ATP CUP

January 3, 2020

Jan-Lennard Struff

N. KYRGIOS/J. Struff

6-4, 7-6

Australia - 1, Germany - 0

THE MODERATOR: First question, please.

Q. What did you think of your level overall tonight, first match of the year?

JAN-LENNARD STRUFF: I mean, Nick was serving pretty well today, I would say. It was tough to get the first points in his service games. He was always up 30-love, 15-love, pretty fast, so it was tough to, yeah, to get a bit out of his serve, like, that he didn't serve that well. That was just the problem. He didn't serve that many second serves and I did, like, two or three mistakes in one game in the first set and he broke me and I had no chance to come back. And I knew before that this is very important for me to stay in my service game's focus, but yeah that happens. And second set I did a much better job, I would say. I had a chance to -- I made one time 30-all, deuce in the service game, so it was obviously very tough. But in the tiebreak I had three chances and I played three wrong balls and, yeah, the volley and he lobbed me very well and that decided the match. It was just a first set, two points; second set it was, like, three, if I win out of the three, one, I think I win the set. And then we can see for a third set. But, yeah, that was too good serving from him.

Q. You faced a home player in his home country for ATP Cup. What did you think of the atmosphere?

JAN-LENNARD STRUFF: Atmosphere was great. I liked it. It's normal that they support their player and I think they were very fair. And I like to play in front of a crowd much more than I have no crowd. And so, yeah, I really like the atmosphere.

Q. What was it like starting your year against someone of his caliber? There's no really easing your way into the season with this tournament.

JAN-LENNARD STRUFF: Yeah, I mean, it was obvious that we don't rally a lot today and that I have to be focused on my service games from the first point of the year. So it was not easy and but always good. We're a very tough group and it's good to play these guys in the first week straight away and see where I stand, what I have to work on. And unfortunately, I didn't get the win for Germany, but I will try again next time on Sunday.

Q. How did you like having them so close by you in the baseline, your teammates?

JAN-LENNARD STRUFF: It was nice. Yeah, it was nice. I liked that it's new for me. And it was good to get the support from teammates, like, when I was on bench coming to the, always they were standing up and say, let's go. Yeah, you can do it. Like, it was good support.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports