ROLEX SHANGHAI MASTERS

October 7, 2024

Zhou Yi

Press Conference

F. TIAFOE/Zhou Yi

6-2, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the press conference of Zhou Yi. Any questions?

(Questions in Chinese.)

Q. Could you talk about today's match? In particular, you are playing with top players, what have you learned from today's match?

ZHOU YI: This is the first time that I played a top-20 player, who has also been performing very well lately. I think that in the second set I sometimes felt that I had the ability to hold long rallies with him, but then, in terms of experience, I think that's the difference between players like me and top players, so that he can win the match so easily.

I think this is also the reason why we need to play with these players, accumulating experiences, etcetera, so we can improve.

Q. For your first match, you were lucky because your player, your opponent retired, and you should have played yesterday, but then it was delayed to today because of rain. Will these changes have any effect on you, and how did you adjust yourself to face today's match?

ZHOU YI: I think if you say that these are some inferences, then it's impacting everyone. Because of the rain, I didn't do a lot of practice sessions over the past two days, but I think this is affecting everyone.

For me, the moment I learned that I am able to play today, I decided to focus on myself and play my tennis. I just want to focus on myself.

Q. If we look at your performance at the Chinese swing, you had pretty good performances. When I talked with Tiafoe, he also praised your performance in the second set. Could you talk about your feelings now, and could you summarize what are the areas that you can continue to improve?

ZHOU YI: Talking about the good sides, I've played a lot of ITF matches and challenger events. But I think that when I play top players, I have the confidence to think that I can play well, but then I sometimes made mistakes, especially when I am doing well.

Over the past three weeks my feeling is that I have the ability to play with these top players, and sometimes these players also make mistakes, which is a surprise to me.

For the next step, I think one thing is how I can be like these players to improve, especially in some trivial aspects. I think that the important thing is that I try to focus on my tennis and try to improve step by step. I've moved up in the ranking, and I still have opportunities to play tournaments in China, so I'm sure that I can play better in the future.

Q. Talking about rankings, I have a follow-up question. You said that your ranking is now 300 plus. How long do you think it takes for you to crack the top 100?

ZHOU YI: It's hard to say. For some excellent players perhaps they can improve their ranking very quickly, while others cannot. For me, I am still a new player, so a lot depends on the training, my body, etcetera, all these factors play a part.

Of course, I would hope to catch up and reach a top 100, but this is a huge step, this is an enormous step. I can only say that this is the direction that I want to move towards, and I will focus on playing good tennis day after day.

Q. I also want to know your plans for the new matches this year and also next year.

ZHOU YI: Talking about the tour plans, I think the next few weeks I might go to some other Asian countries for challenger events, so that's basically it for the rest of this year.

Then I will go to the winter training session, because I've played quite a few matches already this year. Winter training is a very important part. This year I'm going to work with a new team, so the winter training is a very good opportunity for me to also prepare for next year, and hopefully I can continue to improve next year.

I am not so sure about the plan for next year. Of course, I would love to be able to participate in some high-level tournaments, but let's see.