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AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 22, 2020

John Millman

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

J. MILLMAN/J. Hurkacz

6-4, 7-5, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How did you feel out there? Often for you, you have the marathon sessions. I was expecting this to be another tight five-setter.
JOHN MILLMAN: Yeah, definitely happy that I managed to limit my time there. It was actually pretty tough back up. It's not often -- actually, I don't know if I've ever done it where I've played two best-of-five set matches in consecutive days.

It was tricky out there, the conditions, the elements. It was not easy. There was a lot of wind. I don't know if you can see that on the television, but you can really feel it there. It made for probably a slightly ugly-ish match for a little until we found our groove a little bit.

Really happy. Sometimes you just got to get through those ones, live to fight another day at Melbourne Park. It's pretty cool.

Q. Looks like you're probably playing Roger Federer on Friday. What did beating Roger Federer do for your life in 2018?
JOHN MILLMAN: I've had to talk a lot more about him than I ever thought I would (smiling).

But look, obviously Roger is a class act. The way I see it is, you take a few snapshots, you have a few of those memorable moments that hopefully when you finish playing tennis you can think back and think that was pretty cool. That was one of those moments. That was one of those really special nights at Arthur Ashe, packed crowd there.

I played some really, really great tennis. He probably didn't play his best tennis. I managed to do something that not many people thought I could do. It was an awesome experience.

But I do know that that doesn't really count for anything now. It's probably the toughest test in tennis to versus Roger Federer. I think a lot of people think he's one of, if not the, greatest ever to play the game.

I know between now and then I'm going to have to do everything right in terms of my preparation, going to have to improve upon my performances, no doubt. He's looked in really good form. But at least I know a little bit what to expect. I played him now a few times.

The good news is I'll go out there and you start out at 0-0. What you can expect from me, my coaching team, friends, family, what they can all expect from me is that I'll go out there and give it a crack.

Regardless of the score at the end of the day, I'll go out there and leave it all out there. If lightning strikes twice, I wouldn't say no to it. Look, it's what you want to do. You don't play sport to not want these moments. Home slam against someone like Roger, it's pretty cool.

Q. You said you might request to play on a court other than Rod to get the crowd on your side.
JOHN MILLMAN: Yeah.

Q. Were you just joking or would you seriously...
JOHN MILLMAN: Of course, but I don't think Craig will take me too serious. More so just to throw a spanner in the works for Roger. I don't know if he knows the other courts. He hits on the outside ones, but he hasn't played too many. I don't know if he would have played too many matches on the outside ones.

Look, I love a vocal crowd. Obviously the matches I played, probably two really special courts, Show Court 3 and Melbourne Arena, are notorious for the crowd support you get there, the vocal Aussies.

I very much consider myself, and I think the people who know me, know that I'm just your typical Aussie bloke. So I'm one of the people. The people get the ground passes and the people go to those courts.

Look, I know it's a little corporate at Rod Laver, but it's still a pretty cool court to play on.

Q. Are you in as good a nick as New York 2018?
JOHN MILLMAN: Going into New York, going into that slam, I was really worried. I was actually playing I thought pretty average tennis. Really was high stress. I pulled out two weeks before, I had a back problem. I think I lost first round in Winston-Salem.

In terms of my performances, this year has actually been great. 2020 so far I've won plenty of matches. I think that's really cool to have that good bit of momentum.

When I did play Roger, that was a round of 16 match. I've gone even one further round. By that stage I felt really good with the conditions. I was really feeling the ball well there.

You never really know, to be honest with you, till you walk out on court and hit the first few balls, kind of try to settle yourself in as early as possible because these guys are such good frontrunners.

You start to realize, Oh, okay, tonight it's actually feeling pretty good. You don't really know till you go out there.

Look, I'm really happy so far with how the season's gone. This is as good of a season start as I've had for I think that I've ever had. In that regard, feeling pretty good about it.

Q. More than a few extended rallies tonight. You said before that the court seemed to being playing slow and the balls tend to play slow throughout this tournament. Have you thought about how you can use that to your advantage on Friday?
JOHN MILLMAN: Look, I think for me, I try to make things as physical as possible. I've got to try to do that. That's how I play. I've got to try to keep as good a quality as possible because we know that Roger transitions so well, he jumps on anything short. He's so good at moving in and out of the court really quickly. I'm going to have to keep really good quality of shot.

Hopefully it's slightly heavy conditions. I prefer the slightly heavier conditions like you have up in Brissy. Probably not too dissimilar to New York, when you get those humid nights, and you feel as if you can really crush the ball and they'll drop in. I'm big on those types of conditions.

We'll see. I haven't really looked at too many weather things. It was super hot I remember in New York. I don't think we're going to get that here. Melbourne's not really been turning it on too much with the weather, has it?

But, look, the balls are pretty heavy, I think. Historically the courts get a little quicker as they go. I don't know if I'll get a hit on Rod Laver beforehand. I wouldn't have a clue how that court is playing. I doubt I'll probably get a hit. I have some doubles tomorrow.

Unless I want to stay around until 10:30 or rock up here at 7:30, I don't think I'll hit on it until I walk out and hit the first ball of the new four-minute warmup.

Q. Reversing the take on 2018, what do you reckon Roger took out of that match?
JOHN MILLMAN: He beat me in Halle, to be honest with you. He beat me in Halle on the grass there where he has a street named after him (smiling). He pretty much owns that tournament, I reckon.

Look, I wouldn't know personally. But I feel as if Roger, one of his best qualities is the fact that he moves on pretty quickly. I think he did that. I think he moved on pretty quickly from that, and he put together a pretty good kind of 12 months after.

I'm sure he'll be confident in himself. He's got every reason to be super, super confident in himself. He's won umpteen Grand Slams and all that.

Look, I think he'll treat it as another match obviously. Probably even he'll be that much more determined to kind of nip me in the bud.

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