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August 7, 2019
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
D. THIEM/D. Shapovalov
6-4, 3-6, 6-3
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. How does it feel to win your first match here? Obviously it must be pretty good.
DOMINIC THIEM: It's a great feeling. I mean, it's not only the first match win here, but also against a great player. The court is pretty fast. It was a huge transition from clay to here.
I'm very happy with the way I served. Also happy that I could swing free some flat serves again because, I mean, most of the clay court season I was using the kick. I love my big, flat serve, so I'm happy to use it again. It worked out well.
Every win is special in these tournaments because it's only against great opponents.
Q. When you talk about the transition to the hard surface, do you feel that transition throughout the match? When do you start feeling comfortable on a new surface?
DOMINIC THIEM: Today I think there were not a lot of rallies. Most of the points were one, two or three shots because we both served well. I could feel it already that we are on a pretty fast hard court, not on clay any more.
But then when everything started to work better again, the serve, then I was going little bit more to the net than on clay, I felt the transition keeps going.
Q. What did you think when you saw your draw, having a 0-5 record here, then having to come in and play against a local player like Denis Shapovalov?
DOMINIC THIEM: I mean, every Masters 1000 is so strong, especially these ones with the smaller draw. You play almost sure a guy who is in the top 35, top 40. I mean, I'm always scared if I look at the draw who is coming.
Against Denis, it was special because he's a local hero. I mean, all the cloud was supporting him, so it was tough.
As I said, every opponent is great here. Every victory feels really good.
Q. Did you get a little bit tired in the second set, into the third set? Did you get a second wind maybe a little bit, from the jetlag?
DOMINIC THIEM: It was like all the match, pretty fine I would say. Of course, I'm not hundred percent there yet, not hundred percent in the right time zone. But it feel goods in a match. With all the adrenaline, the tension, it's almost forgotten.
Q. You moved around a lot on returning serves. Tell me about your thought process when you're moving around.
DOMINIC THIEM: It's all about the view of the server. Yeah, Denis was serving very good. I had to mix it up little bit. If I stand too long on one certain position, I mean, he gets a great view and he will serve many aces or get many free points.
So I try to change, stand a lot closer to the line, then go back four or five meters, just to make him miss some first serves maybe.
Q. What did you think in the second-to-last game? How did he miss that smash?
DOMINIC THIEM: It's never easy, the smashes. Maybe it was a little bit windy. Already the lights were on. These kind of smashes, especially on a tough situation where you're under lot of pressure, they look way easier than they are.
It was a good point. Of course, for me was great that he missed so I got the break.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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