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ATP CUP

January 3, 2020

Nick Kyrgios

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

N. KYRGIOS/J. Struff

6-4, 7-6

Australia - 1, Germany - 0

THE MODERATOR: Who has the first question for Nick?

Q. Congratulations on the win. Also, fantastic with the donations so far. What's, what are your, I guess, thoughts and emotions after raising that amount of money for the fire victims.
NICK KYRGIOS: I mean, it's early. Yeah, it's just, I don't know. I just thought it would be a good initiative, and then the traction it got, just seeing my hometown almost being on the alert and having, like, just the worst air quality in the world literally at the moment. It's just sad to see and all the, it's just tough. It's tough to go out there and concentrate on tennis, to be honest. Every ace I was hitting that's all I was thinking about. Every time I stepped up to the line that's all I was thinking about. Yeah, it's humbling at the same time, you know. But I'm glad that the tennis world is taking initiative and we have set up a night, a Wednesday next week. And hopefully we can do whatever we can. But it doesn't make it any better for me at the moment. It's tough.

Q. Were you trying to hit more aces than you might otherwise?
NICK KYRGIOS: How many aces did I hit?

Q. 20.
NICK KYRGIOS: Not really. I mean, I wasn't like trying to like -- I just served how I usually serve. But, yeah, I mean, a couple times on second serves, I was like I might sneak one past him (laughing). But, yeah, I mean, yeah, I wasn't trying. It was in the back of my mind, though. I knew at the same time, though, I had to beat a pretty quality player so.

Q. Have you been staying in touch with friends and family back in Canberra this week or what is your contact with people back home?
NICK KYRGIOS: Yeah, yeah. Obviously, my mom is still in Canberra. And, yeah, I've got a lot of friends that were, I have a lot of friends there that were traveling down the coast and got trapped for a couple days because they were right in the midst of it. It's not just that, I mean, it's been going on for awhile now and I just thought, not just with my platform, but with my platform I can do some pretty special things and that's what this sport's done, it's given me the ability to help and that's what I try to do and I'm just glad it's worked.

Q. You probably partly answered the question there, but how do these things, you come, you send that out on social media, do you then discuss it with other people or have you discussed it with people before beforehand? How do these ideas flow and then become together?
NICK KYRGIOS: I don't really talk to anyone about it. I just, we have the idea and we just do it. I feel like we should. There's no choice but for us to help, like, I feel, like, there's no choice in it. I think we all should be doing something. I think we all earn a lot of money and at this stage a bottle of water can save a life. So, I mean there's no decision making in this process, I think.

Q. You've kind of already touched on it, but just you talk us through how hard it is, like, there must be almost a sense of, I don't know, guilt or, like, you're here in this privileged position when there's people suffering, like, how hard is that really to step on court?
NICK KYRGIOS: Yeah, I mean, it's tough. I don't know if I necessarily feel guilty, but I'm trying to help. But, yeah, as I said, it's, I was serving every time I stepped up to the line and every time I hit an ace and the crowd would be louder than usual. It was in everyone's mind, so it's powerful. But I don't know if I necessarily feel guilty. I mean, it's a bit of a rough word, I guess.

Q. How do you feel you played? Obviously, you're dealing with a bit of stuff off the court, but how do you feel your game went?
NICK KYRGIOS: Yeah, I mean, first game, first match of the year is always going to be tough. To be honest, I was actually pretty happy with my performance. Obviously, I served well in crucial moments. But he had the best year of his career last year, so I knew that he was going to come out firing. And he was excited to play on this court again. We have had a couple matches. He played me in Madrid last year. He was a playing great and I beat him here a couple years ago. So we have been at each other and I think it was just a competitive match, could have gone either way with the tiebreak. But it was a tough match, here or there, a couple chances that I took in the tiebreak and that was it.

Q. With the Aussie athletes stepping and giving their own pledges and planning stuff, do you feel like enough is being done now or about do you feel like there's still more that should be or could be done by whoever it might be?
NICK KYRGIOS: I mean, there's always more that can be done. To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed in myself -- I don't know, like, we all were aware of what was going on, but, I mean, if anything, I think it's a bit late for us to be taking action. But, obviously, more can be done. But I think it's good that we now have a lot of -- I'm pretty sure all the athletes in Australia right now are aware of what's going on, so I think they should be helping.

Q. Have you had any -- have you followed at all the cancellation or the moving of the Challenger in Canberra?
NICK KYRGIOS: Yeah, it's moving to Bendigo now. I mean there was no chance it was going to be able to be played in Canberra. I was there two weeks ago and there was some days where it was like 600, like the air quality was around that range. So I was still training some days for like half an hour, but there was no chance -- I wouldn't make those people play through that.

Q. So it did affect your training with all the fires?
NICK KYRGIOS: I mean, I wouldn't -- even if I had fresh quality I wouldn't have trained that much, but (laughing) but, yeah, it affected my training. I mean, if I had lost today I would be like look, (laughing) but, yeah.

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