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BNP PARIBAS OPENMarch 9, 2013Kevin AndersonINDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA K. ANDERSON/D. Ferrer THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Can you talk about the elbow surgery I guess you had pretty recently? KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah. I got it done the day after I lost in Australia. I think it was the 22nd of January or something. Just in December I was practicing, and out of the blue I was hitting a few balls and felt something. Q. Which arm? Which elbow? KEVIN ANDERSON: My right elbow. Just something really strange. Hard to describe all the different feelings. Caused me quite a bit of pain, some locking. I was with my physio in Auckland at the time. I was training there in December. He managed to get to a point where it was fine during Australia, during my matches there. I could feel it every now and then. I remember for my third‑round match against Verdasco I was a little nervous because I wasn't feeling too good before, but it settled down. It's just when the bone pieces moved. Long story short they just thought it was better to have them taken out, so I did it the day after I lost there. I had it done in Melbourne by one of the doctors there, Greg Hoy, who came highly recommended. He has done a few of them. I went back to Auckland. My physio is there, and my coach is there, as well. I was able to do my rehab there, and started hitting, it was about six weeks ago. Q. Could you have imagined at that point beating David Ferrer in March? KEVIN ANDERSON: No. I always set my sights hopefully to play Delray just to be able to go there and defend my title from last year, but the bigger expectation was to try to be ready for Indian Wells. I think so far it's gone really well. It's still getting there. It's not 100% just yet, but the way I played today and stuff, you know, I'm really, really pleased with it. Q. Does it hurt still? KEVIN ANDERSON: Just a little bit on the serve. Everything else is completely fine. Just that extension on the serve gives it a little bit of pain, and it fatigues quite quickly. So right now just really serving on match days. Taking it quite easy on days off. Hopefully, you know, just as time goes on, doing a lot of the treatment and rehab, I will be able to slowly start increasing that load. Q. How nice a win was that today? KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, it was fantastic. You know, obviously David is a great player, and especially in the last few years he's really stepped it up. Beating a top 5 in the world player is always ‑‑it's a great feeling, and especially somebody like David who doesn't go away. I mean, he fights for everything; doesn't give you everything. I felt I earned the win today. Q. Sounded like you were making him a little cranky on the court. He was doing a lot of complaining, it sounded like. Does that bother you? KEVIN ANDERSON: No, not really. You get pretty emotional out there. There was a couple of, you know, close line calls that we had throughout the match. But, yeah, I mean, when you're giving it all and wanting to win, I think emotions tend to come out then. Q. Cliff Dysdale has just come into the Hall of Fame, Raymond runs the show here, and Wayne has the record for consecutive slams. Can you take a moment and talk about South African tennis and in recent years and your thoughts on that? KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, it's tough. It's also kind of tricky for me to give too much commentary just because I'm not, you know, in the country a whole lot. I'm only able to really go back once a year, and not too involved with the tennis scene really in South Africa. I can just comment on sort of an international stage. You know, right now I think struggling a little bit. There is, you know, there is a few of us that are playing. Yeah, I'm sort of the only guy playing sort of consistently at the ATP level. We have a couple of guys ranked sort of between 150 and 200 now, I think. You know, Izak van der Merwe, Rik de Voest who are‑‑ you know, Rik is getting sort of ‑‑not at the end of his career, but definitely getting on in his career. Izak has struggled with injuries. He was almost top 100. It would have been awesome for him to stay healthy. But after that, there is ‑‑ and Raven Klaasen is doing very well in doubles. Couple other guys, but all my age. There are no sort of new guys. Guys under 20, I'm not so sure. There was a junior in Australian Open, Wayne Montgomery. Just haven't met him or haven't seen him playing. It's kind of ‑‑ be great maybe to try and see these guys more often, try to help out where I can. It's tricky. There is not much tennis in South Africa. We lost the South African Open. That wasn't a step forward. We had to give away a Davis Cup tie last year. It's always tricky, especially in the climate in South Africa. It's a sport‑crazy country, but very focused on rugby, cricket, soccer, golf. Definitely the primary sports. We'll have to see. We need more funding, sponsorship, and need to see more junior guys coming up. Because, you know, I'm the youngest sort of guy ‑ and I'm 26 ‑ sort of at the highest level. Q. As a guy who is a big server, how do you learn what ‑‑ the times when you have to try to go for a breaker‑‑ we were just watching Isner who lost, and he just seems to have a hard time knowing when to get a service break on his own to solidify his serve. Is that a hard thing for a guy who has one weapon to learn how to do? KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah. I mean, obviously you have to take care of your own serve games. For me, I thought my biggest‑‑ what I did the best today was returning. I thought I made a ton of returns; probably didn't serve the best today. So for me, I'm really happy being able to come through a match like that. But, yeah, the way men's tennis has gone, I think, you know, John is a great example of somebody who has really buckled down over the last few years and has really stepped up. He's with a chance almost every match he plays. Comes up with big serves when he needs them. His serve next ball is certainly good. Definitely next challenge for him is maybe trying to do a bit more on the return side of things. Q. When you have that one big weapon, is it hard to try to learn the rest of the game or advance the rest of your game? KEVIN ANDERSON: I don't think there is anybody here just with one weapon. It's at least two or three, you know, from all the guys. You can't have too many weaknesses, either. I think it becomes part and parcel of doing it and something you work on every day on the practice court, as well. Q. Can you just comment on the conditions? Because obviously the desert air being thinner, the ball will fly faster. Players were talking about the grittiness of the courts. How has it been? KEVIN ANDERSON: It feels really good out there for me. High‑bouncing hard courts are always ‑‑ I have always enjoyed playing like that in those conditions. I think there is a bit of altitude here as well, so maybe the ball moves up a bit. But the courts are gritty as well so you have a bit of control, as well. I thought the conditions in both my matches have been really fantastic. So I'm definitely loving playing out here. Q. You briefly mentioned rugby in South Africa. President Mandela used rugby in a major way in his presidency and obviously was a boxer in the past and has had many tennis events. Have you had any encounters with him, and what are your thoughts about his role in your country? KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, no, unfortunately I haven't. He would obviously be a person I'd love to meet one day. And, yeah, I think, you know, what he's done sort of speaks for itself. I don't think I can add too much to, you know, the legacy that he has. I mean, he's an icon in South Africa. Most people sort of, I think, respect and appreciate everything he's done. You know, just obviously a fascinating life, and turned the corner in South Africa's political climate. Obviously there is a few struggles that we still face today, but, I mean, it's still a pretty new democracy, so hopefully will continue to grow and get better. Q. Have you talked about the 25‑second rule? Some of the guys are still complaining about it. Just your thoughts on it and where the council is. KEVIN ANDERSON: Well, we'll be meeting next week in Miami, so we will be getting an update on that. I think it's a good rule. I think it's always tough because it's not like ‑‑I mean, you have to sometimes take into consideration, you know, extenuating circumstances. If you play like an incredibly long point or the ball kids‑‑ maybe the ball goes out or something. Just from the standpoint I think it's a good rule. It makes it fair for everybody. But I have heard‑‑ as the year has gone on, some guys are saying it's getting a bit more lax. There aren't as many time violations going on out there. I just heard a couple guys saying with different matches some people are sticking to the rule and some people aren't. It's a work in progress, so hopefully after Miami we will be able to sort of assess where it's at and see what other people are feeling. I mean, just have to go from there. Q. If it was affordable, would you be in favor of a shot clock? I heard some guys talk about that, too, so they actually know what the time is rather than... KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, and when we implemented the rule at the US Open we chatted about that a bit, whether there is an affordability issue. Also, I don't think it's ‑‑it's one of those things where there are sometimes circumstances that come up that you do need more than the 25 seconds that's out of your control. But if there is a shot clock there it might make things trickier. I don't think it's like basketball where the time continues all the time. You are waiting for other people. That would be something we'd have to have a trial or something to see how that would work out. Q. So is that whether it's flexible or not flexible, and if there are different umpires calling it different ways, you guys almost have to find a way to get with the umpires and try to find... KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, definitely. And the biggest reason we just did it was we thought their calling actual point penalty was too big of a thing. Now it seems like this is becoming a big thing, losing a first serve, so it would be interesting to see where we are. We have to find something that works. I think the principle of it, of making it 25 seconds ‑‑ because some guys were really taking longer than that, and myself included. At times I have been more aware of it and tried to speed things up, and I think it's better for the game. Q. Do you find in general players who are younger are sort of resistant to change? KEVIN ANDERSON: Generally. Another big one has been the no‑let rule at challengers, and we will be talking about that in Miami. I think that's been a bit more controversial than the time thing, even though it hasn't been played at the ATP level. I think that's with everything. People get happy with where they are. I think the Hawk‑Eye was similar. I think the doubles, now I think most people have embraced the doubles rule. Not everybody does it, but I think the vast majority of the players definitely prefer it. It's just how ‑‑ I guess how it is. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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