AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 27, 2024

Rei Sakamoto

Press Conference

R. SAKAMOTO/J. Kumstat

3-6, 7-6, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Rei, congratulations. Well done on claiming the junior Australian Open title. The match didn't go all your way, so just talk to us a little bit about the match and what it's like to have that very nice trophy in your possession.

REI SAKAMOTO: What?

THE MODERATOR: Talk about the match and what it is like to have that trophy now.

REI SAKAMOTO: I'm happy to win this tournament. Then about this trophy, I feel nothing, because it's not mine. So I'm really happy to win this tournament.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Can you talk about your celebration. I think it was meant to be a sword. How long you have been doing it for?

REI SAKAMOTO: I have been doing it for, like, I don't know, like half year. Then that means samurai.

Q. Can you talk about the hat? Is there a back story?

REI SAKAMOTO: I got this when I won last week in Traralgon. This looks like (indiscernible) a little bit.

Q. Can you talk about your ambition to the 2024 season?

REI SAKAMOTO: Ambition?

Q. Are you going to play juniors for the rest of the year, or what will you do?

REI SAKAMOTO: I will be big man.

Q. Can you talk about Kei Nishikori or any of the other Japanese players who may have inspired you to pick up a racquet?

REI SAKAMOTO: For sure Naomi Osaka. Kei Nishikori inspire me a lot. They let me have like a big dream. Yeah. That was, like, when I was, like, 10. I don't know. I forgot. Like 10 or 12. That was a start, yes.

Q. Have you practiced against either of them?

REI SAKAMOTO: I haven't met Naomi, but Kei is in Florida, so sometimes we can practice.

Q. Can you explain how you got into tennis? I think maybe was it when you were six?

REI SAKAMOTO: Like, when I grabbed a racquet first time I felt, like, I was born for playing tennis.

Q. How did the racquet end up in your hand?

REI SAKAMOTO: Like, you grab racquet, right? I could talk to racquet, EZONE, like conversation. That's why.

Q. Who gave you the racquet? Was it a parent or...

REI SAKAMOTO: My parents.

Q. Nagoya?

REI SAKAMOTO: In Nagoya.