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NITTO ATP FINALS

November 15, 2018

Kevin Anderson

London, England, United Kingdom

R. FEDERER/K. Anderson

6-4, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You seem to be at the top of your game. What do you think about your performance tonight? Were you surprised the way Federer played?
KEVIN ANDERSON: I can't speak for how he felt out there. I feel like some of the things he did today I didn't really adjust to very well. I thought he used the change of pace very well today. I felt actually okay, pretty good, out on the court, but didn't execute or play at a high enough level in order to win tonight's match.

That was a little bit disappointing because I felt like I played some really good tennis so far. But the plus side is I'm through to the semis. That feels great. That's step one done. Have tomorrow off, definitely look to come back stronger on Saturday.

Q. It was the Next Gen Finals in Milan last week. What do you think of the young players? Any players outside of Zverev we should be getting excited about?
KEVIN ANDERSON: I think it's fantastic, Next Gen in general, an amazing initiative. People are loving it. Really exciting. Some of the new formats and rule changes I think is really exciting. I think in the years to come, we'll see some of those on our tour.

There's a lot of great guys, Tsitsipas, outside of Zverev, has had an amazing year. Alex has done so well. If you look throughout the whole field, there's a ton of talent there. I think it's really exciting. We'll see a lot of those guys especially in the years coming up.

Q. Earlier this season you and Charlie decided after Wimbledon he would follow his studies. He's back this week. Tell me something about it. Also, associated with the physical aspect of the game, you're tall, years ago any player over a meter 90 would serve and volley because he could play from the big court. Tell me what your challenges have been playing with your height? What do you do specifically to counter the bad side of being as tall as you are?
KEVIN ANDERSON: I've played my whole life from the back. I think it starts with the mindset as a kid, that's the way I learned to play tennis. As years have gone by, I've tried to come forward a little bit more. Tonight a few times I needed to come forward to change it up a little bit.

From that standpoint, I think it starts with the mental outlook. Obviously physically being tall, you have to work really hard on using your legs. You're high off the ground, have to have a lot of strength. Injuries, as well, because there's more load going through.

If I look at some of the positions Novak gets into, obviously it's pretty unique even for somebody his size, but it's a little bit unrealistic for me to be able to move the same with my center of gravity being so much higher.

There's some challenges, but over the last few years more and more tall guys moving incredibly well. I feel like I'm definitely one of them. We'll definitely see more guys moving forward like that because as tough as it is, if you work hard enough, smart enough, you have the right patterns, movement patterns, it's something that maybe is not going to be 100% as effective as somebody who is around six foot, but you can get incredibly close.

Obviously I spent a lot of time with Charlie. We officially ended after Wimbledon. He's here in London studying. I have a new physio from Germany, Daniel, who is great. It's great seeing Charlie here. He's been with me, giving us some advice. He knows my body very well. It's fantastic seeing him again.

Q. This morning the ATP Cup was presented. They said it will be the ranking of the No. 1 to select the teams. What happens with South Africa? You will be for sure. You don't have, as far as I know, teammates.
KEVIN ANDERSON: No, we do. We've got from a doubles standpoint Raven is here, Raven Klaasen. Lloyd Harris is coming through, ranked 110 in the world. Exciting. On the verge of making Australian Open main draw. We have a couple other guys ranked between 500 and 700.

We still are looking at the exact format of what the stages are going to look like. I think we're very close. Could be already out. All in all, I'm looking forward to that event. I sort of am thinking about it.

Q. Can you describe what happened between those three consecutive breaks?
KEVIN ANDERSON: It was weird. Hasn't happened to me in a very long time, losing consecutive serve games to love. That first game, credit to him, he made a few returns. I had a couple double-faults, sort of gave it away a little bit. He probably felt the same on the next serve game.

Once I broke back, I felt it was a slight hiccup, but I was fortunately able to get right back at it. I felt I was back in the match. Obviously losing serve again is going to be tough. I mean, also came back again because I had Love-40 that next game.

I think overall just needed to serve much better today. I've been serving great all week. He brings a little bit of a different outlook from my side, a different look to the game. Definitely it wasn't from my side the best serving performance today.

Q. (No microphone.)
KEVIN ANDERSON: Exactly. Hopefully I get another shot at playing him. It's always a great challenge playing him. Definitely motivated to try to do better next time.

Q. We don't know who you're playing yet. The chances are it's Djokovic. Talk about playing against him, whether the Wimbledon final has any impact.
KEVIN ANDERSON: A little bit, I guess. I probably look more closely to our indoors, the last couple matches, playing him -- played him at Laver Cup, obviously in Shanghai as well. I mean, he's playing amazing tennis. Obviously he's really established himself back to the top of the game. Great, great opportunity for me.

Obviously today was tough. Previous two matches I played really good tennis, coming off quite a few weeks where I've been playing better and better. Nice I have tomorrow to resettle. I guess the advantage of playing first on Sunday, then really looking forward to coming back on Saturday, picking things up again.

Q. We follow you in your tweets. How did you get this conscience of plastic?
KEVIN ANDERSON: It's always been on the back of my mind. Just generally I'd say being sort of aware of our environment, something that's always been important to me. Plastic specifically, during French Open, through Netflix of all places, I saw a documentary called Plastic Oceans. Once you see it, it's impossible to unsee it.

My coach is also very passionate about it. Something we're trying to build on. As you know, here in London and also at the Next Gen, there's quite a few initiatives trying to reduce plastic bottles, trying to reuse them. Up in the restaurant, trying to reduce up there, as well. The idea is to take everything we learn from these couple weeks, then trying to create some bigger initiatives next year both from what the players can do and also promoting it to everybody who comes and watches tennis.

Q. Before the tournament started you said the London experience was very good. You had the opportunity to know the city. How are you feeling, being the first African athlete to qualify the semifinals here?
KEVIN ANDERSON: It's been great. As I said, the week before was really enjoyable. I was in the city. Went to the theater. Had some media and press to do. Everybody was so excited about the event.

As I said going into it, obviously the main focus is on the tennis. Few days later I've qualified through to the semis. It's nice the day on, day off. We've also done some nice things. Tomorrow we're going to Abbey Road studios in the morning. That's exciting. Can't wait to do that. Come back and practice in the afternoon, get ready for obviously a really big weekend.

I qualified for the semis. Don't know who I'm playing yet. Whoever it is, I'm going to be excited, ready to go. Hopefully fighting for spot in the finals.

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