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AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 17, 2019

Alexei Popyrin

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

A. POPYRIN/D. Thiem

7-5, 6-4, 2-0 (ret.)

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What was your thought process as you built the lead, ended before you thought it would?
ALEXEI POPYRIN: Yeah, it's never easy seeing an opponent retire like that, especially Domi. He's a great guy. But, yeah, I was just trying to keep focused, just trying to keep concentrated in the match, play my game.

Q. When were you first aware that he was off-color?
ALEXEI POPYRIN: I would say somewhere in the middle of the first set when I saw he wasn't serving as strong as he usually is, when he was serving 150, 160. I saw that something was really wrong and I needed to take advantage of that. Yeah, I just tried to keep focused.

Q. Did you keep an eye on the kilometer clock?
ALEXEI POPYRIN: Not really. I could feel the pace coming.

Q. Can you believe you're in the third round of the Australian Open?
ALEXEI POPYRIN: No, not really. It hasn't sunk in yet. Yeah, I did my recovery. I'm just going to keep looking forward, just preparing for the next round.

Q. What did you make of the big occasion, tough opponent, pressure?
ALEXEI POPYRIN: I didn't really feel much pressure, to be honest. I just wanted to go out there and enjoy the moment, just soak in the experience really.

Yeah, and the crowd was amazing, like always. The Aussie crowd are the best crowd.

Q. You said before the match that you lived for the big stage, playing against a big opponent. Now that you've had that taste, what was it like?
ALEXEI POPYRIN: Oh, it was unreal. I really enjoy playing on these big, big stadiums with massive crowds. So, yeah, it's just a great experience really.

Q. What do you know about your next opponent, Lucas Pouille?
ALEXEI POPYRIN: He's a great player. He's a solid top-20 player, to be honest, with his level. I'm just going to go there, just play my game like usual, just keep concentrated.

Q. Can you tell us how you prepared over summer? You were working here in Melbourne with some of the other Australian boys.
ALEXEI POPYRIN: Well, yeah, the first part of pre-season, I ended my season after Basel. I ended it pretty early. Yeah, I spent my first part of pre-season in Mouratoglou Tennis Academy with a lot of players. Stefanos was there, Rudy Molleker was there. We had a great first part of the pre-season.

Then mid-December we came to Australia. I was hitting with the Aussie boys, yeah.

Q. It's been a big start to the year with Alex De Minaur. Pretty good to share it with him?
ALEXEI POPYRIN: Yeah, yeah. Alex had an unbelievable week last week, is just carrying it on this week. Yeah, it's great to have two players the same age, who grew up together, playing one of the best tennis.

Q. One of the people you hit with at the Mouratoglou academy was Serena. How did that come about? What was that experience like?
ALEXEI POPYRIN: Yeah, it was a great experience. She's a legend of the game. Just to hit with a legend, especially Serena, it really gave me a great, great experience. She gave me some tips after the hit. So it was great, yeah.

Q. What tips did she give you?
ALEXEI POPYRIN: Just stay focused, keep concentrated during this period.

Q. Are you putting any caps on where you can go with this? Is it too early in your career to go deep into this tournament?
ALEXEI POPYRIN: Right now I'm just prepared for the next round. I'm just going to be focusing on the match ahead. If I get through that round, it will be great.

But I'm going to be focusing solely on the next round.

Q. Did you catch the end of Alex Bolt?
ALEXEI POPYRIN: Yeah, just watched match point. Seeing Bolty doing so well, it's just great.

Q. Trading balls with Serena, what was the experience like?
ALEXEI POPYRIN: Yeah, it was an amazing experience, as I said. But, yeah, the balls were coming, really good, coming from her. Honestly, I expected that from her because she's an unbelievable player. Yeah, as I said, the experience was unbelievable.

Q. You'll come away with at least $150,000 after this match. Any thoughts on what you might spend it on?
ALEXEI POPYRIN: No. On travel. Got to keep it in tennis. Yeah, I'm not going to go berserk with the money. Going to keep it on travel.

Q. Alex said last night a 19-year-old goes and gets an acai bowl. What are you going to do after tonight?
ALEXEI POPYRIN: I've never had an acai bowl. I don't know what they taste like.

I'm just going to go home, try to get some rest, try to get some sleep. Starting from tomorrow, I've got doubles in the afternoon. I'm going to focus on that, then just focus on my singles on Saturday, yeah.

Q. Anything in particular you've been working on? Your mobility around the court looked sharp. Is that something that's improved?
ALEXEI POPYRIN: I would say that's something I've had for a long time. It was more improving the serve, the percentage of first serve in, so the consistency. I think I was doing that really well in the first and second round and today.

Yeah, basically when my coach came in, six months ago he said, You got to work on your backhand. For the longest time, we've been working on my backhand. We're still working on my backhand. I think it's improved a lot.

Q. Is there a player you mold your game on?
ALEXEI POPYRIN: Well, I grew up watching del Potro. Seeing him win the 2010 US Open was amazing. Ever since then, I've been trying to play like del Potro.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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