ROLAND GARROS

June 1, 2021

Alex De Minaur

Press Conference

A. DE MINAUR/S. Travaglia

6-2, 6-4, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Your comment, your thoughts on today. You've beaten him before but this could have been a much more dangerous match compared to the last one being on clay which would be his preferred surface but you appeared to handle him pretty well.

ALEX DE MINAUR: Yeah, look, I'm actually very happy with that win. It's a very tricky match, and coming in I obviously had a lot of respect for him and respect for this match because I knew it was a very complicated match, where I think I handled my side of the court exactly how I needed to, and I got the job done. I weathered the storm at times and managed to beat a very good clay courter.

Yeah, happy with it.

Q. You've had trouble in the first round here before. How important was the way you started because you had such a strong start the first set and really built your game around that?

ALEX DE MINAUR: Yeah, I said it before, I think especially here at Roland Garros, getting a good start is such a big important step. I'm very happy I was able to start well and kind of get that two-sets-to-Love lead and scrape that third set.

It's all about just slowly trying to feel better and better on the clay, and here at the French. So I'm happy to get a win under my belt and building confidence through it.

Q. Second French Open running you come up with Marco Cecchinato. What are your thoughts going into it this time? And last October it was straight sets from memory.

ALEX DE MINAUR: Yes. Look, another clay courter, very, very tough opponent. Look, it's another opportunity for me to go out and show what I can do on the clay.

It's going to be interesting what kind of weather we have to deal with because I don't think we've got too much sunshine coming in the near future, so we'll have to wait. It'll probably be a very heavy, heavy match, tough match, tough battle, so I'm looking forward to it.

Q. I wanted to ask you about today's match. Do you think the second game, the second set where you managed to hold for 1-All, you had the six break points, do you think that was the turning point? Do you think the match could have taken a different road if it hadn't been for that service hold?

ALEX DE MINAUR: You know, often one of my bigger things in my matches is I'm normally the one to have 20 break points and not be able to convert them. So it was actually a good feeling to be on the other side of that, and I was very happy how I played those break points. I managed to save a lot of them, and the ones I had I managed to convert.

Normally it's the other way around, and it's something that gives me nightmares, so I'm happy it was the other way around today. Yeah, I just think I played those points really well.

Q. John Millman withdrew yesterday morning and mentioned that he suffered that back injury during a practice session with you on Saturday. What do you remember of that incident, and have you had much to do with him in the days since then and since he's withdrawn?

ALEX DE MINAUR: Yeah, look, I feel incredibly bad for Johnny. I know he would have been absolutely shattered, and there's probably no guy on tour that would want to play more than he would.

I did notice when I hit that his back wasn't great. I didn't know of course the extent of it, and it was obviously extremely disappointing to see him have to withdraw. Yeah, he would have been shattered.

I haven't been able to hear much about him. I've sent him a message to kind of see how he's going, but I've been through that. It's not pretty. It's probably one of those moments where you just want to switch your phone off and just deal with your own thoughts for a while. And hopefully he can recover as soon as possible and we'll be able to see the one and only Johnny Millman back on tour.

Q. He mentioned that you both had put in a really good block of training leading into this tournament and that was part of his frustration. Can you tell us about your preparation leading into Roland Garros?

ALEX DE MINAUR: Yeah, it was an interesting one because was able to get Johnny and Jordan to come over to Spain and stay at mine, and we were able to have a nice little training block. I was able to show them around my kind of -- where I grew up, my courts, kind of the simple things in life. So it was a great training block. We really trained the house down.

And I understand his frustration completely because he was ready to go. He was hitting the ball great, and yeah, it's tough.