CITI OPEN

August 3, 2021

Tennys Sandgren

Press Conference

T. SANDGREN/J. Duckworth

6-3, 2-6, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How did it feel after the Olympics layover?

TENNYS SANDGREN: It's great to be here. I mean, the crowd was awesome. I haven't played in front of a crowd like that in a hot minute. It was a real pleasure honestly that they were getting behind me and helping me pull through that one.

Haven't had that much of a layover. Got in here on midnight Saturday. They thankfully gave me a Tuesday start, which is awesome. Just happy to be here really. Happy to be in the States for sure.

Q. You've now won matches at four of your last five events. Unfortunately that's something you haven't been able to say a lot this season. How are you feeling about your level of play heading into an American hard court summer where you have the opportunity to compete in front of fans?

TENNYS SANDGREN: That's great that I'm winning matches again. I've had not a good stretch of weeks this year, especially during the clay court swing. But just in general it's been a tough year. It was a tough fall, as well. By 'tough' I mean terrible.

To be playing well, I think playing really well, I mean, I'm still trying to find the level that I feel like is my best level and the level that gives me a chance to kind of compete with the best in the world. I feel like I'm getting close. Not quite there yet. Not quite solid enough. Not too many kind of lapses and lulls in matches where I'm for two, three games not really playing the way that I should and making stupid mistakes. So if I can figure that one out, keep progressing forward.

I feel like mentally I'm doing a better job of not letting entire sets escape my grasp. So, yeah, I feel like I'm turning in the right direction for sure, but there's still work to be done.

Q. Is it more mental or physical for you would you say this season, what you're looking to get to where you wanted to be? Today you looked good physically. Is it the mental side?

TENNYS SANDGREN: I think they play off each other honestly. The better I am physically, the better I feel conditioned to play long points and to grind out games, the better I handle things mentally.

When I start to get tired or when I don't feel like I can grind the way that I want to, it affects me mentally and it makes me more stressed, there's more anxiety around my tennis.

That being said, I still think the mental side is the important side for me. When I get that right, I'm not my worst enemy out there, I feel like I've got a shot to play well. If I'm not doing that well, then I really shouldn't be out there, honestly. Like, I don't feel like I'm talented enough to get by with that kind of mentality.

If my mental side is good, then yeah, I've got the game to hang in there, for sure. If that's not there, I better serve like 85% or else it's trouble for me.

Q. It would seem that qualifying at the US Open is kind of a special time, a family-friendly time, lots of kids who go there, free to get in. The USTA has announced that qualifying will be closed to the public even though the main draw play will be open to the public as long as you can afford a ticket. Do you have any opinion on that?

TENNYS SANDGREN: I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I didn't know that that was the case.

I mean, if you think about that, it seems like there's that discrepancy or there's like a double standard as far as what's allowed and what's not allowed. I mean, if you're allowed to be there for main draw, why shouldn't you be allowed to be there for qualifying?

If you're going to do one, then you do the other. If you're not going to do one, you wouldn't do the other, I would think. That's I guess my first -- that's my first reaction to that, would be I don't really get it.

But there's a lot of this stuff I really don't get honestly, so... It wouldn't be the first time I felt like there was a double standard or discrepancy there that just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.