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NITTO ATP FINALS


November 15, 2017


Dominic Thiem


London, England, United Kingdom

D. THIEM/P. Carreno Busta

6-3, 3-6, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Did you feel good about Nadal pulling out before this match? How quickly did that change during the match, if so?
DOMINIC THIEM: I mean, we know every player. Of course, everybody also saw that Rafa was injured. I mean, it was pretty obvious in the match. It was somehow clear that he probably won't last in this tournament.

If one pulls out, the first one not to qualify comes in who is No. 9 or No. 10 in the Race, who played an amazing season, is a really good player. So he was filling up the sport very, very good.

Yeah, was a tough open match until the end.

Q. Was the head-to-head important tonight or not? You had beaten him four times before.
DOMINIC THIEM: I've beaten him four times on the tour. I lost to him, as well, on the challengers. It was not really a clear head-to-head. It never really matters, the head-to-head.

I mean, it was always tough open matches against him, same like today. I'm mostly pleased with my game or partly pleased with my game. At the end I'm of course happy that I won it.

Q. You seemed to struggle a little bit with your toe. What was the problem?
DOMINIC THIEM: No, it was fine. I was just pulling my shoelaces too tight. That was the only problem today.

Q. You wrote a message on the camera at the end. It is a charity match in Slovenia, and is Aljaz Bedene involved?
DOMINIC THIEM: It's not a charity match. We played one match after the US Open where we played in Austria. I have a football team at home with Austrian tennis players, and they did the same in Slovenia. From time to time we do some international friendly games. I wanted to promote it a little bit today.

Q. Are you guys going to win? Is Bedene any good?
DOMINIC THIEM: We drew the first game, so we are going for the win in the second leg.

Q. Where do you play?
DOMINIC THIEM: In the center or midfield. I'm taking care of the game.

Q. Your match against Goffin on Friday is basically a quarterfinal match. Obviously you know him really well. How do you feel that's going to be?
DOMINIC THIEM: First of all, I'm very happy and pleased that I get the chance to play for the semifinals on Friday. Not much calculating. The winner go through.

We had some big, important matches in the past. Also in the deep rounds of slams. This one's going to be another one. We know each other very well. He played a very good match here, one very bad match. I don't know what to expect. I'm hoping that it's going to be a tough match, and I'm trying everything to go through to the semis.

Q. You are pretty good friends with David. Do you remember when you first met him?
DOMINIC THIEM: First I met him was already 13 years ago, but we didn't really speak. He's a very nice guy. He's a very good guy to practice. I think when we both entered the top 100, when we both had our good year three years ago, we started to practice a lot.

He came to do a little bit pre-season with us this year. We know each other very well. We had some good practices, some good time off the court. It's a nice relationship.

Q. What is the most difficult thing when you play against David?
DOMINIC THIEM: He's taking the balls very early. He's giving me not much time. Especially on this little bit faster surface, it's tough for me. Yeah, so I try to be the first to hurt him and not the other way around.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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