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NITTO ATP FINALS

November 19, 2017

London, England, United Kingdom

KONTINEN-PEERS/Kubot-Melo

6-4, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. A basic question. How do you feel about it?
JOHN PEERS: To be honest, good. I thought every match we played here, we've played better and better as the week as gone on. It's nice to come back and defend our title. Yeah, it feels good to go on holidays after a win.

Q. You've won the second year in a row. Are you going to break records? Is it very difficult to repeat?
HENRI KONTINEN: Yeah, obviously I don't know if the toughest, but one of the toughest tournaments to win. Only top eight teams here. So, yeah, it's a tough field to get through. Luckily we play the round-robin format, so we got another shot after starting off very bad or slow.

But, yeah, pretty amazing to win back-to-back. Hopefully we'll play well here again next year, if we make it here. Hopefully we do.

Q. From an Australian point of view, how does it feel to match such a pairing as the Woodies with two ATP Finals titles?
JOHN PEERS: Yeah, no, definitely amazing. I looked up to those guys growing up. What they were doing not only in doubles but for Australian tennis was unbelievable. To be able to match them with two is just something I hadn't really thought of doing.

To be able to say I've done it, it's pretty cool, yeah, amazing.

Q. (Question about the British influence with Heather and Jamie.)
HENRI KONTINEN: Playing with Heather is the only reason I'm playing so well. She taught me so many things.

JOHN PEERS: I mean, we played a lot of matches together, carved our way on the tour nicely. No, it's good that we're both playing some good tennis, being able to be at the top here.

Q. For Australian tennis this year, it hasn't been amazing. Is it nice to put a smile on the face of Australian tennis from a doubles point of view?
JOHN PEERS: I thought we did all right in the Davis Cup, making semis.

Q. The singles guys I'm thinking of.
JOHN PEERS: At the end of the day, I can only control what I'm doing. I think we've got a good group of guys coming through in terms of getting depth in not only the Davis Cup team but guys playing on tour. It's been great to have more guys around, which has certainly happened this year.

Hopefully we can keep getting more numbers up at the top of the game moving forward, encouraging each other, pushing each other. It's a lot more fun having more Aussies around.

Q. Finland, you had some very good players, but not a very good tradition let's say. How did you start?
HENRI KONTINEN: First of all, it's a tough situation. The population is not very big. The climate is probably not ideal for tennis. I'm happy that I found tennis. Hopefully because of me, maybe a couple kids will find tennis.

We have some young players who are looking very positive. Obviously it's a very long, long way from being a very good junior to becoming a professional player on the tour.

I believe in a few years hopefully I'll have some company here and I can talk Finnish in the locker room.

Q. The fourth time out of five matches, you seemed to have their number. What worked so well for you to play against them?
HENRI KONTINEN: I don't know. I mean, maybe we fire up a bit more playing them. I think, yeah, they're a really tough team. Okay, last two matches, on the scoreboard, looked maybe a bit easier, but they certainly haven't been that. The other matches we played them have been really tough battles. We just ended up coming up on top in most of them.

I think, yeah, with this scoring format, it comes down to a few points. We always know playing this team, pretty much all the teams in this tournament, we're going to have to play our best to win. Yeah, luckily we were able to do that today.

JOHN PEERS: Yeah, I agree with what Henri said there. No point in repeating it.

Q. Doubles is the first match here. The crowd is very engaged. Would you like to see that at the slams rather than playing doubles after the singles?
HENRI KONTINEN: Yeah, I'd be happy playing here 25 weeks a year, but I don't think that's going to happen. They have a few artists who want to come here, as well.

No, I mean, I think it depends also a lot on the country. Some countries they show a bit more doubles on the TV, get the crowd involved with the doubles. That brings them to watch us and makes the atmosphere better. I think the players enjoy it, the crowd enjoys it. Maybe sometimes they don't even know there's a doubles going on.

So, yeah, hopefully more and more people will find it.

JOHN PEERS: Yeah, no, I think it comes down to if they can scheduling-wise what's going on in certain countries. I know it doesn't matter what time of day in some countries we play, you always get a really good following. They always put a great event on here. That's the reason why they always get crowds showing up here no matter what the match is. It's a lot of fun for not only us but the spectators with what they can do here besides just watching tennis.

Q. Henri, do you feel the interest in Finland is booming after your success? How about the media attention? Do you get to do a lot of press in Finland?
HENRI KONTINEN: I don't know if it's 'get to do'. It's part of the job. I'm probably not the right person to ask. I don't really follow it that much. Obviously, like I said, we have some young players coming up now. Probably the ones coming up right now are because of Jarkko or partly because of Jarkko's success.

Yeah, if I can hopefully motivate or push successful kids into tennis instead of other sports, that's great. But for myself, I'm just focused on my own thing, playing my own tennis career. Who knows, maybe after my career I'll be somehow involved. Right now I'm just doing my thing.

Q. John, you played Belgium in the Davis Cup semifinal. The final is next week. What are your thoughts? Who do you think will win and why?
JOHN PEERS: To be honest, Davis Cup has been amazing for me this year. We've been able to get a great group of guys together. Unfortunately it was a tough loss for us as a team to lose to Belgium in Belgium because I know we really wanted to go all the way this year. It was one of our goals.

At the end of the day I think it's a great format, having the home and away ties. It brings not only the guys together but countries that actually play in the tie, it actually shows how good tennis is and the atmosphere it creates.

I think it's going to be, what David is doing at the moment, the level of tennis he's playing at the moment, it's unbelievable. If he can produce this sort of level, it's going to come down to if Darcis can find some form again.

I mean, the French team is very strong, got a lot of depth. It's tough to go past them as favorites. But, I mean, you're never going to write off the Belgium team if David is going to play the level he's doing.

It's going to be a very interesting tie. I think first couple days could come down to what's going to prove to be the result.

Q. John, what do you remember of your time with Jamie? What would you say his main qualities are? What can he still achieve in the game?
JOHN PEERS: What Jamie and I did together was great. I mean, we had a great few years together. We set each other up really well. Now I think it proves how good a rapport and relationship we had on and off the court to both still be in the top 10, both still be contending for not only slams but big titles.

Now I think he's one of the great doubles players out there. He always proves to give you something different. His hands are amazing. He serves well. It's always a tough match playing against him.

To know that we were able to leave each other on good terms is always a good thing. I know you're not always able to leave a partnership when you're both top 10 and doing really well. For us to be able to do that was great.

I think it shows that we're still both going strong in separate partnerships.

Q. (No microphone.)
JOHN PEERS: It's like us. He's one of the top teams. We're doing what we can do. If we can both do what we're doing, there's no reason that either one of us could win slams in different partnerships. We've both proven we can do that. He's done that twice this year in mixed, as well. At the end of the day, there's no reason we both can't stay at the top.

Q. On the two titles, does one mean more to you than the other? Exactly the same?
JOHN PEERS: To be honest, they're both different. Last year we came in with a lot of momentum, played some good tennis, carried it through. This year we had to find some form. We necessarily didn't win as many matches in Europe to finish the year off.

It shows a bit of resilience from us, knowing once we get into tournaments, we can actually do well. That brings a lot of confidence to me knowing Henri and myself can do that either coming into the tournament with a lot of form or not coming into it with as much form. I know we both can find the level of tennis we need to.

That proved this year, it didn't matter whether we came in winning a lot of matches or not, we can find a great level of tennis, which we were able to do today.

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NITTO ATP FINALS

November 19, 2017

Henri Kontinen

John Peers