DAVIS CUP FINALS

September 16, 2022

Daniel Evans

Team Great Britain

Press Conference

D. EVANS/T. Griekspoor

6-4, 6-4

Great Britain - 1

The Netherlands - 0

THE MODERATOR: Do you want to start off giving your thoughts on the match?

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, it was a good match. I played well. More of a match of just focus to get through really, to get a win. I knew I was obviously playing better than him, the higher-ranked player in the match. I just had to put my game on the court, make sure I focused at the right moments and put pressure on him.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. On a different subject, obviously Roger's announcement yesterday is the big news in tennis. You spent a fair bit of time with him. I don't know if you can give us reflections on what, what it meant for you to have the opportunity to spend time with him.

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, him and his team are great to me. We practiced a bunch of times. Obviously I think two-and-a-half weeks once in Dubai every day. Yeah, it was great. Roger was cool.

Yeah, I think the biggest compliment I can give him is he was very, very normal, down-to-earth person who was obviously good in king-like status in the sport. He treated me, and he treats everybody exactly like the normal bloke on the street to their mate. That was the biggest compliment I can give him.

Obviously a very good practice partner to be able to practice with. Yeah, he was like his phone, would never go off out loud in a press conference (smiling).

No, he was good. I think he would be missed. He would say hello to everybody on tour. Obviously to be as good as he was, he obviously wasn't nice to everybody, I'm sure, but an amazing competitor.

He'll be sorely missed, I think. It will be different for the older guys to not have him around. It's unfortunate for the younger generation to not see how he operated, yeah.

Q. Obviously you weren't necessarily playing late the other night, but you were still here courtside. Can you tell us how difficult it was for the team to sort of recover from that late finish, just how everyone felt the next morning. In terms of trying to sort of reset and look ahead to the weekend, what were the discussions like?

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, I mean, some of the team sleep better than others, sleep later than others. It's part of the challenge, isn't it, to come back the next day, to take care of your business. The U.S. did it very well obviously. All credit to us, we did what we had to do yesterday. Ticked all the boxes.

I think late, late finishes is not good for anybody. It's not ideal. But the tournament was unlucky to have, I don't know, every match two hours 50 or something. That's not normal in three-set matches.

If the tournament don't want late finishes or guys don't want late finishes, then put a shot clock on the court would be my advice to them. That will help things.

So it's just part of the game. It happens. You have to deal with it. We did well yesterday. I felt good today. I didn't feel great yesterday, but that's part of the challenge in tennis. If we get it on a plate, finish at 7:00, go back and have a nice meal, doesn't always work out like that.

Q. You said focus was really key to the win today. Not only having to focus against a new opponent, but there was a moment there was a bit of focus from the crowd before you served for the second set. How hard is it to stay focused?

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, it's something I need to work on. It's not the best part of my game. But I'm doing well with it. Like you said, in this atmosphere it's even more key not to lose focus. There's a lot happening on the court, around the court. Obviously there's away fans, Netherlands fans in this case. It was difficult.

I did a good job of keeping myself calm and focused, yeah.

Q. Normally in regular tournaments, you lose and then you're out. Curious how different it feels, have a chance, how quickly you shifted to preparing for this?

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, it's a good question really.

You lose and you feel a bit down. Yeah, losing doesn't bother me so much. I'm not so down. It just feels a bit strange to then start preparing again.

Yeah, it's funny you ask that question because I actually spoke about that this morning. It's a bit strange. You go back out, focus again, trying to put my game on the court. It wasn't such an issue for me because I thought I played a good match the other day. It wasn't like I got straight sets, didn't put many games on the board and played poorly. It was pretty simple. I needed to put a continuation of Wednesday on the court again and I would be okay.

Q. Just curious, when was the first time you actually met Roger, if you remember?

DANIEL EVANS: I practiced with him in the US Open the year I qualified. I don't know what year that was. 2014, I think. Yeah, I mean, it was obviously amazing. Yeah, it was nerve-wracking. I still get a bit nervous when I practice with Andy now. You don't want to let the good guys down. That's what most people I think should feel and do feel.

Q. You mentioned about the shot clock. Is that something that's particular to this sort of format, Davis Cup, or something maybe in other tournaments as well that could be better?

DANIEL EVANS: Well, we have it all over the world now, is my understanding, on the tour. I mean, you guys would know better than me. I think it's every tournament.

I think Davis Cup really needs it because there's such chat between bench and player, there can be a lot of chat. Yeah, maybe they don't have it because of the crowd interaction, and that can get, Why is he so long, or the player would think it's the crowd and it's not easy.

There's no explanation why they don't have it here.

Q. Slightly off topic. Do you have any doubts about the line-calling system here? Did that cross your mind at all? It's quite hard looking from the stands. One or two looked a bit margin.

DANIEL EVANS: Don't know. Strange question, isn't it (smiling)?

Everybody thinks I'm a cheat on the tour because I have the worst calls. I can't see anything.

Could be, yeah. Everybody else has to call for me. You hit the wrong player. I have no idea (smiling).

Q. You mentioned Glasgow when you were finishing up there. What is it like playing up here? How does that compare to other parts of the world?

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, I think we've been incredibly lucky. We played so many ties, albeit here or Braehead. When the Murrays are in the team, it's an amazing thing for Scotland to be able to see that.

They sort of took us in, as well, really got behind the whole team. Yeah, for me it's the best place to play. But when we've had it at other places as well, Birmingham was an amazing atmosphere. That's what we want, to be coming to play Davis Cup in front of a packed house.

That's where it's difficult, then if we made the next stage that we go to Malaga. The million-dollar question is should this be the play in there or the new format? Hopefully if we get there we get big crowds and the tournament gets big crowds, and then it's a winner for everybody.

We're lucky this week we get to play in Glasgow. It's the best for me to play here with my friends in front of such a good crowd.

Q. Do you feel at home up here?

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, yeah. I feel at home playing tennis here. You can hear the atmosphere. It's amazing. There's so many kids here this week. That's not happened so much in the past. It's been a bit of an older demographic. I think we've had a great influx.

Kids stayed late the other night, are going nuts out there. I think that's only positive for British tennis.