WESTERN & SOUTHERN OPEN

August 26, 2020

Roberto Bautista Agut

Press Conference

R. BAUTISTA AGUT/D. Medvedev

1-6, 6-4, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Roberto earns his 12th career top-10 win today, and he will advance to his third ATP Masters 1000 semifinal. Questions, please.

Q. Was there something that you can point to as to how you turned around the match after the first set, pulled out your victory after three sets?

ROBERTO BAUTISTA AGUT: Well, it was not easy to make that comeback, no? I just started really bad today. Today I felt a big difference with the conditions today from the last two days, and, well, I felt the court much slower.

My hitting point was not great. I was missing a lot of balls. And just said to me that I had to compete, to try to do something different to stay closer in the score, and don't give up until the end of the match. And then I could start playing better and better.

At the end I finished the match playing well.

Q. Does it matter to you who your opponent is tomorrow? The semifinals? Do you have a preference?

ROBERTO BAUTISTA AGUT: No. I just now want to relax a little bit, to recover for a big match like today and to feel ready and to stay ready for tomorrow's match.

Q. I just wanted to hear from you how your bubble life is going. Is it kind of what you expected, or is it different than what you envisioned? Who are you hanging out with the most?

ROBERTO BAUTISTA AGUT: Well, it's going to be difficult for the other tournaments to copy the way the U.S. Federation did, no?

I think they are doing a really good job. They have everything under control. They give us all the facilities to play the tournament and to come back to tennis.

Tennis players, we all are happy to be back on the court and to be competing again.

Q. You sort of spoke about this a little bit on the court, but how difficult was it to stay positive when he was frustrating you so much in the first set?

ROBERTO BAUTISTA AGUT: Well, what I was saying to me, I was talking to myself to try to spend as many minutes on the court as possible, to take it like practice, to fight until the end.

And, well, I tried to don't give up, to mix the game a little bit, going to the net a little bit, mixing up with a slice and could make the score closer in the second set. Then was playing better and better and getting used to the conditions.

Q. Of course it's tough to tell after so much time off how someone is going to play in the first tournament back, so how pleased are you that you have already found such a high level right away?

ROBERTO BAUTISTA AGUT: I'm happy, no? I think I have been practicing hard. I have been doing a lot of great things at home.

But it's never easy to come back and to play good the first tournament, no? I think I have to be passioned to try to enjoy every single match I play here after six months without competing.

Well, just pleased and happy to be in the semifinal.

Q. I know you also spoke about Novak on the court, but the past three times you guys have played on hard courts have all gone your way. I'm just sort of curious what you took into those matches? Did you learn from your previous matches against him? And what do you think the keys are?

ROBERTO BAUTISTA AGUT: Well, Novak is a great player. He still has to beat Struff today. Struff is playing really good tennis this week.

Well, that's true that I played really good matches against Novak. I have to tell you that he didn't lose a match this year. He is the favorite, and I will try to play my game and try to enjoy another good match against him.