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WIMBLEDON

June 27, 2016

Alexander Ward

London, England

D. GOFFIN/A. Ward
6‑2, 6‑3, 6‑2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Tough luck. What went wrong?
ALEXANDER WARD: What went wrong? I think a lot went right for him, to be honest. I think he's a class player. Yeah, he was too good for me today. He played well from the start to the end, and I couldn't keep up with his level.

Q. Do you think you could have done more?
ALEXANDER WARD: I could have served better. I don't know, I didn't check my percentage, but I think I could have made more first serves, did a bit more damage with my serve and got maybe a couple of cheap points. It would have made it easier for me.
Apart from that, you know, I tried a few different things, but he was too good in the end.

Q. How do you sort of assess the experience of playing here overall?
ALEXANDER WARD: Yeah, it's been amazing. I have got doubles still to come. I look forward to that, I think, Wednesday or Thursday.
Yeah, it's incredible playing here. It's my first time playing at the Championships. It was great being on Court 3. It was good.

Q. Do you think playing for the first time could have had an effect at all?
ALEXANDER WARD: Yeah, possibly at the start, kind of walking out there, I remember I think after I won the first game, it was like a big cheer and it was a bit of a surprise.
I'm used to playing in front of maybe maximum 20, 30 people maybe. Took a while to get used to it. I love playing in front of a lot of people. I love the home support, as well.

Q. Obviously hoping to come back many more years?
ALEXANDER WARD: Yeah, that's definitely one of my goals to try and get inside the top 200 for next year and hopefully, by the time Wimbledon comes around, maybe top 150 and have a chance to come back here.

Q. What's the plan now for the next sort of few weeks and months?
ALEXANDER WARD: I train in Spain, Barcelona. I'm going to, after the Championships finish, go and take a few days off and train there for a week in Barcelona and head out on the clay to a challenger in Poland.

Q. We saw on some of the shots on the court, there were some shots that I think of family and friends. Did you have much support here?
ALEXANDER WARD: Yeah, I had a lot of support. I had I think it was six family members there in my box and a few friends, as well. For some of them it was ‑‑yeah, they were proud, I think, seeing me play out there for the first time and something that kind of I have worked towards and they have sacrificed a lot, as well. They have put money into my tennis and sacrificed their lives back in England. They were happy to see me out there.

Q. Do they get much of a chance to see you on the circuit?
ALEXANDER WARD: No, this will be the first time that I think all of them have seen me in about a year, because I haven't been playing in Britain at all. I think my mum, it's the first time seeing me in ages. She never comes. First time in ten years, I think. Different level from when I was playing 16 somewhere around the country to rocking up to Wimbledon to watch me. That was nice.

Q. Did that change anything when you go in, when you're playing someone like Goffin, were you at all conscious that maybe that element is different to what you would expect, that occasion you walked into?
ALEXANDER WARD: The element of having my family there?

Q. Yeah. Were you conscious of them being there?
ALEXANDER WARD: Yeah, I was thinking of that beforehand, and I told my coach to put my family kind of on the second row of the box just so I wasn't looking at them directly. I like them being there, but I didn't quite like looking at them maybe directly. I didn't really want that.
But it was fine. That wasn't an issue at all.

Q. Have you spoken to the mum since the match?
ALEXANDER WARD: Not since the match. Maybe in 10 years, she will be back to watch me again.

Q. Will she give you an earful do you think?
ALEXANDER WARD: No, I think she'll be happy. I didn't see her before the match, but I was told she was crying when she came into Wimbledon. She will probably be pretty happy to see me play.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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