MURRAY RIVER OPEN

February 7, 2021

Daniel Evans

Press Conference

D. EVANS/F. Auger-Aliassime

6-2, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Dan, congratulations on your first ATP Tour title. How does that feel?

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, it was a good day. I played well. Just happy with the week. Good preparation going into next week.

Q. When you put your hands in the air and pointed to the crowd, who were you pointing out?

DANIEL EVANS: Just to one of my friends and the other Brits to come out to watch, and my girlfriend. Obviously it's been the last two finals, so it was good to get over the line. It's been a difficult week trying to sort out all the practice, very busy, so they've helped, yeah.

Q. Who have you got with you on your team this year?

DANIEL EVANS: My girlfriend and just a friend from Sydney is here. I'm having a bit of an issue with coaching at the minute, so yeah, I need to sort that situation out. But I'm just trying to find, yeah, a coach which suits me and my game, yeah.

Q. Was there any way in which maybe looking at this as just getting your feet underneath you for next -- for the Australian Open that gave you some kind of freedom or liberated you to just play more freely, or how do you explain through all the challenges you break through this week?

DANIEL EVANS: I mean, if I'm being honest, I didn't have a great two weeks' practice. I played okay, but it was difficult and sort of moved away from the sort of things I was used to working on whilst trialing with a new coach. It seemed the start of this week, I really set in stone that I would get back to what I was good at, and it really reinforced my game style and my game plan, and I never really wavered from that.

I think the last three matches I really put my game on the court and was decisive on how I was going to play, made clear decisions, and to come forward and be aggressive. The match point probably summed it up, to hit forehand down the line and finish at the net was sort of a pretty good way to finish it.

Q. Obviously winning the title today is a great achievement, but is it as big a deal as playing in the Australian Open? How do the two compare?

DANIEL EVANS: No, I mean, I'm past this week now, and I'll recover, and I'll look back and it's a good achievement after I've finished in Australia. But the proper tournament starts tomorrow. I'm not stupid, you know. I'm lucky Stan pulled out, and all respect to Jeremy Chardy, it's an easier match than Wawrinka. You've still got to take your chances and there's no better practice than matches for me.

Listen, I want to do well next week, but delighted with how today went and this week, but it's over now, and look forward to Tuesday.

Q. Is this the best form you've been playing in your life would you say, going into the Australian Open?

DANIEL EVANS: Like I just said, I'm guessing you could hear, okay, I really got my game plan right. Difficult two weeks in quarantine with trialing a coach and stuff really emphasized the way I need to play and probably not the way I was playing in quarantine and the way I practiced probably really made me focused on my actual game this week and to be aggressive, come to net.

Yeah, so it was a bit of a reality check, really, that I could -- don't stray away from my game, and I put it on the court this week, my game style, and it worked.

Q. Could I just ask you for a word on your box? You thanked them in your victory speech for sticking by you over the years. Just talk about them and the support they've given you down the years.

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, it's not easy being around tennis. They wait around all day. They get to watch the matches, which probably is not the easiest thing, either. Obviously I hit the balls, but all the other little things which you don't see, they have to do. It's not always so glamorous out here. Yeah, just so thankful. It's always nice to thank them and probably don't do it enough. So yeah, just said thanks to them.

Q. We didn't catch everything at the beginning, but in yesterday's presser you kind of slightly downplayed the significance of a title. Now you've won it; do you think it does mean something to you? Is it one of your goals? You don't often sort of talk about what your aspirations are in the game. Was winning an ATP title one of them?

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, I mean, I said to -- just before my ban, I said to Hilts that year I wanted to make final. The goal that year was to win a title, obviously didn't get a chance and come back and lost in the final. Of course I wanted to win one, but today was just another match, really. I approached it in that way. Yeah, everybody wants to win. It's a great feeling to win. But you know, it's a pretty unique situation we're in where I was warming up today and normally in the final you're warming up there's nobody around, but here you just about find a spot to warm up because everyone is getting ready for Australia.

So yeah, it was good to be out there and win, but like I said last year, this year I wanted to do well in the bigger events. I didn't have great Grand Slams last year, albeit a strange year, but my focus is on this week now. I've got a tough match against Cam and hopefully get through that one.

Q. It's funny, when we spoke a couple of months ago, you said you didn't want to play the week before the Australian Open so that you could feel a bit fresher. Obviously I know circumstances changed and that's where we are, but how do you feel physically and mentally and coming in with a bit of form as opposed to resting or not playing as you had planned?

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, ideally I would have liked to play the first week and then rest, but I made a decision at the start of the week that matches, especially in the situation I find myself in with no coach, matches would be the best practice. Way less things to organize, as well.

It just worked out pretty good, and I went about it positively. I didn't play great in the first two rounds, and I find my game in the matches, it was difficult, especially the first two matches. I didn't feel great at all.

Hanging in, I found my level in the end, and yeah, I mean, here we are. I played good tennis the last three matches, probably some of the best stuff I've played. But again, I really sort of reiterated to myself the way I needed to play in a pretty unfortunate situation in the two weeks where a trial period didn't go great for me, so it really reiterated the way I wanted to play so the first two weeks wasn't wasted, so yeah, it was a bit of a blessing in disguise.

Q. Your game obviously presents different challenges to your opponents than what many sort of modern game styles do. I think you're up to about 25, 26 in the world now. Do you think that your game realistically could take you sort of closer to the top 10 or maybe just inside it? And completely separately, I was wondering what you made of the speed of the courts going into the Open.

DANIEL EVANS: The way I played this week was way less physical. I definitely felt that. I put my game on -- I keep saying it, but I really played my game and was a bit more sure to points, probably chip/charged a bit more than I normally do. But yeah, I mean, I don't know about the rankings. I'm just trying to focus on each match I get a chance to play and really enjoy getting out there again. It's been a long time since we got a chance. Paris was the last time, and it was a bit of a dead end to the year. It didn't feel great in Paris because it was very, very strict and end of sort of the bubble life.

It was nice to be quite free out here and get back to some normality. The ranking, I don't know, and the court speed is -- I don't think it's much different to -- I've always found it quite quick here, but a lot of people say that the show courts are a bit slower, but I found the court today pretty much the same as the outside.

Q. You mentioned that you want to play better at slams. I'm curious what for you is the difference, because you've obviously had great success at 250s and 500s against many top-20 players, so what is the difference in those big events for you?

DANIEL EVANS: I mean, obviously three out of five sets is very physical. I didn't think I played awful last year. Just obviously we missed one slam, probably one of my better slams, and I didn't do great here. I probably played the week before when I shouldn't have after ATP Cup.

So it was more looking after myself before the slams, not so much during.

Obviously US Open we were, not forced, but with a Masters Series before, again, had to play the week before, and it just didn't work out. I won one match and then played a pretty erratic match against Moutet. I was just looking after myself really.

This week wasn't that physical really, and I feel pretty good going into Tuesday.

Q. You mentioned that you're enjoying it being a bit freer out there. Is there anything you've particularly enjoyed being able to do in Melbourne that you weren't in Paris? And you may have done this at the beginning but I couldn't hear, that friend of yours that you mentioned, can you tell us a bit more? I think you said it was a local guy who comes around to be here for these matches. Can you tell us a bit more about him?

DANIEL EVANS: I mean, just going out to get breakfast in the morning, have a coffee is pretty -- can't do that at home now, so enjoying that. Go out to restaurants on the night.

Yeah, nice to just see a few more people, you know, live a bit normal life, which obviously at home it's unfortunate we can't at the minute.

Yeah, my friend, he just enjoys tennis. He comes each year to the tournaments in Australia and has done now for -- I think he said he's been to 10 Grand Slams now, so it's pretty -- sports fan, I guess. He can't be because he likes watching me play tennis.