THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

June 29, 2022

Thanasi Kokkinakis

Press Conference

N. DJOKOVIC/T. Kokkinakis

6-1, 6-4, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Your thoughts on today's match.

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Yeah, tough. Wasn't great from my end. Wasn't able to execute. He does everything right. It was pretty one-way traffic. It was frustrating. But, you know, yeah, got chopped today. Wasn't too much to it.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. When's the last time you played someone at that level?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Yeah, feels like a while. Maybe when I had Murray in Davis Cup. It was tough. The court felt slow. Again, obviously he has a big part to do with that, but I felt if I wasn't landing my first within sort of an inch of the line, it was tough. He was middling it and putting it back on my toes.

Yeah, he was too good today, wasn't letting me play my game and free up.

Then, yeah, just makes you work for a lot of things and just moves so well on it. When he got me moving, I felt like I was almost going to stack it every time I was wide. It was tough.

Q. Do you see anyone stopping him?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Hopefully not if he plays like that, because if someone beats him when he's playing like that it means I'm even further off than I thought. I hope not. Hope not if he plays like that anyway.

Q. Your doubles match has been canceled. I assume you guys are still playing, just rescheduled to tomorrow.

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Yeah, they came to me and said it was probably, with the rain delay, it was going to be on a little too late. I think, yeah, they are going to try for tomorrow.

Q. You guys really fed off the atmosphere when you won the Australian Open this year. I'm sure you are aware that Nick copped a fair bit of criticism for what happened yesterday and complaining about the crowd and spitting and everything like that. He's a mate of yours. What's your take on it? Some people say he went too far; some people say he copped too much. Where do you sit?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: I actually didn't see it. That's news to me. I didn't know he spat or anything like that. Yeah, obviously you don't want to be spitting too much unless you know you have a bit of phlegm you have to get out.

I'm not sure, mate. I didn't see what happened there. I just saw the result. It was good to pull it out because he was battling there for a while. Any win is a good win.

Again, I didn't see. Obviously you want to be respectable and that, but I didn't actually see what went on and what he said to the crowd. I know when he plays there is always some sort of drama. That's not too much news to me. As long as he obviously keeps it within reason.

Q. You are his teammate. Are there times you go, Oh, my God, calm down a bit? How does that play out?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Man, he's his own person. He can do what he wants. I don't know really what you want me to say here. You know, everyone knows how Nick is. He's a competitive player.

You know, some things happen on court a lot of people don't mean, but sometimes it comes out. I think it just shows he cares and wants to win. Obviously you want to be respectable and keep it within the boundaries.

Q. Do you think in your game today Novak actually increased intensity because of what happened to him back in Australia earlier this year?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: I don't know. You have to ask him that. I wasn't in his position.

Yeah, hopefully it did, because if that's not his top intensity, I'm going to get chopped even more next time.

As I said, he played great today. He returned unbelievable, just did everything well. I mean, I had that many rallies where I felt like he was at net as well, and he was just guessing the right way. Every passing shot I had I just didn't really see a way forward. Yes, I could have played better.

The crowd was great. Playing on that Centre Court was unreal. It was a great opportunity for me. Came out a little nervy. Again, he kind of got early breaks in most of the sets, and then when he opens up and frees up, it made it really tough for me.

Q. The fact that you have won through to the second round, first time in your career, do you feel you actually are making that breakthrough finally in the singles game?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Yeah, I mean, I've had my best year to date. I think the more I can play against those guys on those big courts, it's definitely a different feeling playing on an outside court to then coming there on Centre Court. I wasn't sure which way to walk onto court so I had to ask him going on the court.

A lot of firsts for me this year, a lot of things I haven't done. It's tough. The result didn't go my way today. I wish I could have played better. But, yeah, I'll just use it and be better for it going forward.

Q. Playing with Novak, like what did it feel like playing him and his kind of aura as being so great?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: He's a wall. It's playing a wall. That's what it felt like. It felt like he just did everything right. He had a high first-serve percentage, he returned great. He volleyed well. He just made things uncomfortable. Tactically he was on point against me. He was rushing me quick.

This is probably my least-favorite surface and I'm not super comfortable moving, especially after stacking it pretty bad sort of a month ago. I'm not super comfortable on this stuff. He definitely made me feel uncomfortable out there.

Q. In the locker room, what's his personality like?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: I don't know, because the seeds have a better room than I do (smiling). They're at the top locker room and I'm with the plebs at the bottom. I'm assuming his locker is pretty nice.

Q. How are you physically? I think we saw at one point reaching for your side.

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Battling a bit today, nothing too serious. It was my first match in over a month the other day.

So, yeah, I guess if there's one silver lining it's that when I went down I went down quick. The least toll on the body was best thing for me. Yeah, I'm a little sore, a few things going on. Nothing I don't think long term. I will just take care of that and I will be all right.

Q. Full steam ahead with five-set doubles?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Yeah, that's the plan. We'll see. Five sets, not ideal. But I don't know, I should be good to go. At least I'm only serving once in every four games. Yeah, it should be a bit easier than playing Novak, I hope.

Q. You said it was slow. Have been hearing that a lot this year. Is it any slower than normal to you?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Well, I mean, I have been out of the game for a while so I don't know what normal is. It definitely felt slower than the outside court.

Obviously he had something to do with that, being the great returner that he is. It just felt like -- I don't know. I couldn't hit a winner out there, and just the balls got big. It just felt like there was a lot of rallies, couldn't really -- I don't know. It just felt harder to get free points.

Again, I'm not sure why, maybe a little bit the court, obviously he has a big part to do with that. But it definitely didn't feel like a quick court out there.

Q. I couldn't believe you broke your string on the second point.

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: I didn't even shank it, too. I only had two racquets, so I was stressing. That kind of rattled me pretty early, I'm not gonna lie. I played like the best first point I've ever played in my life. I was, Here we go. Then I broke the string after hitting it in the middle. I was, like, That doesn't make sense because it was a fresh racquet. Then I was kind of holding on to one for a few until that one came back.

Q. How come you only had two?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Oh, I've changed a couple things. I could only get two in time. So if I broke a string, I had to send one back and rotate. It's tough.