AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 18, 2023

Jason Kubler

Press Conference

K. KHACHANOV/J. Kubler

6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Jason, a challenging match today. How are you feeling coming off court?

JASON KUBLER: To be honest, pretty exhausted. Exhausted in a good way, though, because I felt like I left it all out there.

I pushed really hard in the second set to turn it around, and then I was fortunate enough that I was able to.

Then I was trying real hard to keep it going into the third and maybe a little bit unfortunate at the end to sort of lose my service game and then for him to hold at the end.

Come the fourth set I was trying as hard as I could, but maybe I was on the back end of that sort of momentum. Not momentum, but all the energy, sort of the down from that.

So happy with my performance. I'm still trying to get the experience against these top guys. Tonight I'm definitely going to look back as a good match and have good memories from it.

Q. You reflected on the whole experience of getting to this point. Obviously, your best run at the Open.

JASON KUBLER: Yeah, exciting, to be honest. Even last year you take away that Wimbledon, I was still sort of playing the challengers or if I were playing some ATP tournaments, it wasn't necessarily on the center court.

So now to be able to say that I played two matches on Ken Rosewall, and I thought they were pretty darn full. Played on the center court in Adelaide and then now twice on John Cain is -- I don't know how long -- hopefully five more years I'll keep playing, but, man, that's going to be memories that I'll remember after I retire.

Not that I'm getting older, but I'm 29 now. I definitely, once I finish with all this, I want to look back and have these great memories. So I'm just super pumped that I was able to be on those center courts playing in front of my home crowd and then at some stages get them amped up, get me amped up. I really enjoyed it out there.

Q. What was it like playing a 70-shot rally?

JASON KUBLER: I actually watched that rally. At the time I was pretty buggered. But I watched it, and I was hitting it so soft. I was doing all the running, and Karen was the one running me around.

It was awesome that I ended up winning it. I think I had a really long rally in Adelaide against Etcheverry, but then I ended up losing it. So I saw that everywhere, and I didn't really enjoy it too much.

Yeah, no, I was super pumped. I don't think I've ever had a rally that long before. You know, I'm definitely going to be sharing it on my Instagram and stuff like that.

Q. Just on the match as well, I think you said Monday night that it was another opportunity to just learn and keep improving against such a tough opponent. What do you feel you learned from the match tonight?

JASON KUBLER: I think even just having another opportunity against a top player. I'm learning almost -- I sort of already knew a couple of things that I really tried to implement when I was out there. Unfortunately, one of them was I wanted to keep holding serves until the back end of the sets, but unfortunately I think the first and second set I got broken pretty early.

Yeah, probably just honestly how consistent they are with their emotions, consistent they are with their play. I think tonight I had some great games, but I also had some games where I maybe let him -- gave him some chances, and he took them. That's definitely something I need to learn from.

But, yeah, honestly just keep trying to get those serve games under my belt so I can get these guys to the tighter end. I feel when I'm playing good players like Karen tonight, you know, letting them -- not letting them, but them getting the early break is - what's the word - I feel like a lot of pressure comes off their shoulders when they get that early break.

All the great players are good frontrunners, so something like that. And also, you know, I'm learning that I'm getting better as well. This is the first time that I feel like in best-of-five I got a set off one of the top guys. I feel like I'm improving, and each day I'm going to go out there on the practice court and keep trying to get better.

Q. I think you mentioned five years just a minute ago about what your career might look like from here. Like the last match, how are you playing? Is it a springboard for what you do from here? Have you made massive inroads?

JASON KUBLER: It's been great. Honestly, I'm just hoping to stay consistent. I probably didn't have the greatest end of last year. It was a bit unfortunate. Then again, I'm learning that if I have a choice, maybe I don't go to the indoors in Europe, or if I do, just know what has happened in the past.

Sorry. What was the question again?

Q. You were reassessing your career from this point, given the run you've had over the last five months. Good runs.

JASON KUBLER: Hopefully I keep it going. That's the plan. You know, now my calendar changes a little. My tournament schedule changes. Hopefully now I can play more of the ATP tournaments which is going to be cool, and I get to play guys just as good or even better than Karen.

Right now I'm more about getting those experiences. If I can play all the big names, play on all the big courts, I'll be ecstatic. But I'm super excited that this year hopefully will be -- the majority of it anyways will be on the ATP Tour.