AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 17, 2022

Dusan Lajovic

Press Conference

D. LAJOVIC/M. Fucsovics

6-3, 4-6, 6-1, 6-7, 6-1

Q. Obviously a long one today. You know you've played Davis Cups and ATP Cups with Novak. What are your thoughts on the scenario the last few days?

DUSAN LAJOVIC: Well, I know that everything that happened was far from what anyone could imagine, and I would just say this once. I think the way they treated him was terribly wrong. I think the decision itself was terribly wrong, and also the reason why they did it is also for me terribly wrong because based just an idea, I don't think it's the right way.

I hope that in the future he will be the best tennis player in history and that this will be only looked at as a setback on his path to be the best tennis player to ever play the sport. This is my opinion, and I don't think there is more to add to it.

Q. Obviously it seems like he's potentially going to face similar issues in America, for example. Where do you see this going? What is the solution to this for Novak?

DUSAN LAJOVIC: Yeah, the future of it depends on the pandemic, on the spikes, on the government mandates and everything else. Obviously there will be some tough decisions to make.

I mean, we can't be talking now, if it happened, what will happen. Right now the situation is like this, but this can also change, and I hope that at the end players will be able to play the tournaments in a way that they feel it's best for them.

Q. How hard is it to try to prepare when you are dealing with different rules and changes to the rules?

DUSAN LAJOVIC: Well, in my own personal experience, it was tough to -- after the tour started again, it was tough to travel and play tennis and then be in these different situations, especially in the indoor tournaments where you only see the tennis court and the hotel room and you can't go out. Obviously the past couple of months has been better where we could live more close to normal, and obviously what was normal now is not maybe.

But I think the big step forward is that it's slowly coming back to as it was before, and we'll see now with the new variant how it's going to go, but I think that it will be very difficult to go back where we played in front of the empty stadiums and had to be confined in the hotel rooms.

Q. Are you slightly disappointed that more players on the tour haven't publicly come out and supported Novak? Nick Kyrgios did quite publicly, but not too many others.

DUSAN LAJOVIC: Nick the Serb? (Laughter.) Yeah, as I said in Serbian press when all this started, I was in touch with Novak and I offered him my support, and obviously the decision where he was was incredibly difficult.

The top guys, I don't know their opinions and I was trying to stay out of the media because there was so much information that was not correct, and just to get in all of this would be probably pointless. I saw that some of the guys did support him. Many from the top did not, but maybe from their point of view they know that Novak is one of the favorites for the title, so for them they have one obstacle less in this case. I don't know if that was their point of view or not.

But I think that there was a lot of support. When I talk to the guys, we talk in the locker rooms and all around the tournament, and from my point of view, the support was big. Maybe not in social media or stuff like that, but just another thing. Personal connections and the support that he has from people from Serbia and Serbian teammates and all around Serbia, they were all behind him.

As you said, it was not as maybe should be, but I don't know what are the reasons for this kind of decision from the other players.

Q. It was reported that your opponent today was critical of Novak to the Hungarian media last week. Were you aware of that?

DUSAN LAJOVIC: No. What happened?

Q. Well, it was reported that --

DUSAN LAJOVIC: No, as I said, I really don't read media, I only see what happens in sometimes Twitter, and basically that's it.

Q. Can you take us through the match?

DUSAN LAJOVIC: Yeah, it was a tough match, tough opponent, and I lost the previous two times to Marton. It was a long match, but physically I felt like I was on top of it. My game was much better than in the last couple of weeks, and I was able to start from the beginning the way I wanted to control myself and my own game plan. There were some up and downs in the second set, and I would say toward the end of the fourth set I had some chances to finish it in four, but he's a very stable opponent that doesn't really give you a lot, and it went to the fifth.

But I felt that my game was really solid, and at this point if I continue like this, I would be able to produce more chances.

Unfortunately I think he struggled a little bit physically in the beginning of the fifth, and I was able to use it to my advantage, and obviously the fifth set was mostly the physical fight today.