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APIA INTERNATIONAL SYDNEYJanuary 10, 2013Kevin AndersonSYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES K. ANDERSON/D. Istomin THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Incredible start to the year for you. What do you put it down to? KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, it's always good to start the year off on a good note. Just still the second tournament. Still sights are set on Australia, but this is a great opportunity for me. I'm really pleased to be in the semifinals. I don't think it's just one thing. It's just continued hard work. I've been saying it for a while. I think I had a really good off‑season. Practiced hard. I think Hopman Cup last week was a fantastic event. I felt it was a great opportunity for some very good preparation. Coming into here, I felt like I had some good matches under my belt from last week. Been able to keep that going, and I've sort of felt better with each match that's gone on. Q. Why did you chose Hopman as opposed to, say, Brisbane? KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, I mean, it was pretty tricky. As things turned you out, not too far off from being seeded in Australia. So I think that was biggest downside from not playing. But I chose to play it before I knew that. I think the biggest reason was just I heard from so many players it was really a great event. It was a new facility this year which is almost exactly same as Australia. I think the big draw card is just sort of guaranteed matches against some very good players. Three tough matches and I was able to I think extend sort of my preparations coming into this by one week. We were there for almost two weeks both practicing and being able to play matches. I thought it was a very good opportunity for me. Q. How is your record against Benneteau? KEVIN ANDERSON: I believe I've just played him once on grass at Queen's a few years ago. He get the better of me then, so hopefully I'll be able to get some revenge tomorrow. Q. The results in Perth were very impressive. Did you get confidence that you didn't have before? KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, I think it's always a little tricky when you've had some time off. It's always good to get the confidence back and just sort of seeing where you were. I thought a lot of the things I've been working on was definitely showing through that week. I had some close matches. I thought I served well, took care of my service games; that's always a big part of my game. I thought I did that really well. Yeah, I think there's quite a few positives I took a from that week. Q. Is the serve and volley the area you noticed the most improvement? KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, that's an ongoing thing. You know, just growing didn't really spend that much time at the net. You can practice it all you want. It just requires time spent during matches venturing up there more and more often. I think as time goes on I start to feel more comfortable doing that. It was great playing doubles as well, especially mixed. It's sometimes a little bit different. It gets you going quite a bit, so I felt there were some good matches there as well. Q. There seems to have been a few injuries already and injury concerns leading up to the Australian Open. As someone that is tall like John Isner, is that something you're mindful of, just being a tall guy, managing the injuries and staying injury‑free? KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, I think it's one of the biggest challenges. I think it's particularly tricky when you're coming back from two months. I think that's why you're seeing quite a few, at lest this week. Guys aren't sort of quite back into playing matches. I think it's always a little bit different from practices. Yeah, I mean, fortunately I've been able to travel with a physio last year and hopefully this well year as well. I was with him during December, seeing him every day, and he's here with me this week and next week as well. I've got my own fair share of niggles, but feeling pretty healthy. As long as I can manage those, I'm feeling pretty strong with that. Q. How did you handle the heat the other day? KEVIN ANDERSON: I mean, it was definitely hot. You know, two years ago I played in Atlanta against John Isner and I think it was 60 degrees or something on the court with 100% humidity. So I don't know if that conditioned me a little bit, but I didn't find it that bad actually. It was a little bit breezy, but it's pretty quick out there, so we weren't having too many rallies. I don't mind playing in the heat, so wasn't a big factor for me. Q. The way you're conditioned now and having so many solid matches under your belt, could you have had a better preparation for the Australian Open? KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, definitely feeling good. As I said, all this is you always prepare in advance for Australia. At the same time, I am in the semis here. Got my eyes set on my match tomorrow, and, you know, just try to take care of what I can do. I think if I had to look at the picture, I feel regardless of what happens I'll be feeling pretty good going into Australia. Q. We've lost a lot of serve and volleyers from men's tennis. Roger is there. Could there be maybe a revival? Could you lead a comeback? KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, I wouldn't include myself just leading the revival of serve and volleyers, but I think it's important. I think yesterday I did a pretty good job against Feliciano. Had to throw in som serve and volleys quite a few times. He's a tricky player. I was happy to see just myself and sort of the improvements I've made in that area. But I think the game has evolved a little bit. People move and return so well. If you don't hit a great shot or hit a finishing volley, you're almost like you're a sitting duck at the net sometimes. I think you just have to be very selective when you choose to come to the net. Q. Are you regretting choosing Hopman over Brisbane because of the way you're playing? KEVIN ANDERSON: No, not at all. As I mentioned earlier, I think I took a lot out of Hopman Cup. I don't know what would have happened had I gone to Brisbane. Coming from Perth, you know, I'm extremely pleased with just my practices and matches there. As I said, I'm very happy with the way those two weeks went. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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