an individual sport so you have to look after yourself and go and do the best for yourself.

That's the way I will approach it. I will just go in there and give it my best. I mean, he's still got to beat Aljaz. It's tough to talk about that when he's not through the next round, because I think it's a bit unfair to Aljaz. We will see how today goes.

Q. Are you going to watch Andy's match or the England game?
KYLE EDMUND: Who knows? It kicks off pretty soon, doesn't it? I've got some more stuff to do.

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