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THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 1, 2019

Kevin Anderson

Wimbledon, London, England

K. ANDERSON/P. Herbert

6-3, 6-4, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How are you feeling after that win? Obviously you haven't had a lot of matches. Great win against a top player.
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, I'm really, really pleased with the way I played today. I knew it was going to be a tough match. To get off that match in straight sets is a great positive for me. It's been, yeah, a very tough year. But I feel like the way my body felt today is very, very encouraging for me.

Different expectations coming in right now given that I've not played many matches this year. But I think there's a lot of positives I can take from today, and hopefully I'll be able to keep building on that.

Q. You spoke last year about the tiebreaker rule after your marathon match with John. What are your thoughts today about where things have gone with the rule?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Obviously I've been asked that question by a lot of different people. I think it's definitely a step in the right direction. The club did reach out to a lot of players, which was great to see them getting player feedback.

I personally think they could have had the tiebreaker at 6-6. I feel like if a match is undecided at 6-6 in the fifth, that's a good time to play a tiebreaker. I can completely understand them wanting to find a balance. Even though it's 12-12, it's a little bit more unique. I think it's combining a bit of that historical element with this new direction.

Overall, I think it's a step in the right direction, protecting the players, protecting the schedule as well.

Q. What do you make of the differences among the majors?
KEVIN ANDERSON: That's interesting how things have turned out. It's been a pretty recent development, all of them now with different formats for the fifth set.

I don't think it's a bad thing. I think it's quite interesting. Each one has its own sort of selling point. Outside of French Open still being open-ended. But it doesn't seem like French has had as many sort of long matches. Of course, US Open, I think that's really exciting, those 6-6 tiebreakers in the fifth.

Q. In recent weeks a lot of people said many things about the players council. Do you think they need more transparency with the council? Do you think players have more power when it comes to making the main decisions?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, I mean, look, there's a lot that's going on outside of the scenes, outside of the tennis court. Obviously I'm involved with a lot of it, being on the council.

I think the main thing is really not to get too caught up in some of the negative stuff. I'm really proud of everything we've been able to achieve. I think tennis as a global sport has continued to reach new heights. Player prize money has gone up a lot. I think more guys are able to make a living playing tennis.

By no means are we done. We want to make tennis as an attractive sport to as many people as possible. That's what's been focused on.

There's been a lot of outside topics, I guess, or things that we've had to deal with that we're still dealing with. It's been a bit of a tough process, to be honest with you.

I think, as always, the more we can stay together, especially as players, the more we'll be able to achieve at the end of the day.

Q. Do you think there should be more transparency, letting people know what's going on?
KEVIN ANDERSON: I think yes and no. I still think that's something we can do better. I still think communication can be better. Obviously it's tough. There's a lot of information that goes on. I think sometimes management have a difficult time finding a balance between giving players enough information but also understanding and sometimes maybe just giving -- I mean, we're three days outside of Wimbledon. I feel like they're sometimes hesitant to give us that information. Sometimes players want maybe too much information. I think we're still trying to find that balance.

Q. Last year you spent six-plus hours locked in a deadlock with John Isner. Last Friday you spent seven hours locked in a deadlock with John Isner. Does the council need a tiebreaker system also? How much does it take out of you on the eve of a slam to be having these long things? Three of the people on your half of the equation already quit. What sort of toll does it have on you?
KEVIN ANDERSON: I've been on the council now for seven years. I remember years ago already having those feelings. I've tried to be very vocal. I think that's been probably one of the more frustrating parts from my side: I don't feel like I've been able to communicate or find a way with management yet to try and speed along the process.

I feel like it's amazing how different I'm hearing some of the older guys, especially in the '90s, from what I've heard, the top guys weren't nearly as interested in some of the matters that the players are right now. I think it's great that the players want so much information.

I think it's a very -- what I was saying earlier, there's a very delicate balance between also trusting our board reps and having them make the best decisions for us. Because we are so involved, these meetings are taking longer.

I do feel like one of the highlights from our last meeting was I think moving forward there will be a slightly different not necessarily structure, but the way we go about the meetings, the way we discuss, have the dialogue. I don't know what that looks like yet. Those are some of the messages I received from our management.

I really hope that's the case because it definitely takes a pretty long toll on me, starting at 5:00 and getting home at 11:30 just a few days before. Yeah, I mean, just not used to sitting around for long periods of time. Sometimes the discussions can get quite intense, as well.

I definitely feel like there's a lot of room for improvement there.

Q. You've been a pro for a good while, gone through changes. Talk about working with Brad. What does he bring? Does he inspire, spark things in you?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, I mean, I feel like I've had a really great relationship with Brad. He was able to -- I thought he did a really good job of seeing, when he started coaching me, the things that were working for me and the systems in place that I had that were very beneficial. As he understood that, he was able to give me different perspective, which I think is always healthy and good.

He himself is very experienced. He's been coaching players for 30 years. Obviously spent a lot of time with Jim Courier in the '90s. I feel like he's had a lot of experience.

I don't know if it sounds as important from the outside, but I know from the inside it's important having people who have been with players, who know what it's like being there the last sort of day of a Grand Slam winning tournaments. I think that overall atmosphere he brings has been definitely a big step forward for me.

Just like the way he goes about coaching me. We had a long conversation yesterday. Heading into this tournament, I think those conversations are good. I've obviously been in a bit of a tough situation with my elbow, just coming to the tournament with a different set of circumstances as previous times. I feel like he's done a really good job of understanding that, helping me navigate through it.

Q. On the players council, what did you make of the resignations? Did you ever consider your position...
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, it's a tough one. I can certainly understand their frustrations. Definitely, as I was saying earlier, I was not very pleased with a lot of things that were going on.

I think maybe part of it is the time commitment. I was saying to my team this is one of the most thankless jobs in sport because, I mean, sometimes it's very difficult. A lot of the players don't even know who their council members are. The amount of times I've been asked, So you're on the council?

Yeah, I am on the council.

Here we are spending seven or eight hours. I think that definitely comes into it. I think there's definitely things we need to figure out and work out. Just I can only really talk from my standpoint. Some of the meeting was frustrating. I feel like I've been doing this for a while, am very passionate about making the best decisions for our sport possible.

I'm definitely going to try my best doing that moving forward.

Q. Feliciano Lopez was in here a while ago, obviously tournament director of Madrid, he said there's a big concern for him with selling tournaments, sponsorships, a lot of struggling tournaments. Tennis is growing a lot. Is there concern, aside from the top events, some of them are in danger?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure, I would have to ask Feli exactly what he means. I don't think he needs to worry too much about his security from his tournaments.

Q. He was saying even for him, doing that, it's really hard to generate the money for all that prize money.
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, having a little bit of a hard time believing that just from what I've seen from a lot of the metrics from the Masters. They've got a guaranteed player field. The amount of risk that they're putting up is very little.

I think the biggest challenge right now is our 250 events. I think the 500s have done very, very well, especially some of the events. I've obviously been playing quite a few of them.

I'm sure there's still some improvements they can make. I feel like it's a pretty good model. I feel like the 250s are ones that are still difficult, especially with the way the point structure works, when the top guys come in to slams and there's two thousand points, it's hard to tell a top guy you're not necessarily playing the 250s for the points.

Potentially does it fit in your schedule for matches? But then having to put up huge appearance fees, I mean, huge appearance money to get these guys to play, which is a huge risk for them?

I think there's been talk of looking at a larger sort of calendar structure, seeing if we can try and help that in some way possible.

So, look, there's a lot of 250s doing very well, but I know there's some that have a tougher time. Very tough weeks up against tough competition. It's so difficult. We get requests from those tournaments to try to help them in certain ways. There's so many knock-on effects that sometimes it's really difficult to grant all those requests. We certainly are trying our best there.

Q. With the increasing prize money, appearance fees go up as well, do you think it will hit a point where it's too much?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, I mean, the one thing I really want to look at, obviously the increase in prize money has been great, we've really focused hard on trying -- the distribution of that prize money. I think we're even going to look at that again.

It's great news that the Grand Slams, at least a few of them, have said they'll work with that. I think we can rebalance that a lot because even a small percentage increase on the winner's check is a huge amount of money. Obviously just from a tennis standpoint, 50%, random number, in the first round doesn't equate the same.

I think maybe looking at some point to cap the winner's side for a certain extent of time so we can readjust some of the distributions. A few players, myself included, I don't think the difference in prize money between making semifinals and the winner should be that much of a difference. That's something we definitely want to change. Maybe that might have a knock-on effect into some of the appearance money, too.

Q. Novak came in here and said he even considered maybe quitting. Obviously all these guys quit. Have you personally thought about stepping down? Some of the guys who have stepped down have said they're really not confident in the direction the council is taking things forward. Are you confident you and the council are capable of moving things in the right direction now?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, I think there's definitely moments when we have these meetings. I think the tough part is when you're trying to put a message across, not that my opinion is not always right, but I still sometimes have an opinion. If that's not always being received or going the way I see it, that can be frustrating at times in terms of do I really want to continue doing this?

Even if I've had those thoughts, I'm not going to be stepping down. I'm definitely going to see out my term at least, then I can reassess. A lot can change in a year. But I definitely won't be stepping down from my role.

In terms of the way the council is moving, again, I think we've had a lot of successes. There's quite a few things that need to be addressed right now. We have a CEO that we need to replace. We're looking at maybe changing some of the government structure, governance structure I should say. There's been a lot of effort put into prize money formulas, which unfortunately aren't taking I think good enough steps forward right now. Those things I'm a little bit frustrated with.

I know everybody is working hard. Hopefully we'll be able to come to good resolutions moving forward.

Q. The frustrations, are they with your fellow councilmen?
KEVIN ANDERSON: I think it's more at the end of the day just getting the results that we want. I think that's what we ask. Just with anything like this, sometimes these processes take a long period of time. It's not something that can just be implemented straightaway.

I feel like some of -- and then obviously we have the whole structure of the ATP, right? We have the tournaments and players often disagreeing with points. A lot of players have come up and, you know, expressed worry about the structure, not believing in the structure.

I myself don't feel that way. I feel like this is the structure we have. There's a lot of benefits from that, there's some challenges. That's always a tough one, finding that balance between what players and tournaments want.

I'd say the frustration is more just the overall picture of trying to move the needle in the right direction. Sometimes it feels, through different things, it kind of stagnates a little bit. Hopefully we can get that moving forward again.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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