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CITI OPEN

August 4, 2019

Nick Kyrgios

Washington D.C.

N. KYRGIOS/D. Medvedev

7-6, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Congratulations on a great run and your championship. So how is your back? What is the situation with your back spasms?
NICK KYRGIOS: Yeah, I mean, I think at 2-All, I started having some back spasms in the right part of my back, but the doctor came on, took some painkillers. You know, and the physio has been a great help all week managing some of the niggles I've had.

But just something I had to deal with, one other thing I had to deal with this week. But I dug deep and it could have easily been Daniil in this position. The match was super close and obviously just happened to get through that first set was massive.

But as a whole, this week has been amazing. It's been a real -- definitely an experience I won't ever forget.

Q. Congratulations on the win. You've overcame a lot this week, some frustration last night, the back spasms today. How much can you take away and how proud are you of your composure this week?
NICK KYRGIOS: Super proud. As I said, I haven't played many matches this last couple months. Especially just looking back on some of the places I've been the last six months, it's crazy to think how much I've turned it around.

And I've just been working really hard, on and off the court, to try and be better as a person and as a tennis player. And as I said, I wasn't exaggerating. This has been one of the best weeks of my life, not just on the court but in general. I feel like I've made major strides.

And I'm just going to take it one day at a time and hopefully I can continue on this new path.

Q. Congratulations, Nick. Two years ago you were here and it was kind of night and day compared to your experience this week. It was a brief stay, I guess. How much have you changed or learned about yourself and how much have you grown, do you feel like, in these two years?
NICK KYRGIOS: Massive. I think two years ago I lost to Tennys Sandgren. I think I pulled out maybe? I'm not even sure. And I didn't give the people a good show. I was very disrespectful.

And two years on, I come here and I put in a week performance. You know, I came here for five, six days and competed every day and left it all out there.

And to walk away as a champion is pretty special. This is probably my most memorable title, honestly, so far. I mean, as you said, it's night and day from two years ago for sure.

Q. You talked about making strides. What were you doing well? What was going right for you this week that you were consciously doing to make yourself in a better place?
NICK KYRGIOS: It started off the court, honestly. A lot of habits needed to change. I'm not going to go into it with a lot of detail, but I just had a lot of unhealthy habits, and it was starting to show on the tennis court. It was too up and down. It wasn't healthy. So I just needed to change a lot of things.

And as I said, this is only the beginning. I'm going to continue to go through with these habits. And at the same time, I'm trying not to change myself. You know, playing ping-pong with kids before I play. I don't want to lose sight of who I am. I want to continue to have fun on court and be the entertainer I am. But it's a day-by-day process.

Q. And just with your forearm, back, knee, everything, are you planning on playing Montreal?
NICK KYRGIOS: For sure. I'm excited. Obviously playing Kyle in the first round, a guy that I played juniors with. Extremely tough first round, and then my seed is Medvedev.

So I'm not going to look ahead at all. My next task is just to enjoy tonight and get on a flight tomorrow, do everything right to the prepare for the match, and that's it.

Q. I'm aware of your foundation and its mission, and so I'm curious how much you've learned this week about the Washington Tennis & Education Foundation, like, if you get kind of briefed on their mission and whether you can take anything from that for your own philanthropic purposes?
NICK KYRGIOS: I actually haven't been told too much about what they do or anything like that, but I'm always -- as I said, my foundation back home is something that drives me a lot. You know, we do a lot of stars activation and a lot of players kind of volunteer to visit hospitals, or something like that, on tour. I just remember one time I did it in Marseille and that was kind of a push for me to start my own.

But at the end of the day, I just wanted to create, like, a home and a place where kids can have the opportunity to play sports and just have a home and be educated and just have an opportunity to have a life that I've been able to have.

And I'm sure that the cause of the foundation here is amazing as well, so I would love to get to know more.

Q. You talked about being better today and you talked throughout the week about being better for particularly your younger fans and the fans that look up to you. What does being better in that sense mean to you and what does that entail?
NICK KYRGIOS: Well, not just for my younger fans and people following me. Just for myself. As I said, I don't think I want to go into much detail where I was -- some of the stuff I was doing or what -- you know, I just wanted to, you know, clean myself up and just have healthy habits. And I think it's only the beginning, and it showed this week by winning this tournament. I came out just enjoying myself, competing.

I know that some of you guys watch my tennis closely. Ben, I mean, knows it. This is a rare sighting to have me competing five days in a row and against top-quality opponents and leaving it all out there.

It's good to see and I'm super happy, but, I mean, a tennis player is one thing. I just want to become better as a person.

Q. Congrats on a great tournament and great effort. You mentioned that you were going to celebrate tonight. Anything in particular you're going to do or visit?
NICK KYRGIOS: Probably not. It's pretty late. I'm probably just going to go to the hotel. I'm not sure when my flight is tomorrow. Just going to enjoy it with my team and get ready for Montreal, I guess.

Q. I think with this win you probably lock up a seed at the US Open. Starting this week outside the top 50, how big is that for you?
NICK KYRGIOS: Yeah, it's, I mean, big. Obviously being seeded at a slam helps. I don't really care, but you don't really want to hit one of those big guys early on, for instance, say, at Wimbledon when I played Rafa.

So either way I was going to be ready. But, I mean, it's good to have that guarantee that you're not going to face one of the big guys in the early stages.

Q. I know you're close with your family. I think your brother is here in the press conference. How important is their support and them coming to travel, to watch you play, how important is that? And who do you credit the most to your, I guess, change in mindset?
NICK KYRGIOS: I mean, I've got a long way to go, but, yeah, I mean, I just want to thank -- obviously my brother flew to come watch me play, but there's a lot of pieces that have been put in place. You know, they still believed in me when I honestly didn't. I lost faith that I could still have weeks like this and be happy. So I just want to thank them for not losing that.

Q. I looked at your results for the entire event and it seemed that you played six tiebreaks throughout the event. I mean, what is it that you can bring to the tiebreak environment where you can lift your game and win and have a 6-0 run in tiebreaks?
NICK KYRGIOS: Clutch.

Q. Just a follow-up on that. Could you imagine coming in today that the match, there was so little room for error, the margins were so narrow, that it would take being clutch in each of the tiebreaks to win today, to win the title?
NICK KYRGIOS: Definitely knew today wasn't going to be easy. I mean, I went into that final, I think, massively I was the underdog for sure. He's been one of the most consistent players I think for the last year and a half. He's been winning titles. Probably a contender at any event he plays. He's so solid.

So today I knew that I had to serve well, control the tempo on my service games. And I think his serve has improved out of sight since I last played him until Rome. He was in a great rhythm today. I couldn't really make any inroads on his service games apart from the tiebreaks. And I had one little sniff in the second set at Love-30, and then he fended it off pretty well.

So, I mean, honestly, I went into today and I didn't even -- I wasn't thinking about the result at all. I just wanted to go out there and just serve my way and see how the match kind of filled out, and I got it done in two tiebreaks.

But as I said, it could have been him sitting here. It was a couple of points here and there. He probably should have won the first set and then it could have been a different story.

We're going to play each other a lot of times, so I think he knows that as well.

Q. Just when you talk about it being one of the most memorable weeks of your life, what are the memories and moments that are going to stick with you here? What were sort of the most indelible moments?
NICK KYRGIOS: Honestly, I think how professional I was off the court, and I had the same routine every day. I just felt like -- actually like a traditional tennis player this week.

Q. Do you think that Tsitsipas has got you in that mode at all.
NICK KYRGIOS: Sorry.

Q. Do you think that Tsitsipas has got you in that mode at all? You talked about how they made you practice like a real player and how foreign that was to you, and then you go out and win the title being your most professional ever. It seems like a pretty good cause and effect if you want it to be that way.
NICK KYRGIOS: I mean, I was professional from the first round. But, I mean, I really like him, but I don't know if that's the cause of it, but yeah.

(Laughter.)

Q. I feel really that this is a boring question on which to end and so if somebody can think of a better question after I ask this that would be great, because it's good to see you laugh. I was going to say one of the things is that you seem kind of serious today.
NICK KYRGIOS: You don't know me at all then.

Q. You're right. I don't. But anyway, the question I had is I'm just wondering about the day versus the night matches. It's so hot out there during the day and you were scheduled 7:00 to 9:00 pretty much all week. And the crowd is also a little bit different, a little bit more subdued. So I was just curious if you could talk a little bit about that difference.
NICK KYRGIOS: Yeah, I thought the conditions were completely different. I felt at nighttime it was really easy to keep the ball in the court. Very slow conditions.

But I felt all through the week it's amazing serving conditions, but today was very hard for me to keep the ball in. I felt it was completely different. It was very bouncy. And I just really struggled on return today. I couldn't get onto his serve. I think that comes down to him just having a high level.

But I thought the conditions were a lot quicker and bouncier during the day. This was the first time I played in the day, so I had to get used that.

But, again, I think my serve all week just got me over the line.

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