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AUSTRALIAN OPENJanuary 23, 2019Lucas PouilleMelbourne, Victoria, Australia Q. Unbelievable effort. I'm wearing my hat backwards in your honor. You got to feel amazing. Yours first-ever Grand Slam semifinal here in Australia. LUCAS POUILLE: Well, first, I have to say it fits very good on you so you should do it more often. Q. Thank you. LUCAS POUILLE: No, I'm just very happy. I knew it will be a really tough match. I think I did really great on the return. I kept my serve almost all the match. So, yeah, I'm just very happy. Thank you, guys. The atmosphere here is always unbelievable. Yeah, I don't know really what to say. I didn't win a match before coming in Melbourne, before coming here. Here I'm in the semifinal, so I'm just very, very happy. Q. I think it's safe to say it's one of the greatest moments of your life? LUCAS POUILLE: Well, definitely, definitely. And I'm happy you be part of it. Q. You have to explain to me, you mentioned that you came down to Australia, you never won a single match here, you lost all three of your matches at Hopman Cup, you lost first round in Sydney. Explain to me how this turnaround took place. We'd all like to know. LUCAS POUILLE: Well, I'm trying to forget about the start of the year. Q. I apologize for mentioning it. LUCAS POUILLE: It's okay. We kept working hard even after all the matches I lost in the Hopman Cup, in Sydney. I went back on court straight after and decided to take step by step and gave all I have on every single points, and here I am. Q. I also noticed you never won in your three matches against Milos Raonic a single set. You came into this, and what was the game plan against him today? LUCAS POUILLE: Well, there is a lot of first times this week. I don't know. I really wanted to return as best as possible, put a lot of return on the court, make him play. Try to take care of my serve, not put too much pressure on myself. Yeah, I just enjoyed the moment, and that's what I did. Q. Your backhand return, you were putting it at his feet every time. You were following up, keeping the ball low. I'm sure that was part of the plan. You used the topspin lob well. You were using more variety in your game. LUCAS POUILLE: Yeah, we had a plan. I really tried to make it today every single point, not trying to go away, try to stay focused on the plan we decided yesterday. Yeah, I don't know, I'm not sure if I play against him again I will return like this. It was a great match. Q. Apparently you hired in the not-too-distant past Amelie Mauresmo, that Grand Slam champion. I'm getting a feeling a lot of these guy players are going to be hiring female coaches now because there's something going on here. LUCAS POUILLE: They should. They should. Well, she is the right state of mind, she knows everything about tennis. It's not about being a woman or a man. It doesn't matter. You just have to know what you're doing, and she does. Q. Finally, you were struggling a couple years to find your game again. It seemed like, I don't know, you tell me, you put too much pressure on yourself, you'd become a little complacent, whatever. What have you done to be able to turn this around? Am I right that you were getting a little complacent, satisfied with what you were doing, or am I totally wrong? Tell me what's going on here. LUCAS POUILLE: Well, I think you're wrong. Q. I wish you hadn't said that. LUCAS POUILLE: No, it came really fast when I did a quarterfinal in Wimbledon, US Open, then the year after I didn't win a lot of matches, but I still finished 17 or 16 in the world. Last year I lost a bit of joy to be on the court, didn't want to live in tournament, all this stuff. Started a new adventure with my team, with Amelie, with Loïc. I think that was the great thing for me. I want to practice. I enjoy being on the court again. That's the most important. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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