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THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 3, 2018

Jay Clarke

Wimbledon, London, England

E. GULBIS/J. Clarke

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

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How much are you feeling happy with taking it so far, how much gutted that you didn't close it out?
JAY CLARKE: Not happy at all, to be honest. Yeah, I'm very sad with how it ended.

Q. Was it his experience in the fifth set? Was that the key, been there more from the sharp end of matches like that?
JAY CLARKE: Yeah, it was literally two points at 4-All I had a game point, he lifted the ball, the wind took it over my backhand side. Made it a really tough shot. Then he came up with two returns he hadn't hit the whole match. Yeah, managed to break.

Q. How do you feel you performed during the match? What positives can you take away?
JAY CLARKE: Yeah, it was a good match. He's been I think 10 in the world, semis of slams. I think he's had a couple good wins here, as well. There will be a lot of positives to take. It's tough to see them right now.

But, yeah, when I look back, maybe in two, three days' time with my team, I'm sure I'll take some stuff.

Q. The prize money, Â£39,000 for reaching the main draw. That was doubling your prize money year-to-date. What sort of impact will that have on your career for the rest of the year, what you can and cannot do?
JAY CLARKE: Uhm, yeah, it's a lot. I'm not really thinking about any of that stuff at the minute. Yeah, don't know.

Q. I spoke to your parents afterwards. I'm sure they've already told you how proud they are. Obviously you're not from a typical tennis background in terms of a middle class white background. I think you're a great role model for people from untypical backgrounds. Do you feel that yourself, that you making this far, do you hope you inspire other people?
JAY CLARKE: Yeah, I hope I inspire people. I don't think I'm in the position, that high ranked or well known to do that at the minute. If anybody was watching today, wanted to pick up a racquet, yeah, that's a bonus.

Q. What were your thoughts when he came on literally just before everything started? You were sitting there for quite a while on your own.
JAY CLARKE: Yeah, I got escorted about 15 minutes too early. That wasn't something I planned. Yeah, I wasn't thinking too much about that.

Q. You spoke last week about the reaction you see from fans of tennis on Twitter. From what I saw today, there was a lot of positive response to your performance. What have you seen so far?
JAY CLARKE: Yeah, yeah, a lot of positives from people who watched here, at home on TV, online, followed the scores. Yeah, there's always someone positive, then there's always a couple negative ones as well. So yeah.

Q. He's quite a volatile player in terms of his temper. Were you aware of that during the match? Did that affect you at all?
JAY CLARKE: Yeah, I've watched a lot of his matches growing up. When I was probably 13, 14 years, he probably played some of his best tennis.

Yeah, he didn't bother me too much. I've practiced with him a few times, in France, at some challengers. Yeah, we actually get on pretty well. I wasn't really thinking too much about that.

Q. Did you used to be coached by Jonathan Joseph's dad?
JAY CLARKE: No, my dad used to coach Johnny Joseph, because he used to play tennis.

Q. Do you know him at all?
JAY CLARKE: Yeah, yeah, I know him quite well. He's a good family friend. Yeah, then he transitioned to rugby. I'm not sure when. Yeah, I was very young at the time when he was playing tennis.

Q. Any good luck messages from him?
JAY CLARKE: Yeah, I think he put a story up or something that he watched my match. Yeah, obviously it's nice that he still thinks about me and stuff, yeah.

Q. Strange incident on the first changeover when Gulbis came to your bag. What did he say?
JAY CLARKE: He was pretty out of it at the start of the match, I think. I managed to capitalize, then, yeah, hold serve for the rest of the set. Yeah, I don't know what he was thinking, to be honest.

Q. Playing in front of a big crowd, does that give you desire to come back? What are the ambitions for the next six to 12 months?
JAY CLARKE: I had a good chance to play as well on Queen's on a really big court. That was the biggest court I played on. Yeah, Court 18 today was another great experience. I had a lot of family and friends there watching and supporting. Yeah, it was nice because they don't usually get to come to my tournaments because I travel all over the world. The fact that so many of them were there was really nice.

I'm hoping -- I don't really like to set ranking goals because that just adds unnecessary pressure. Over the next year or two years, I hope to be here on my own ranking, not to be relying on wild cards. There's a lot of things to happen between now and then, yeah.

Q. (Question about something special to him.)
JAY CLARKE: Yeah, I've been playing well for a while now. If I didn't get the wild card, I wouldn't even be playing this event. The fact I was obviously that close, didn't quite get it, hurts a lot.

Yeah, I hope I can keep going and build momentum from tournaments like this. Obviously being British, you have a lot of kind of chances to play tournaments that you'd never get to, especially if you're my ranking.

Yeah, I hope I can continue it in the next few months.

Q. Do you think there should be more facilities for young tennis players maybe in cities and stuff to increase take-up for the game, for people who are minorities or working class?
JAY CLARKE: I think if you want to play tennis, then you kind of have to know a lot of the stuff. It's not a sport I'd say that you can just pick up a racquet and walk. I mean you can, but I don't think you'll make it to any level if you're just playing socially at parks and stuff like that. It's a tough sport to get into.

Yeah, I don't really know how to answer that, so... If there's more opportunity, maybe there would be more players. I'm not sure if there would be more elite players making it to this level, but for sure there would probably be in the UK.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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