ADELAIDE INTERNATIONAL

January 11, 2024

Chris O'Connell

Press Conference

S. KORDA/C. O'Connell

6-4, 6-4

Q. Very different tournament to the one you have to face in Brisbane, different style and so on. How did you feel in this environment, and how did the weather today help you?

CHRIS O'CONNELL: Yeah, it probably didn't help me too much with the covered court. I like the conditions a little bit quicker, so yesterday on the outside courts I felt a little bit more comfortable, and probably the covered court today helped Sebastian a little bit more than me, but I thought I played pretty good.

Q. Your best game was the final game, I think, of the match. I think you saved a good few match points. Did you feel you were sort of gaining momentum at that point, that you'd perhaps left it a little too late, or was that not the case?

CHRIS O'CONNELL: Yeah, I started feeling a little bit more comfortable returning his serve as the match went on, but also at the same time he was serving for the match, so maybe he was coming up with a few more errors and giving me a few more opportunities. It's always a tough thing to do, close out the match.

Q. What are the good things you can take from this week into Melbourne next week?

CHRIS O'CONNELL: Yeah, I'm just playing good tennis. I played good tennis last week against Popyrin in Brisbane and got through a couple matches here and thought it was a pretty high-quality match today, but Sebastian was playing unbelievable I felt.

Q. Do you normally take a long time to get over a defeat or can you just put it to one side and look ahead?

CHRIS O'CONNELL: Yeah, I'm pretty much already over it. Just looking forward to Melbourne now. I saw the draw, so just on to the next tournament. That's how tennis works. There's a new tournament every week.

Q. What are your thoughts on Garin?

CHRIS O'CONNELL: Yeah, just had a quick look. He hasn't played this year so far, so that will be his first match of the year. I guess I've got a little bit of an advantage. I've had four matches here in Australia already. He did get the better of me in Toronto last year, but I felt I wasn't playing very good tennis at the time, so I feel like I'm playing good tennis right now, so I'm looking forward to it.

Q. Have you looked at the whole draw or just your aspect?

CHRIS O'CONNELL: Yeah, I started not looking at the draw like Wimbledon last year for every tournament I just find out who I'm playing, and if I happen to win, then I'll ask my coach who I'm playing next.

Q. What about some of the other Australians? Have you noticed what their draw is?

CHRIS O'CONNELL: Yeah, I literally had a quick look just then. Yeah.

Q. Jordan has got Vukic, who you know well, too, and Popyrin against Polmans?

CHRIS O'CONNELL: Yeah, that's the thing, there's so many good Aussies at the moment, so we're just bound to run into Aussies each tournament. I ran into Max at the US Open. Yeah, there just seems to be a lot of Aussie matchups at the moment, so it's something that we get used to now.

Q. How much is playing in your mind the fact that you have had serious injuries in the past?

CHRIS O'CONNELL: Not too much. I feel because I've had the injuries and time away from the court that I'm still -- even though I'm 29, turning 30 this year, I feel like I'm still a young player on the tour. This will be my third year predominantly playing tour tournaments. So yeah, I still feel sort of young in a way.