AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 20, 2022

Nick Kyrgios

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/N. Kyrgios

7-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Tough luck, Nick. Were you impressed by his performance? How do you feel you played yourself out there?

NICK KYRGIOS: Incredibly proud of my performance today. Obviously I believe that matchup-wise, I think if you asked everyone on tour, I think that he would be, I think they would probably vote him the best player in the world at the moment. His consistency. Every game he doesn't drop his level, he shows up every game, plays -- I think no matter what the score is or how much pressure he's under he never kind of gets flustered. He just has so much belief in his game. I think he led the tour in wins last year. He's just so confident right now.

To be honest, I threw everything I could at him. I thought I served consistently 220s, 220 kilometers an hour for three-and-a-half hours almost, and played pretty well from the back, created plenty of opportunities on return games.

I'm super proud of my performance today. From where I was with my struggles the last four, five months, to be feeling like this and, obviously had COVID a couple days before, you know, I'm just proud of the way I responded. I wouldn't have been able to do it without my team, as well.

You know, I'm going to hold my head high, I gave it everything, I put on a good performance. I think he's going to be favored to win the Australian Open. I can't be too upset.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. You talked so much about wanting to play in front of the Melbournians. What was it like to have that experience both on John Cain and center court?

NICK KYRGIOS: Rod Laver is special. At my point of my career, I know how quickly things, the ups and downs of life in general, I don't take any moment like that for granted.

You know, I was embracing, I could obviously feel the match was coming to an end so I was looking around and just embracing every little moment. Every little light in that stadium is special, because I remember when I was a young kid that was a court I remember watching a lot of tennis matches on, and one day I thought I was going to be there and entertaining millions of people. It became reality. It was a special moment for me tonight.

But, yeah, it was obviously, you know, a lot rowdier than it usually is on Rod Laver, and I think, as I have said it many times before, the thing the people of Australia need, needed this a lot.

Q. Daniil seemed quite upset about some of the noises between his serves. Do you think that's something that needs to be done for a bit of respect between...

NICK KYRGIOS: Yeah, I told the umpire, I also said that in my match against Broady that obviously the media didn't pick up, but I said, you know, You should tell the crowd not to scream out before, whether it's me -- I don't really care honestly too much if it's my serve. Obviously big points, no. But if it's like 40-Love, 1-up, I told the umpire, Tell the crowd to quiet down. My opponent might not like that.

I think it's actually the umpire's job to control the crowd rather than try to be the star, because no one came to watch the umpire play tennis. That's his job to control the crowd and monitor it. Like, a bit of common sense at times, giving someone a time violation at Love-40 down is probably not controlling the crowd. There are other things you could be doing in monitoring.

I thought the atmosphere was awesome. I thought the crowd was -- like, that's what sport is. You've got, like, you know, the most entertaining player playing in his home slam on Rod Laver. You'd expect the crowd to be like that. I can understand it's a gentleman's game, but it's about time that people embraced some sort of different energy in this sport otherwise it will die out. It's just that simple.

Q. You're talking about how proud you are with what you have achieved. Talk about how much you're encouraged, the fact that your preparation coming in over here was curtailed.

NICK KYRGIOS: What a word (laughter).

Q. How encouraged do you feel about what you did tonight and take it another level, as I'm sure you can, for the next few months?

NICK KYRGIOS: Look, I'm not looking forward at all. I'm going to enjoy tonight. As I said, I don't plan things, I don't really care what's going on in a month's time. I'll just take -- I'm going to look forward to going to have some dinner with my team, enjoy moments like that. Tomorrow I have some doubles.

We all know, like, people can doubt me as much as they want but they know I'm going to turn up and show up for matches like this. That's why the crowd is the way it is, that's why the tickets are the way they are, that's why the views are the way they are. It all speaks for itself.

Like, no matter how little I train or how much I play, I'll always lift for matches like this. I'm not going to shy away from it. Obviously I'm not happy with drawing Daniil Medvedev second round because my ranking slipped. If I play 95% of people tonight on that court I think I win, to be honest with you.

But that's just the way it is. I'm proud. I'm just proud of the way I carried myself. I fought. I gave a good show, and that's it. Like, I'm not thinking about tournaments and my next tournaments or anything like that. I want to just go home now, have some good dinner, and just vibe basically.

Q. There was a commentator on ESPN earlier today he was hearing rumblings this was your last year on tour.

NICK KYRGIOS: What?

Q. A commentator was saying on air he was hearing rumblings this was going to be your last year on tour. Is that fair, accurate?

NICK KYRGIOS: As I said, I don't know what I'm going to be doing in a year's time. I'm probably playing tennis but as I said, I don't know. Like, I don't know. Like, I'll probably be planning to play, but I'm just thinking about tonight and tomorrow. Staying with my feet up.

Q. Want to get your thoughts on the testing at the Australian Open. Obviously you just recovered from COVID. Seems like it's more of an honesty system and players don't have to test each day. Have you been testing yourself regularly? Do you think that maybe has alarm bells on it for next week as we progress out the two weeks?

NICK KYRGIOS: All the players are obligated to test, they're all being sent testing kits to test. And that's what I did in Sydney, I tested every day, and obviously tested positive. Like obviously me thinking, a week out of Australian Open, is this ideal, but that's what everyone in Australia is doing right now, you test. If you feel some symptoms, you should test. All the players are getting testing kits. You should be testing. Should be doing the right thing.

Q. (Question off microphone.)

NICK KYRGIOS: What do you want me to say? (Indiscernible) doctor?

Q. Do you have any idea when your next tournament is?

NICK KYRGIOS: Dallas.