OMNIUM BANQUE NATIONALE

August 10, 2022

Nick Kyrgios

Press Conference

N. KYRGIOS/D. Medvedev

6-7, 6-4, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Nick, great match. You beat the world No. 1. How do you feel?

NICK KYRGIOS: Yeah, it was a tough match. I mean, I didn't go out there thinking that he was world No. 1. We played each other three times. He's beaten me once, I've beaten him twice.

I knew he was feeling confident so I had to come out there with a game style that wasn't going to give him too much rhythm. I served and volleyed pretty much every point.

I've been serving well, volleying pretty well. I thought why not completely switch it up. I returned really well today, too. Had two set points in the first set. I was right there from the get-go. So I'm really happy with the way I performed.

It's just one match, though, in the scheme of things. That's tennis as well. This is not going to elevate my ranking into the top 10. It's just one match, so I need to get ready for the next one.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. After the first set, what was your mindset? You came back to your chair and you just empty out your mind? How did you address the second set?

NICK KYRGIOS: I had chances in the first set. I was right there. He hit two unbelievable serves on set point. I felt as if I was right on top of the match. I felt like I deserved to win the first set.

I just kind of reset. I looked at my team. You kind of see what we did last week. We had a great week. I kind of took the pressure off myself a little bit. I was like, Let's just have a little bit of fun, free swing a little bit on returns.

I ended up returning really well the first game of the second set. Broke him. Kind of the momentum changed from that point on.

I executed well on big points today. I feel like my game and my confidence under pressure is at an all-time high. That's all I did really.

Q. How do you like the reaction of the crowd? You sent some balls out of the stadium. After you cheered them up. It was more a love-hate situation, I think?

NICK KYRGIOS: I mean, I do whatever I want to do out on the court. I try and just play the way I want to play. Whether the crowd doesn't like me or likes me... The stadium was full again. That's all I know.

Q. Physically how do you feel? You came pretty late from Washington. Physically are you still good to go, 100%?

NICK KYRGIOS: I mean, look, this far into the season, I feel like everyone is kind of carrying a little bit of a niggle, not feeling physically fresh.

But, I mean, I definitely feel like I'm getting to the point of I'm waking up, I'm feeling a bit tired, my warmups are a bit shorter. I'm kind of trying to do the bare minimum to reserve my energy for the matches. Today I literally warmed up for about 10 minutes, then I got back inside, I was on the physio table.

This time around it massive for me to have my physio with me full-time. I couldn't do that last year because of COVID. It was hard to manage my body. Now I'm getting two, three hours of work every day. I'm able to back up matches a lot better than I probably ever have.

But yeah, I mean, look, I'm in a good mindset. My mind is positive. My girlfriend keeps me positive. My team around me, they all know mentally it starts with that. If I'm going to wake up every day and be like, I don't feel like playing today, I'm mentally slow, I'm probably physically going to be pretty sluggish.

I got to stay mentally positive, just remember that I'm having a good run, and I got to capitalize on it, so...

Q. You talked about the fatigue. Obviously mentally it doesn't seem like you're tired. Going into the US Open, you're clearly very motivated, right? How are you going to make sure that you're not overdoing it? Do you have anyone to lean on for that kind of advice, like past players or current players? Do you talk to anyone about that?

NICK KYRGIOS: I feel like I just got to keep doing the right things. I'm not playing the week before the US Open. I definitely have that week to kind of rest, recover, kind of regroup, reset.

Last year I played Winston-Salem. I signed into a tournament, pulled out. But this year I am just going to keep that week to be fresh. Get to New York, kind of manage my practices.

But I'm not going to leave anything in the tank these two weeks. Especially I said it before, without the points at Wimbledon, my ranking still is not guaranteed to be seeded at all tournaments. I need to capitalize on these two weeks. These are two massive weeks. I've had success in Cincinnati before. I made the final there. I feel like I'm confident.

But, I mean, there's nothing guaranteed. Like there's no guarantees that even if I go into the US Open fresh that I'm going to do well. There's never any guarantees in life.

I could go into the US Open, feel fresh, play someone on the day that is just too good. Then I'm going to regret not leaving it all out of the tank in Montreal, Cincinnati.

I am taking it one day at a time. I am not even looking ahead. There's so much effort going into my everyday routine now. I am not even thinking ahead. I think it is the best way to live my life is to just go day by day, try to be a bit better every day.

When we get to US Open, we get to the US Open. That's like three weeks away. There's so much that can go wrong. I could roll my ankle, for instance. Like, touch wood, I could roll my ankle walking to the car or something like that. I'm not going to think about that. It's so far away.

Q. What did you learn about yourself in that match today?

NICK KYRGIOS: You guys are acting like I haven't beaten world No. 1s before or something. Like, I've done it before. I've beaten Medvedev before. I've beaten Roger, Novak, Rafa.

Like I feel like my confidence and my belief in myself is never short. I could lose five matches in a row and I still believe I have a chance to beat anyone.

I don't know if I learnt anything about myself today. I feel like I'm just playing for a lot more than myself now. I look at today, I'm in Montreal, center court, one of the most beautiful courts in the world against Medvedev.

I would be kind of selfish to not go out there and try to give the crowd a good performance, myself a good performance, my team a good performance, everyone watching.

I feel like if I didn't show up today, I'd be doing a lot of people a disservice. That's what's sport needs, the sport needs matchups like this.

You look at the crowd. I'm sure all the players were watching it. It's important that big players and iconic players show up to matches like this because it keeps the sport alive I think.