THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 3, 2023

Jan Choinski

Press Conference

J. CHOINSKI/D. Lajovic

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

THE MODERATOR: Wimbledon debut and a win. How are you feeling today?

JAN CHOINSKI: Yeah, I mean, I feel absolutely amazing. And the crowd was electric tonight at my court. Even though it was one of the smaller courts, I felt carried by the crowd, carried by the whole team, the whole LTA support that was there. My mum especially, as well. My girlfriend.

So, yeah, just an amazing day. I'm happy that I could produce some good tennis.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. We know not much about you. The fans know you were German, you're now representing Britain. Can you tell us more about your backstory, what it means for you to be British.

JAN CHOINSKI: Well, my mum's side of her family is fully British. My dad is from Poland. They were both professional ballet dancers. Met in Germany. Built up their life in Germany, where I was born and raised, in Koblenz.

I had British citizenship since birth. At the start of my career, since we were living in Germany, we decided to play for Germany. Then moving forward into my professional career, I just felt I had a pre-season at IMG one year when I was about 240, 250 on the ATP rankings, which was end of 2018 I guess. I met Leon Smith, the Davis Cup captain, James Trotman, all of the players from Great Britain. We had some good practices, conversations.

I said, Look, guys, I've been thinking about this for a long period of time. My will to change and play for Great Britain is pretty high. I just asked like, How is the support? Would they support it from their side?

They said they'd be happy for me to change. We had a great connection from the start. I said, Okay, let's give it a try. Not give it a try, because if I eventually decide to change, finish my career playing for Great Britain, as well.

I sent an email to the ATP, sent in a copy of my passport, and that was about it. The change was pretty fast.

Q. In tennis we had Greg Rusedski adopted British nationality. Boxing there was Lennox Lewis. Fans took to them quickly. If you show them how much you want, they'll show you love. You got a bit of love today.

JAN CHOINSKI: Exactly. I mean, it was absolutely amazing. I'm super happy about everything that I have got in terms of support from the LTA, from Wimbledon, from the big names in our sport in Great Britain, from Tim, also having a great time at the United Cup, even though I didn't get to play. But the whole group atmosphere we had was great. Tim is an amazing, amazing person. Could learn a lot from him over those couple of days that we spent together in Sydney.

Yeah, it's great being here representing Great Britain and being able to produce some good tennis in the first round.

Q. You lose the first set. Could have gone the other way. You ended up playing well. Are you pleased with the way you finished that match?

JAN CHOINSKI: Yes, for sure. I never doubted that I can win this match, even though I went one set down. I just focused on the things that mattered, focused on improving my game, adapting my game to the conditions today.

It was a little bit windy. I tried to really focus serving well and making him play as much as possible on his serve games, which I managed pretty well.

Always, always focused on being positive, playing aggressive. Especially I felt like the turning point of the match was the second set tiebreak. I got a great start in that tiebreak. From that point when I won the second set, I told myself, I'm not letting this go, I'm going to go for it.

Q. What was it like coming into this match, main draw, Grand Slam debut, British player at Wimbledon?

JAN CHOINSKI: I mean, I'm not going to lie. The past three weeks were quite challenging. I was out for quite some time with my injuries and everything. The last time I can remember that I really played, I didn't even play more than two weeks on grass, was when I played qualifying. I think that was 2019. Since then I never really had a grass court season.

Also after the French Open, after I lost that match, I went on to play in Troisdorf in Germany, challenger. Won the first round, felt really great. The next day I woke up with a virus that was absolutely -- that took all energy out of me. I had to give a walkover.

I was trying my best to recover, but it took me 12 days. I was rushing to really get ready, then drive to Nottingham, give myself a chance to play at least one match before having the opportunity to play in Queen's, which wasn't ideal.

My coach and I, we knew it. We did our best. Preparation wasn't great. I think we played like two hours prior to that match in Nottingham. One match is more than no matches. We looked at it that way. We just wanted to give ourselves the best chance to prepare for this tournament.

Looking back on those three weeks, also on the tournament last week, where I felt I didn't play my best tennis, but I got three matches, which then helps leading up to this tournament.

Practice was pretty good the past couple of days. What was most important today is to just produce similar type of tennis on the match court when it counts.

Q. You mentioned you did qualifying 2019. This time last year when Wimbledon was going on, where would you have been?

JAN CHOINSKI: This time last year?

Q. Yes.

JAN CHOINSKI: I was struggling with mononucleosis and COVID on top of that. My ranking was dropping to a point where I nearly didn't have any points.

I think end of August I started the whole journey from 650 on the rankings to where I am right now. So winning a 15K, one of the lowest international tournaments you can win, to then going to challenger level, playing through so many qualifyings, being in South America for 10 weeks in a row playing tournaments, having to switch countries.

Playing well. I won one challenger there. Because of those quallies, I hadn't got nearly any breaks between tournaments. We were really pushing hard, maybe to a limit where we actually were pushing a little bit too hard. But it was all controlled to a point where we knew we don't have any status.

I was 26 at that time. Had almost dropped all my ranking points. Came back from two years of being out, two years of being injured, two surgeries. I just never wanted to leave tennis, put tennis by the side. I just thought I've got more in myself and I want to show it.

Q. During those surgeries, were you thinking it could be it?

JAN CHOINSKI: My attitude is never to, like, really think that's it. I never doubted it for one second. Never said for one second that I want to stop.

My love and the passion for the sport is just so big. Also my love for, like, practicing, working on myself, getting better, seeing progress day by day.

After my second surgery, I basically locked myself into National Tennis Centre at the LTA. Got the best support I could have, but we were working so hard. We were working six days a week from 9 in the morning till 6 at night. Sometimes I was sleeping there. I'd go into the gym or something by myself at 8 in the evening and still do another rehab session to try and speed up the whole process of rehab.

Then we got to a point where I finally was able to compete again after six months or something.

Q. What was the surgery?

JAN CHOINSKI: First of all I had a labrum tear in my hip, which I had surgery on. Then I was ready to compete again. Yeah, we actually planned to play a tournament, but then the whole COVID situation started. The lockdown came. I wasn't even able to play one tournament.

Then I played exhibitions and stuff like that. Played the summer Battle of the Brits. After that, my shoulder was just done. That took over a year to get better.

Q. You're playing Hurkacz, Polish like your dad.

JAN CHOINSKI: We had great contact as juniors. We played many doubles tournaments together. As a matter of fact, we won Roehampton, a junior grade one tournament, leading up to Wimbledon in 2014. Then we also played Wimbledon together doubles.

I'm always great friends with the Polish squad. We practiced together a lot. Yeah, he's done very good for himself. I'm happy to see him where he is right now. Yeah, I'm thankful for the challenge and thankful to be able to play him in the second round.