MURRAY RIVER OPEN

February 3, 2021

Dan Evans

Press Conference

D. EVANS/P. Sousa

6-3, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Can you talk us through your match and let us know how you were feeling on the court today.

DAN EVANS: Yeah, it was a difficult match. First match of the year. Didn't play great. It's good to come through. I had some difficult situations, so it's nice to win and be through to the second round.

Q. The general atmosphere out there in this kind of unusual set up with all these different tournaments kind of thrown out there together at the same time, a packed schedule, tons of players out there, courts being used, all of that after a long period of inactivity. I just wanted to ask what your impressions were of it and if it seems as unusual being a player during that as it does being somebody seeing it from the outside?

DAN EVANS: Not for me. I mean, to be honest I think they have obviously done a great job to get so many playing opportunities out there. But, yeah, for me I just concentrate on who I play that day and that's it, really for me and get out there, compete hard and then try and get a win.

I think the beauty of this is if you lose you've got the next week ready to -- you can just go straight back out and prepare, you've not going to travel anywhere, obviously practice courts are not ideal right now, but there's plenty of off site. So I think it's never good to lose, but you're straight into another tournament on Monday and you've got, you don't have to travel anywhere. I think that's a pretty good thing.

Q. This is obviously a very unusual situation to be in, never before and hopefully never again will we have six tournaments happening in the one week at the same venue. Does it make it a little bit tougher to concentrate for yourself and do you also keep an eye on what's happening at the other events around you this week?

DAN EVANS: No, I don't think it's tough to focus. Me I haven't looked at any of the other events. I've seen matches on and followed scores, but I haven't been actively checking the draws of the other events. I think it's pretty cool, I think, that the six events or five events, I'm knots sure how many, at one time. It's sort of like when you were a junior playing junior tennis there was so many events, different age groups at one place. I think it's a good thing that maybe just there's some people out there that might just make them realize why we play and it's not going to be perfect all the time and it's a bit of a reality check, I think, for like what, how good we had it before.

Q. You were just saying about being a first match and maybe a bit patchy, etcetera. But if there was anything that pleased you today what would that be and if there had to be something specific you felt you needed to work on, what would that be?

DAN EVANS: Yeah, I could have probably served a lot better, but then I was pretty pleased with how I served on bigger points, so, yeah, always first matches are always difficult, full stop, in any tournament. But first match of the year, such a long period of inactivity I guess is a little harder to get into the swing of things. I was a little slow -- the small intricacies which play matches help you with, I was missing it a bit today. But it's good to get a win and another chance.

Q. How did you handle the quarantine? Did you come up with any creative ideas and thoughts on staying in tune in the room?

DAN EVANS: No, I did my five hours every day. I thought it was nice to get out for five hours and tennis was pretty secondary in the five hours. It was nice to just get a bit of fresh air and just live pretty normal for those five hours.

My girlfriend, she was in the room, obviously on hard lockdown, because you can only have one other person out, so it was, I couldn't, I can't complain too much, yeah, it was fine for me.

Q. If you would look ahead to the next match against Marcos Giron. You've not played him before, do you know much about him and what are your thoughts going into that match?

DAN EVANS: No, he had a pretty good year last year. I think the year before he did well in Indian Wells. I think everybody out here's a good tennis player, so it's another tough match and I'm sure it will be a good match and hopefully I can play my game and win.