	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

WESTERN & SOUTHERN OPEN

August 15, 2018

Nick Kyrgios

Cincinnati, Ohio

N. KYRGIOS/B. Coric

7-6, 0-6, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Both knees are sore now?
NICK KYRGIOS: Yeah, I mean, both knees were sore the last couple days, more so the right one. Yeah, I'm just doing everything I can for them, I guess.

Q. Very entertaining match, but in the middle you got really angry. I'm wondering how did you manage to get back in it in the third?
NICK KYRGIOS: Yeah, I mean, I knew I was always going to compete in the third set. I competed too hard in the first set to sort of just let the match slip and not compete, give myself a chance to win, at least.

Yeah, the second set, when I was 4-Love down, I knew there was no real point of me going out there and competing and obviously waste energy trying to battle back against like a guy like that.

I knew at 4-0, if I lost the set 6-0, I was going to be serving first in the third set, and I think I carried a lot of momentum from the first game, and it ended up being a smart move.

Q. When you're talking to the crowd and everything, I saw a lot of tweets from people talking to you and tweeting about it like it's the best thing ever. For you, how does that factor into the match? Does it help you? Does it take your mind off what's going on?
NICK KYRGIOS: It's just -- they're talking to me and then I just kind of respond. It just keeps me relaxed.

I mean, I don't think it bothers me too much. You know, it's not really affecting my play, so I don't do it just for some fun or anything. I just respond, just like talking to anyone.

Q. Going back to that second set, I'm sure no intent, you weren't aware, but that ball landed in...
NICK KYRGIOS: It was out.

Q. Well, I was in the stadium, and it landed close to the lower pole, and a few more feet, could have landed on the court where the women were playing.
NICK KYRGIOS: Wait. What was this?

Q. When you hit the ball out of the stands.
NICK KYRGIOS: Oh, I thought you meant the ball that was...

Q. Yeah, bad call, no doubt. But I don't think either player needs an MRI before the US Open. How would you feel if someone had gotten hurt?
NICK KYRGIOS: Well, obviously not great.

Q. Yeah.
NICK KYRGIOS: But whose fault was it that the ball wasn't correctly called?

Q. Oh, understand that.
NICK KYRGIOS: But would that have happened if it was correctly called and correctly umpired? No?

Q. I don't disagree with that.
NICK KYRGIOS: But if the ball was called out, would I have hit the ball out of the stadium?

Q. Don't know that for sure.
NICK KYRGIOS: So I would have won the point, and I still would have hit the ball out, is what you're saying?

Q. No, that's not what I'm saying.
NICK KYRGIOS: So if the ball was called correctly, none of the following action that I did would have happened, correct?

Q. That's your choice.
NICK KYRGIOS: Awesome. Perfect.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Ashcon. How has he helped you through this difficult period? You always say you want people on your team who care about you. How did you guys strike up a bond?
NICK KYRGIOS: He's been awesome. He's been a major part of me grinding out these weeks. He was with me when -- I had elbow issues, and he was there with me during the weeks, during the rehab. He's been through a lot of tough times already, and I get along -- he's someone I get along with well.

For me, he's been just more than strength and conditioning. He does a lot of other things for me, and he's a really good guy.

Q. Tennis is unlike basketball, for instance, in the sense that a year from now you know whichever team is playing on whatever day of the week. You could play late one night, early the next day.
NICK KYRGIOS: Yeah.

Q. How do you deal with that? Are you a guy, do you need a lot of sleep? Can you be a morning person or a night person? How do you deal with how quickly that can shift?
NICK KYRGIOS: Definitely not a morning person, but, I mean, you've got -- with the rain and stuff, you can't really -- it's out of your control, so there is no point in stressing about it or anything. If you get put on late, you get put on late. You can't really do anything about the rain.

I don't really do anything different to prepare for early matches or late matches. Obviously a good amount of sleep is needed, but, yeah, I mean, nothing really changes.

Q. Does it take you a long time to wind down after a match?
NICK KYRGIOS: Yeah, for sure. Especially at Grand Slams, if you play a big, big match with an unbelievable atmosphere, for sure it's tough to sleep straight after. But you've got to just try and get rest, eat, do the whole recovery, and, you know, try and get rested.

Q. Obviously you know you can beat anybody and know what you're capable of. Considering there are some question marks about your fitness and stuff, are you entering these tournaments with high expectations, low expectations? How are you handling that part?
NICK KYRGIOS: I mean, I know that right now I can still serve through these matches, and that's enough for me to compete and hang with these guys.

At this stage, I'm just going to try and get through the US swing and then just re-evaluate where I'm at. Obviously I've got an eye on Laver Cup. I really want to compete my hardest and play my hardest. I've got an eye on that, but then I'm obviously going to re-evaluate and see what I can do for my body moving forward.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297