AUSTRALIAN OPEN

February 9, 2021

Tennys Sandgren

Press Conference

A. DE MINAUR/T. Sandgren

7-5, 6-1, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Bad luck on today's result. Just talk us through the match from your perspective.

TENNYS SANDGREN: Probably needed to win the first set to have a shot today. But the tennis was good for a little bit. My level kind of dropped off as his level got better and better, and I think the score kind of reflects that.

Q. Would that be probably -- you've come through one of the most brutal months of your life. Would that be fair to say?

TENNYS SANDGREN: No, definitely not one of the most brutal. Not ideal for training for a tennis tournament such as this, certainly not for a three-out-of-five-set match against Alex, who has not had similar training circumstances, but as far as difficult months or brutal, not brutal at all, no. To work out and play video game in my room, it's okay.

Q. Mentally challenging?

TENNYS SANDGREN: At times, at times, but you get used to things.

Q. Can you elaborate a bit more about how it affected your physical preparations for coming into --

TENNYS SANDGREN: How would you imagine prepping for a hot kind of muggy day, three-out-of-five sets against a player like that, that caliber, when you can't play tennis? You can't go outside? You can't. It's impossible. It's impossible. So I played last week's event, which probably wasn't a good idea. It wasn't hot, it was very mild conditions, and I played two hard three-set matches and I've never been more sore in my life after the second round, and I took two days off because I couldn't walk, and then I hit a couple times before today. I mean, it's just kind of a joke of preparation. But yeah. What are you going to do?

Q. How much time after 15 days without tennis would you need exactly to be in shape?

TENNYS SANDGREN: I mean, if the weather was more similar, maybe 10 days, maybe, to try to ease back into it. I mean, I lost my calluses, so my hands were blistering playing an hour of tennis today in humid conditions. Like stupid. So if the weather is similar, then maybe 10 days.

But if it's mild like it was last week and then hot and humid today, I mean, you can't prepare for that. You just suck it up and do the best you can.

Q. Benoit, the French player, said last night he thought the tournament was a bit of a joke because some players were in Adelaide quarantining, others were in Melbourne, different kind of conditions, some were locked down for the entire time, not able to train. Is that kind of how you look at it?

TENNYS SANDGREN: I don't know if the whole tournament is a joke. The tournament from my perspective might be. I've never walked on to a court in a Grand Slam knowing that I'm probably not going to be able to win. I'm physically not in shape enough to play with my opponent. I mean, my five-set record is pretty good when I get to a fifth set, I'm in great shape. And today I'm tired after an hour and 10 minutes. Like that to me is -- and it's a bit out of my control, and there's 75 other players in the men's and women's field that are in the same boat. It's a hefty number of people, and very good players.

I don't know, I wouldn't say the whole tournament is a joke, but for some players it's not feasible. It's just not feasible.

Q. What happens now? Do you get straight on a flight or --

TENNYS SANDGREN: I have doubles. I have doubles. I'm probably in good enough shape to play half court decently well. That being said, if it's hot and humid, maybe not.

Yeah, I don't want to play Acapulco and Miami, that's what I was scheduled to play next. I really didn't feel like going to Europe to play indoors and sit in a hotel room and not see the sunlight again. I did that in the fall. It was not a good time. That was my plan, but hopefully those events move forward, I don't know, but that's what I'm planning.

Q. Logistically getting on a flight, I imagine the options would be fairly restricted, wouldn't they?

TENNYS SANDGREN: From here? I'm not sure. I got an email last night about booking my return flight. I didn't really look at it because I was kind of thinking about today. I'm not going to book my return flight just yet, although like I said, I didn't feel particularly good about the match. I don't know, I guess there's some chartered flights again, or I don't know specifically, but I'm assuming they have some flights for us to hop on to certain locations, whether you're going up to Dubai or something or back to LA for me. I would hope so, yeah.