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US OPEN

September 4, 2019

Vincenzo Santopadre

New York, NY, USA

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What was that like for you? Such a roller coaster, up and down. Describe what that was like for you.
VINCENZO SANTOPADRE: We know that tennis is like this. You have to stay there every point and to try to solve problems. That's the game.

Matteo was unbelievable, was amazing how far he went, how deep was he inside. And I think he find so many energies inside of him. I think the thing that it's unbelievable is that he's used to give his best ever and ever. He can continue on so many times.

I think he had so much trouble today, but he didn't get confused. He continued to work on it, to do his game, to do his work.

To me, okay, everything could happen, but to me, anyway, he won the match because he was always there, ready to win the match. That's his work.

Then the thing that I see that, to me, this match was he won with heart and head, HH, Double H.

Q. How do you explain his overall, not only his tournament here but overall rise in the past year, really?
VINCENZO SANTOPADRE: Yeah, I think that we are used in our trip not to consider some limits, because it doesn't count. It doesn't help. We just have to follow on, to continue, and then follow on again.

One day and then the other day, the day after, to be better than the previous day. But the thing is that it's so good -- I was talking to him after the match. Every time he goes over, and I really don't know what are his limits, because he's still going up, up, up, and so it's difficult to say where he can arrive, what he can reach, because I think nobody knows, because he's so young and he continues -- he's continuing this growing. He's continuing.

Q. With Italian men's tennis overall, Matteo does well, but other players have come on this year. How do you explain the growth overall of Italian men's tennis?
VINCENZO SANTOPADRE: I think it's good for the other players if there is some player going well, doing well, like Cecchinato did semifinal in Roland Garros. We were discussing yesterday, together with Corrado Tschabuschnig, Matteo's manager, about the thing that when you stay a lot of days during the tournaments, you practice with these guys, and you see that the level is more or less the same.

The other riches, unbelievable results, maybe something can happen to you. Maybe you start to think, oh, maybe I can do it and it's something really important.

If you're not jealous, and you don't have to be jealous if you want to be a champion, to me, that's something really good that the other players are doing well.

Q. Sometimes we have seen Italian tennis do really well. Other times not so much. But now this year, the ATP is coming to Turin, and Fabio, Monte-Carlo, and now this run at the US Open. What is the best part of Italian tennis and maybe the not-so-best part?
VINCENZO SANTOPADRE: The best part of Italian tennis? I think everybody, every guy, his own personality, his own character, his own way to play, his own attitude. The best part, to me, is that normally we put a lot of pressure on what we do. Sometimes could be a boomerang.

But Italians, normally they put pressure. Usually they have good technique. Sometimes, to me, I think we could be better sometimes with the mentality, with the culture. Some culture could be better regarding how we approach the things.

I mean, mentally we could do something better to be more positive thinking with the body language, with everything mental, and about sports culture.

I love, for example, Monfils just left, and he went to us to say, Congrats. But he's, to me, was a sportsman, okay? Of course he was sad, because can't be happy. But he came to me, to the team, and to say, congrats. He was really -- I appreciated that, because I felt that, okay, he knows how it works. That's part of the game. You can win and lose, but then you have to follow on.

Q. Do you think the ATP Championships coming every year, do you think that will help in a way?
VINCENZO SANTOPADRE: That can help maybe for fans, of course. Of course can help. And of course some results like Cecchinato semis, Fabbiano's victory in Monte-Carlo, Matteo still semis here can help the movement to grow up to the fans to be closer to our sport.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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