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AUSTRALIAN OPENJanuary 19, 2012Matthew EbdenMELBOURNE, VICTORIA K. NISHIKORI/M. Ebden THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Can you take us through your feelings. MATTHEW EBDEN: Yeah, I think probably a lot of positives and a lot of disappointment, I guess, obviously, naturally. You know, I tried to keep my level up. I knew it was going to lift. When tennis players have their backs against the wall, that's when they stuff it and go for it and they really lift their level or they go away. He really lifted his level. I maybe came off mine a touch. I think it's extremely disappointing, but I have to give him a bit of credit. Probably for an hour and a half he might have missed less than five balls. He certainly was not hitting them hard, so... Obviously very disappointing. But at the end of the day still a lot of positives for me. I'll, you know, make sure I'll get those next time. Q. What was going through your head after the second set? MATTHEW EBDEN: Yeah, I was feeling good, confident, playing well. Near the end of the second set he came out swinging a bit. I was all over him. Back against the wall type thing. Come out swinging. He's a flairy player. He's got a lot of flair there. Shows why he's 20 in the world or something. But I think it's pretty confident that it shows me where I can be, as well. You know, just got to keep getting over those lines. Win that match, you could go another three matches further. But not to be today. Q. A few breaks, too. Did they disrupt you at all? Had the trainer out a few times. MATTHEW EBDEN: Not particularly, no. I think it's part of the five‑set format. The men's tennis, they're long battles out there, so you're prepared for all sorts of things that come your way. One big positive for me is physically I was still good, still had no problems out there. In fact, after my match I went and did a pretty intense 30‑minute run just to prove myself I can run six, seven, eight sets for future time, I can put even more into every point, every game, every set. I think I'm just going to have to take it on the chin a bit and go and watch the tape and see where I can get better really. Q. A bit of frustration, too? MATTHEW EBDEN: Yeah, of course. A bit of frustration. Yeah, I mean, never nice to lose, especially after two sets to love. What can you do? Can't win 'em all. Q. Given how good the first two sets were, how poor the score was in the last two sets, do you treat the match as a net positive or a net disappointment? MATTHEW EBDEN: You know, I think the score in the next two sets, yeah, I mean, he played some real good tennis. I was going to have to lift and take some more risks or else I was getting outplayed a little bit. He turned around a little bit on me. I was obviously out‑playing him in the first two sets. I tried to lift my level, you know, be better than him to get over the line in the next couple sets. Didn't really work out, so... You know, obviously very disappointing. But here I am doing what I love, so I'm just going to take it on the chin, look to be better, stronger, fitter, become a better player out of it and try to win that one next time. Q. Are there any specific points or shots that make this match turn around? MATTHEW EBDEN: Yeah. After two hours and four minutes, I hit a forehand down the line and I hit the net (laughter). No, no, no. No, I don't think so. I think Kei did really well to turn things around. I thought obviously it was really going well, I was right on top of him. He probably thought if he's going to go down, he's going to go down swinging a little bit. Everything started coming out of the middle of the racquet for him. He started playing some really good tennis. Maybe my level slipped a little bit and I went obviously not as good as he was the next two sets. I think the score showed that. It's disappointing, but have to give a bit of credit to him, too. He played well the next couple sets. Q. Do you feel like he mixed it up a bit? MATTHEW EBDEN: I mixed it up? Q. He looked like he started to mix it up a little bit more from the third set. MATTHEW EBDEN: Yeah, the third set, his return of serve, I don't think he missed a return for the rest of the match off my first or second serve. Not so much that you expect him to miss, but you expect to maybe get some plays. I found even on first serves I was returning balls from my feet on the baseline. It's a credit to him. He started seeing it unreal or started striking it real good. That's where I've got to become stronger to lift my serve speeds, variations. My serve's got to be better to not allow him to do that. Same with my game off the ground. It's got to become better so I can stay in control of those points and still control him, even if he's having a crack, still look to play my aggressive game. I'll keep working on things to make that happen. Q. Good learning curve? Good players do that in matches. Have you learned a bit about that? MATTHEW EBDEN: Yeah. Look, I mean, it's been for me, you know, reaching the top level, playing the top‑five guys in the world, top‑ten, beating some of them, losing to some, guys out there, they're not going to lose to you. The level of men's tennis in the top 100, 200, whatever, they're good players. You have to take it from them. They're not going to give it to you. I was taking it from him. He took it from me. I wasn't able to snatch it back, take it back. Yeah, what can you do? Q. You have mixed doubles with Casey now. MATTHEW EBDEN: Yeah. Q. Do you have plans after the Australian? MATTHEW EBDEN: Yeah, definitely. We'll have Davis Cup in February. I've been asked to go along for that, of course. Really looking forward to that. Hopefully we can get a good job done there. Straight after that I'm on to the States for probably four to six weeks, you know, a bunch of tour events, the two Masters Series, Indian Wells and Miami. That will be a great time for me, good time of year for me, good surface. I'll be looking to make some improvements before then, shoot for the stars then. Q. Not much to get down about? MATTHEW EBDEN: You know, that's the thing. At the end of the day, you lose second round. You think, Oh, it's terrible. But sometimes you have to get some perspective. Maybe the first hour after you lose, it's not that easy. After that you realize I'm still out there doing what I love. I'm pretty happy to be doing it. I'll take it on the chin and I'll just look to get better from it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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