ATP CUP

February 2, 2021

Peter Polansky

Milos Raonic

Denis Shapovalov

Steven Diez

Team Canada

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Peter, that must be a tough one to swallow, but I'm sure you're very proud of your team.

PETER POLANSKY: Yeah, for sure. Very proud of the boys today. They put in good work out there, coming in for two matches especially. Not easy on the body when you have to play with so little time in between.

I appreciate them playing with everything on the line today. Like you said, it was a tough one out there. The quality of tennis was very high. The two matches we lost were decided by a handful of points. That's just how it ended up today.

Q. Denis, your level was very high to kick things off here. How would you rate your performance?

DENIS SHAPOVALOV: Not good enough.

Q. But the level was there at some stage.

DENIS SHAPOVALOV: Yeah. I mean, I said that before going into it. Just going to keep working. Hopefully I can get the win for Canada tomorrow. Of course, it's not a doubt that the level's there. Obviously it wasn't good enough today.

Q. What was it like to have a bit of spectators there? What difference does it make? Do you notice? Are you happy to have people watching?

PETER POLANSKY: Well, I'm sure the boys loved playing in front of some fans tonight. Like you said, it's not something -- it's kind of odd these days to be playing in front of a crowd. As small as it was today, with social distancing, I'm sure the boys had a lot of fun.

Yeah, now it's a privilege to play in front of a crowd, whereas before it was almost the standard to be playing in front of a full stadium.

Times are a little bit different. In the end I don't think it really affects the level of play or how the guys go into a match. Obviously even personally for myself, it is a little more enjoyable playing in front of a crowd with the energy, they get into it, the energy is there.

Q. Denis, can you offer a thought or two on that?

DENIS SHAPOVALOV: Yeah, I mean, obviously I like playing in front of fans. But in today's case, it was probably better that there wasn't too many fans. Playing last year with the Serbian fans was not a lot of fun.

Yeah, so I think today was better that there wasn't that many fans. Obviously I'm thankful for the Canadian supporters that came out. Yeah, I felt like they were pretty loud. It was nice to hear from them.