AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 14, 2025

Alexei Popyrin

Press Conference

C. MOUTET/A. Popyrin

4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Bad luck on the result today. How do you assess the match?

ALEXEI POPYRIN: Yeah, you know, I have obviously had a little bit of a physical struggles, but hey, that's tennis. You have to find a way to battle through it. I didn't do it.

I think this guy's got a way of making you play bad tennis, and I feel like I played some pretty shocking tennis today.

But, you know, it's a tricky opponent, and it was always going to be tough. He's always been my Achilles heel since I have been 8 years old. I think my record is 16 and 1 to him. Yeah, it's a little bit tricky to play him for me.

But, hey, the crowd did their part, and I didn't do my part, you know, so that's the toughest thing for me to take.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Could you just talk us through the injury? We saw you getting the treatment. What happened, and what were you dealing with today?

ALEXEI POPYRIN: I don't know. I ran to a dropshot, felt a pull in my -- sharp pain in my glute, like lower back side glute. I have had it before, and I knew what it was. It's just really, really -- it was really painful for me to push off my left leg and land on my left leg and do running forehands and stuff.

It's something that I knew, I think it couldn't get worse, but yeah, I just had to dig deep and play through the pain. I tried to do that, but, you know, yeah, it's not been an easy week, that's for sure.

Q. Can you tell about how affected you were in the prep? Were there any doubts whether you would actually get up?

ALEXEI POPYRIN: No doubts. Yeah, no doubts. Throughout the week I have had, like, little niggles, had an abdominal niggles. I've been sick for four days. Still am sick. Had to go to the doctor's office today to get some meds.

It's not an excuse, nothing like that for me. I'm disappointed with the way I played. Like, I take full responsibility with the way that I played, and, you know, it was shocking. It was really bad. And I know I can do better.

Q. Pretty valiant effort in the circumstances. You must take a lot of pride in the heart you showed, no throwing in the towel.

ALEXEI POPYRIN: Yeah, I think I'm known to show heart, but I also want to be known for showing tennis consistently. That's been my main goal for my whole career. You know, I have showed good tennis in glimpses, and for me I want to show it consistently.

Yeah, I didn't show it today.

Q. You have clearly got big hopes today. How much of a setback is this result for you?

ALEXEI POPYRIN: I'm going to have to take a few days, a week off, let it all sink in. It's been a very disappointing month for me, come to Australia off the back of your best year, lose for two matches is not something I kind of expected.

Yeah, it's not been an easy month, that's for sure. We're going to have to take a step back, look at what went wrong, and just work from there.

I haven't been in this position before, so I don't really know what I have to do, but it's all part of the experience.

Yeah, we'll take it from there.

Q. Is there any clarity on the significance of the injury, the extent, how long that might take to recover?

ALEXEI POPYRIN: I'm not sure. From when I had it before, it took about three weeks to kind of feel normal.

You know, but it's something you can play through, so it's just I have to decide whether or not I want to play through it and risk it getting worse or not. Based off the last time I had it, yeah, it should be fine in a couple of weeks.

Q. And the cramping, as well, hamstring?

ALEXEI POPYRIN: Yeah, I don't know what that was about. Maybe it's a sickness altogether. The cramping, I felt it shocking out there, and that's disappointing, yeah. The two matches that I played this year have been me not feeling good on the court, and that's not what is supposed to happen, but it is what it is. It happened.

Yeah, for me, I just have to kind of take a step back and try, and my team and I have to figure out what went wrong. Yeah, that's what we have to do.

Q. I know it's still raw, but you said you'll obviously assess with your team what went wrong. Right now are there any learnings to take from the match, despite the fact that you had physical struggles but you're indicating that potentially you could still possibly push through the misery. Is there anything you think you could take from the match moving forward?

ALEXEI POPYRIN: No, like I said, it was shocking tennis from myself. Not really much I can take from it. I can take the fact that I fought till the last point, can take the experience of the crowd being there and supporting me and really being there for me and helping me through, you know, the tough points and stuff, and the tough moments in the match.

I was 5-1 down in the third set and came back to 5-4. It was all them; it wasn't me. That was all them. You could just see the energy, never stopped throughout the whole four sets.

That's an experience and a memory I'll take with me, but the rest I'm just going to through in the bin and forget, because it's not been great.

Q. Big saves in the first set when you seemed a bit healthier. You came up big in big moments when it was on early.

ALEXEI POPYRIN: Yeah, I felt like the whole match today I didn't get any easy games on my serve. He kind of neutralized my serve super well. Yeah, I'm not used to that.

So I came up with some clutch, I guess, some clutch points throughout the first set, but I think it only lasted so long. You have to figure out a way to have a few easier games.

I think every game on my serve went to at least 30-All, 40-30. I think you watch most tennis matches and most of my service games, go Love-15, 30 sometimes, but not every single game is a deuce game or a 30-All game or something like that.

He definitely did neutralize it very well, but again, I didn't find the solutions, and that's on me.