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ATP CUP

January 4, 2020

Dusan Lajovic

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

D. LAJOVIC/L. Harris

3-6, 7-6, 6-3

Serbia - 1

South Africa - 0

THE MODERATOR: First question, please.

Q. Happy new year. How -- you kind of turned that around in the second set tie break, a pretty big shift there. How did you turn it around?
DUSAN LAJOVIC: Happy new year as well. Tough match. I was clean there in the second set, I was very close every game to break him and I was putting pressure on his serve and I think he was feeling it and that was the key in the tiebreak as well. Because every return game I was winning two, three points and having break points, so I knew that I had, if I stayed confident in the tiebreak I'll have my chances. And after the tiebreak he went down physically a little bit. And I almost brought him back in the match when he broke back after I broke him. But I think that the physical part was a big key in the third set. And in the beginning I didn't feel so good on the court, but as the match went on I relaxed a little bit and I was able to find my own rhythm.

Q. What did you think of the atmosphere? Seemed like you really gained a lot from the fans.
DUSAN LAJOVIC: Oh, yeah, it was great, a lot of Serbians out there. We didn't expect so many of them on the first day but it was like playing in front of the home crowd, almost like Davis Cup, and they were really supporting me good and helped me a lot. I think that for the first day for us it went great with the crowd and getting the win and now putting less pressure on Novak. So I think that it started off well for Team Serbia.

Q. What do you think of Lloyd's game overall?
DUSAN LAJOVIC: I already played him once and he beat me in straight sets and for me it was looking that way in the middle of the match. And I think that he's got a great game, he's still young, but the good thing is that he's defending well and attacking well, which is very, which is a big advantage when you're -- he's pretty tall, I mean, and when you're that tall and he's a really good athlete so his serve is perfect, I would say; maybe second serve a little bit has space to improve, but first serve is, I mean, really well, he's jumping a lot on his serve. And I like how he plays, it's not easy to play him and today you could see that he's going to have a great future.

Q. Talk about your off season. What did you do, how do you feel coming in?
DUSAN LAJOVIC: Yeah, it was short compared to the previous years that we had time because from Davis Cup straight to holiday one week and then starting the pre-season I had only three weeks. I was in Barcelona for the last -- this is my fourth year there with the same team and I really enjoy it there, it's actually 10 minutes away from Barcelona on the beach, same place where is the Galo Blanca Academy, that's the courts we use, and it's a really nice town, peaceful and then we do fitness sessions on the beach in the afternoon and I really like it there. And I think that for me -- in the past I was going to Kenya, I don't know if you remember -- for five years and it's a bit far and then you have to travel all the way to Australia, so this is a little bit more convenient, I would say.

Q. That was your off season base before, Kenya?
DUSAN LAJOVIC: Yeah, I went there for five years when I was -- I'm still with a managing agency there and they have some tennis courts and houses there and the climate is similar to Australia, so that's why we were doing it there. And once you get there it's really nice, but it's just tough to get there, a long way. And then I was connecting there with the Australian trip and then in the beginning of the year, two months away, and then South America, North America, first three months, six continents almost, so it was not easy.

Q. What do you want to do this year to build off such a great year you had last season, what are your goals for this year?
DUSAN LAJOVIC: Well first of all I had a lot of issues with I would say injuries because they were chronic injuries with the shoulder and elbow and lately the knee a little bit. So last three years I've been using anti-inflammatories 80 percent of the time, which is terrible for stomach and for, in general, for liver. And now I'm pills-free, which is first time in three years, it's a great achievement and I would like to stay that way. So that's my first priority. Second priority is to play less weeks, because I played a lot last two, three years, so this year I'm going to shorten the amount of tournaments playing and my goal is still to keep improving and I think I can go to the next step, the next level to break the Top-20, because I was on the verge last year and I believe that this past season gave me the confidence to see that I can do it and if I work hard I believe that I'm going to have chances and you have to use those chances.

Q. How were you able to get off the anti-inflammatories? What did you do different?
DUSAN LAJOVIC: Well I did a lot of like rehab exercises, but with constant playing it's tough to really take it off. And then all of a sudden it was going less and less and we just tried to lower the dosage. And at the end I just said, I cannot take this any more, because I was feeling a little bit mentally not great every morning and every night putting a little poisonous pill in my body. But it's a part of the process, I guess, and professional athletes have constant issues with the body, so I think it's pretty normal, but it's better this way.

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