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APIA INTERNATIONAL SYDNEYJanuary 8, 2014Marinko MatosevicSYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES M. MATOSEVIC/A. Seppi THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Must be a nice feeling to be in another quarterfinal? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: Yeah, definitely. Especially in Australia. I do it regularly overseas, but, yeah, definitely to do it in Australia feels good. And to beat someone like Andreas who is 20 in the world, he's a quality player. Q. Feeling more and more confident? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: Yeah, definitely. Last year, even though I finished 60 instead of top 50 I feel like I had a better year on tour. I beat like three top 15 guys, bunch of top 20 guys, and had many more wins on tour. So yeah, definitely. Q. Conditions are almost night and day to Brisbane temperature‑wise. That hasn't been a problem, adjusting t that? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: No. Actually Melbourne had terrible ‑‑ I had terrible weather in the off‑season, November, December. It was like this. No, I don't have a problem with heat, just humidity. I sweat a lot, so, yeah. Q. How much did you learn from getting to the quarterfinals last week? Not talking about playing Roger Federer, but how much do you learn from your experience? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: Yeah, the first match obviously I felt like I could have won straight sets. I was up a break and had a chance to double break against Julien Benneteau. He's a quality player. And then it was a battle in the third. I was a break up. Couldn't serve it out. Then just to finally win in the third set tiebreak was a huge relief. I followed it up with another great win over Sam Querrey, another top 30 player. Yeah, obviously playing Roger, I joked yesterday I didn't learn anything, but of course playing the greatest player of all‑time, you know, you see what he does and stuff. Yeah, so I can't wait to watch‑‑ I still be haven't seen the tape of the match. I want to watch it and then I'll tell what you I learned from it. Q. Do you think that you have gained a lot of confidence from playing Roger and having some wins in this tournament early that you can take through to maybe even your best result here? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: Yeah. Every win helps. Every win you get confidence from. You know, tennis is a confidence sport. When you're not feeling confident and you're not hitting it right you don't quite feel right and you don't have a teammate to help you out. It's all on you. Yeah, confidence is a big thing. Q. Obviously your next player beat the greatest of all‑time at Wimbledon. MARINKO MATOSEVIC: Yeah. Q. What is your mindset going into that? I imagine you would be more comfortable playing him than Roger. MARINKO MATOSEVIC: Yeah, I mean, the last time I played Sergiy I beat him. It was at the Shanghai Masters. Yeah, obviously he can take that to the grave, beating Roger Federer on Centre Court at Wimbledon. He'll take that. That's one of the greatest accomplishments you can have this in this sport. Yeah, I'm feeling confident. I beat him the last time we played. It's quick here and he likes quick courts, so it probably suits him more than me. Obviously he's playing great. He got in three quallies and won two matches here. Q. Is it hard not to look too far ahead? I guess you have a good opportunity. Del Potro is on the other side of the draw; I guess Bernie possibly in the semis. Is it hard not to look forward? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: No, I don't really look forward. I've done that before. Every tennis player has looked ahead and then you lose. So I'm just concentrating, you know, like the old cliche, one match at a time. As soon as you think ahead, that's when you lose. Q. So having the crowd support behind you here in Sydney and Australia, how does that actually come out in the way it affects your play in a positive way? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: Well, the crowd was a little dead today. I played an unbelievable point to break him in the second set. We had like a 20‑shot rally. He came in, I've lobbed him, and I had like a few little claps. I tried to get them going. I was like, Come on, guys. It was one of the best points this tournament has ever seen. Get going here. If that doesn't get them going, I don't know what will. I don't know what they're looking at. I was just kidding about the greatest point, though. It was good a good point, though. Q. Beating the top 15 players and whatnot, do you feel as though you're a top‑20 player now even though you're not quite there yet? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: My highest ranking is 39. I definitely think I can go higher. I don't want to talk about goals, what my coach, Mark Woodforde, has set up. He has lofty goals for me. He believes in me, and so do all the other Aussie greats. I don't want to talk about them and put any pressure on myself like other players do. Yeah, I definitely feel like I'll go higher than 39. We'll see. Time will tell. Q. You said I guess yesterday you didn't mind playing third fiddle to Lleyton and Bernie. I guess you strolled in here with no one recognizing you, no one setting it up. Does it affect you at all? Do you think, Where is my attention? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: No, because I know what happens in the media. You get built up and then they cut you down as soon as you do one bad thing. No, not at all man. They put their runs on the board and won the big matches in Davis Cup and slams. Until I do that, you know, I'm happy to be whereI am. That's where I am, and we'll see. I've got to prove it on the big stage, and then I'll fight for my 15 seconds of fame. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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