THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

June 29, 2021

Jay Clarke

Press Conference

E. GERASIMOV/J. Clarke

6-3, 3-6, 7-6, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How did you feel the match went today?

JAY CLARKE: Yeah, it was tough. I mean, two days supposed to be second on after 11:00, going on I think at 6:00, 6:00 twice isn't easy.

He came out today, played well, made a couple of big returns, hit the line at 30-All. Took my service games to get the breaks. Two breaks down on grass with new balls isn't anyone's favorite position to return from.

Yeah, I did my best. I approached it the same I did yesterday, but he was just better.

Q. Just to sum up how tricky it was playing last night and coming back today with the rain, did that sort of throw you off your game a bit?

JAY CLARKE: Not really. I didn't play that good today. There was a couple of points early, yeah, early on that I missed, which yesterday I didn't miss. Yeah, that was kind of it.

Wasn't too much to do with, you know, waiting because it's quite normal to have, like, delays and long matches, as I said before. No, I just missed a few balls when normally I'd bet myself to make and put myself in trouble.

Q. How good was it to be back playing in front of a home crowd at Wimbledon? Wasn't the result you were looking for, but still plenty of support out there.

JAY CLARKE: Yeah, it was unbelievable, like, I actually had a lot of friends and family. Like, all my family came and I knew a lot of the people that were in the crowd as well.

It's so rare. That's why it's so good for me the grass season, having Nottingham because I'm from Derby, so two events there, then Queen's, Eastbourne, Wimbledon. You never really play in front of a lot of people cheering your name especially, especially the tournaments that I'm at.

So the fact that it's here and, yeah, I really enjoyed it. Really helped a lot. Especially yesterday.

Q. What positives will you take from this into the doubles and also your singles going forward?

JAY CLARKE: Yeah, lots, I think. The guy is 60 in the world for a reason. He beat a lot of good players. He's quite unorthodox. Doesn't move that well, but he's tough to play, keeps a lot of pressure on.

Yeah, another very good top-100 player that I had my chances against, especially yesterday. So, no, I'm obviously disappointed because I thought that I was the better player for like nine-tenths of the match yesterday, but then he played a good tiebreak, and then coming back today he had the cushion if he went for the stuff today, you know, he was getting to a fifth where I didn't.

But, no, I'm really looking forward to doubles, playing with Marius. He's a really good player, he's very experienced, and he's a good friend of mine as well. Hopefully, yeah, we can do well in that.