THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 11, 2021

Samir Banerjee

Press Conference

S. BANERJEE/V. Lilov

7-5, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Just tell me how you're feeling right now.

SAMIR BANERJEE: I don't think it's sunk in. It's crazy. I think I'm really happy. I'm relieved for the most part because I know at 5-2 in the second, I lost two match points on his serve, and then my first match point on my serve I double-faulted. I think the nerves were definitely getting to me.

But I just said on my last match point, I want to make him play, I want to make him earn this point. Thankfully he gave me an error pretty early in the rally, so that was great. I don't know, that was something.

Q. You seemed to know where he was going to go with the ball, especially you were at the net, coming in off a good approach shot. You picked off an awful lot of passing shots. Is that from playing him before or something that you're starting to understand about grass tennis?

SAMIR BANERJEE: Yeah, no, I don't think that's about playing him before. Obviously his ball is familiar because I kind of like his ball because he gives a lot of pace, then I can use his pace, kind of create more.

I think it's more just adjusting to the grass throughout these two weeks. I think I realized it's a lot of first-strike tennis. If you hit a good ball, you should come to net. That's what I really tried to do here. Unless it's an unbelievable passing shot, you will have a chance to hit a volley. Oftentimes you don't have to hit an amazing volley, you just have to feel your way around it.

I think my game plan coming in was to try to take any short balls. It doesn't have to be a big ball, just has to be from the other side of the court. Come in and try to put the pressure on him. That's what I did.

Q. The first set you didn't get too set points, I think.

SAMIR BANERJEE: Yeah.

Q. Then he broke you the next game. It was 5-All. Things were getting a little tense there. How did you recover?

SAMIR BANERJEE: Yeah, no, it was tough. 5-2 I had two set points on his service game. He hit some good serves, and he played two good points.

Then my service game, I played a pretty sloppy game at 5-3, and 5-4 he played another good service game. I really just had to slow down and focus on my serve. I mean, he was on a roll. I had to do something to stop that.

Obviously my first serves came in very clutch for me. I hit a couple really good first serves that he didn't return. So I think that helped me out a lot. My serve got me out of a lot of tricky situations where if maybe he put the ball in play and I had to put a point out, it could have been tougher.

I think just refocusing after that, getting that 5-All game was huge. Then breaking the next game was big because I think that helped with my momentum and everything, yeah.

Q. What is your uncle's name?

SAMIR BANERJEE: His name is Kanad.

Q. He's on your dad's side?

SAMIR BANERJEE: Yes. He's my dad's brother, yeah.

Q. I wanted to ask you about your uncle. Does he live in London? Is that why he is here or did he travel with you?

SAMIR BANERJEE: No, no, no, he actually lives in New Jersey. He traveled with me to London. But he loves London. I mean, he knew we were going to be in a bubble so he knew we weren't going to really see much of London.

He was happy to come. He lives closer to the city, New York City. He lives in west New York, which is just, like, across the river, yeah.

Q. How come he was the one who traveled with you? Does he tend to go to your tournaments or was it so he was available?

SAMIR BANERJEE: No, he doesn't usually come. I mean, he took me to, like, a couple before. But my coach, I think I said this last time, my coach was supposed to come but he wasn't able to because his wife tested positive for COVID. But he had to quarantine.

Then last minute, I think like two days before we leave, both of my parents couldn't go because they were working, but we called my uncle, he just said, Yeah, I'm free.

It just worked out.

Q. What are you most proud of that you were able to do this week?

SAMIR BANERJEE: I'm most proud of how I think I kind of rebounded from the first week because the first week in Roehampton I lost second round in singles. I had a good doubles showing but singles wasn't great. I was just thinking about -- like I started overthinking, how would I do at Wimbledon, I don't know if I'm ready to play well on grass, all these things.

I'm really proud of how I competed and kind of gutted out some of those tough, tough matches. I think everyone I played was really good. I mean, they're the best in the world. So, I mean, I think my competitiveness and my drive to win kind of really helped me out in those moments.

Q. I wanted to ask you about your family. I wanted to know whether you're the only kid in your generation that plays sport, hopefully professionally, but in the juniors at a really high level? Is it, like, an odd thing to do? Because most Indian-Americans or most Indians, the premium is on education. How did you start playing tennis? Does somebody play at home?

SAMIR BANERJEE: Yeah, yeah, and I have a sister. She doesn't really play tennis. She's a lot more academic. She's a lot smarter than me (smiling).

My dad, he plays a lot of tennis actually. He played every weekend with a group of friends when I was like five or six. I'd come with him and I'd ref the match type of thing. I wasn't really doing anything (laughter).

After they finished playing, he used to feed me some balls. I actually started enjoying it. I played tennis, soccer, and baseball. I played that up until I was 11. Then I chose tennis. I just liked the individuality of the sport. I liked how it was all on me. If I do well, then I'll win. If I don't, then I'll probably lose.

I think that's really what drove me to pick tennis. Obviously I didn't think I'd take it this far. I just kept moving up the level, sectionals, nationals, now here. No, it's great to be here.

Q. Are your parents techies?

SAMIR BANERJEE: No, not really. My dad studied to be a chemical engineer in India. He came here. But now he works in finance, and my mom works in the pharmaceutical company. They're not in the traditional IT or any of that.

Q. Yesterday I recited a pretty illustrious list of former junior Grand Slam winners from America. What is it like to join that list? Also the fact that no matter what route you take in life, no one can ever take this moment away from you.

SAMIR BANERJEE: Yeah, no, it's crazy. It's crazy. I mean, just knowing that the past champions have gone on to do such good things on the pro tour, I mean, it motivates me, like I said. It motivates me to try to go pro.

Obviously college is still in the picture, but we'll see how it goes. I think I'm going to start playing some more futures coming up. We'll see how that goes. Maybe from there we can make a decision on what I should be doing, whether it be college or pro tennis.

I think this was a really good step. It kind of showed me that I can compete and win at this level.

Q. Are you at Centercourt? Is that where your coach is or is it a private coach now?

SAMIR BANERJEE: No, it's not at Centercourt. There's a lot of clubs taking credit. I used to go there, but I train with my coach, Carlos Esteban, who is in Sarasota, Florida. It's not really at an academy, it's a private place.

In New Jersey I don't really train anywhere. I mean, I hit with some good players in the area, like Michael Zhang and Nic Kotzen, Alex Kotzen. Most of my training is done in Florida, in Sarasota.

I did a two-week training block in Germany at Tennis University.

Q. Does this make you a favorite now for Kalamazoo? What do you think?

SAMIR BANERJEE: I don't know. That's a lot of pressure. Maybe my expectations will be a little higher for Kalamazoo. I'll try not to think about it too much. I feel like whenever I come in with lower expectations, I usually do better. So I'll probably try to set the bar low and see what happens.