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U.S. OPEN

September 3, 2017

Kevin Anderson

New York, NY, USA

K. ANDERSON/P. Lorenzi

6-4, 6-3, 6-7, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You said you lost a toenail?
KEVIN ANDERSON: No, just some of it. Obviously, playing on a court, a lot of stopping and starting. The toenails take a bit of a beating.

Q. Which toe?
KEVIN ANDERSON: It's the middle one.

Q. Of which foot?
KEVIN ANDERSON: My right foot.

Q. Bothering you during the match?
KEVIN ANDERSON: No. That's actually always interesting. You're out there with so much adrenaline, you're feeling fine. Now I can barely put a shoe on. It will be fine. Just tape it up and I'll be good for tomorrow.

Q. Did I just come off or...
KEVIN ANDERSON: No, it's not that bad. It just required a little bit of work. So that's why I was a little late getting here.

Q. Quarterfinal.
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yup.

Q. Grand Slam. How much of a feeling of achievement is that after what you've been through?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, it feels great. You know, obviously I think getting here in this position a couple years ago, I think it was a very valuable experience in today's match. Obviously at this sort of stage of tournaments, it means a lot. I think just being at that stage previously I think made me settle a little bit.

As the match went on, it was such a close match, towards the end, all my focus was just getting through the match. I didn't really even think of the stage of the tournament.

Obviously it feels great right now, matching my best result here. I feel like I'm playing really good tennis. My body's healthy. It was a pretty tough loss at the beginning of this year with a few injuries.

Right now, since actually the whole year, I mean, obviously a few aches and pains, but every tennis player has that. I'm glad to accept that. It's the injuries where you're unable to practice and play the kind of way that you want to.

Yeah, it feels good. But definitely, you know, there's a few matches to go. I'm pretty excited about that.

Q. Thoughts on your next match, being in a part of the tournament without the usual suspects.
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, obviously it's been a very different tournament. Our sport's been dominated by such a select group of people for so long, it feels a little bit different. I think most sports are like this, where you do have multiple people contending. You've had some of the greatest players of all time playing in our, you know, time here.

So obviously at this stage it's always going to be a tough match. Regardless of who I'm playing, it's in a big arena. There will be a lot of outside factors.

But for me, you know, I've played Sam a few times this year already. I haven't played Mischa in quite a few years. Obviously the guys play very different tennis. It will be interesting to see how that match goes tonight. It's always nice to be in a position where you're already through and you can sort of watch it.

But as I was saying, I'm happy with the way I'm playing. Either guy will be a few adjustments, but for the most part what I'm doing will remain pretty much the same.

Q. Anything you can take from two years ago when you played in the quarterfinals, the feelings you had?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Definitely. That match didn't go the way I wanted it. I think I'm a much better tennis player than I was back there, especially from the mental side. I feel like I've had a lot of experiences I can draw on. I'm two years older, hopefully two years wiser.

Going out there, you know, at least I think I'll have a better idea of maybe handling the situation a little bit. Of course, I don't know what court I'm going to be on. Maybe it will be on Ashe. I've never been on Ashe before. I hit there once. I was supposed to play Stan there a couple years ago, the rain threw us off, we went to Armstrong.

If I'm on there, it will a great experience. As I said, there will be a few things, but I'll break it down to the simplest form, that's me going out there and focusing on every point and play the way I want to be playing.

Q. I know you work with Craig O'Shannessy as your coach, been the pioneer of analytics and data in tennis. Can you talk about how he used that to help your game and how you still use it today?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, you know, that goes back a little bit. I obviously see Craig doing a lot of reporting for different tournaments.

Tennis is interesting. I feel in terms of stats and stuff, maybe we're a little bit behind the curve, especially me just coming to the States and seeing stats used for obviously NFL, NBA, et cetera. Especially in baseball, there's stats galore. I think tennis is picking that up now. Guys are using that.

We see these IBM match sites, Keys to the Match. Craig is definitely one of the pioneers to bring that sort of thing to it.

For me myself, I feel it's always interesting gathering data. I have my team who do that. I think they feed me through specific things that I might find valuable. But for the most part, as I said, we really keep things simple.

Some things I think are more valuable than others. If I'm playing one of the best servers in the world, I'm playing, say, John, let's say they say on X point he goes wide most of the time, trust me, he knows how to hit a T serve. That stuff is a little tougher to deal with.

Yeah, I mean, obviously the more information... I think it's important the way you cypher it. My current team does a good job of that.

Q. Today you served so well in the first two sets. What happened after? Lorenzi said for him the surface of Louis Armstrong is faster than other courts. Do you agree?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, I thought I got off serving very well in the first two sets. For the most part even in the third and fourth set, I was still serving well.

For me the biggest thing was the temperature dropped a lot in the third set. It felt much cooler. The balls became much softer and slower. I didn't feel as I was getting as much reward on the court. I felt like he had a little bit more time to get some of the returns back in play. Definitely the amount of free points I felt on the serve sort of dropped a little bit. I think it felt like to me that was mainly due to the temperature.

In terms of court speed, it was tough to compare, I mean, just because we were dealing with -- we started out in the sun, then went into night. The court changes a lot. I didn't notice that much of a difference from my side to the other courts that I've played on.

Q. We have Diego Schwartzman who is 5'7". You're one of the numerous guys well on 6 foot. Can you talk about the advantages of being tall, or maybe are there disadvantages? Has Diego got some?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, it's very interesting, especially with the amount of taller tennis players coming through now. If you try to simplify it as much as possible, I guess you could say if a guy who is my size can move around the same as a guy who is much smaller, you would think there are maybe going to be a few more advantages. When it comes to the serve especially, the height I can hit on the serve, Diego would have to jump very high to be able to match it.

I just think the way tall guys are training, working on movement, I think that philosophy is changing a lot, as well. I think a while back if you're tall, you have to come in. I don't know if you actually gave yourself a bit of a chance. Now you see some of the tall guys who cover the court very well.

If you take somebody like Diego, I mean, he's right now the best returner on tour when you look at the stats. He's broken more than anybody else, especially on the returns. I feel it's a definitely big advantage. For me against some guys, I'm having to sort of, especially on the stretch, going down because the ball's a little bit lower, whereas he's sort of able to hit up a little bit. Just his strike zone I think lends itself very, very, very much on the returns.

I mean, from the back, he's an incredible mover. I think his balance, his change of direction, I think it's maybe a little bit easier when you're not as tall. But at the same time I think covering the court and stuff, if a tall guy can have that same sort of anticipation and balance, there's definitely some sort of natural benefit to that.

I've played him, practiced with him. I think he's definitely a tough competitor. Given his size and stuff, he really is able to play great tennis.

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