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ATP CUP


January 7, 2020


Christian Ruud

Leyton Rivera

Herman Hoeyeraal

Lukas Hellum Lilleengen

Viktor Durasovic

Casper Ruud


Perth, Western Australia, Australia

GABASHVILI-KRAVCHUK/Durasovic-Ruud

7-6, 6-4

Team Russia - 3

Team Norway - 0

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Casper, could I just start with you? How do you think you played today? There was sort of a terrific fight throughout the match. You sort of came close a couple of times and really gained momentum in the second set. Just give your overview, please.
CASPER RUUD: Yeah, it was a good match, I think. I think we all know Daniil is very tough opponent. He plays very well. He doesn't do many mistakes, so you have to create a lot of good points if you want to beat him.

Sometimes I tried to come to the net, which I think paid off quite good today. I tried to be as aggressive as I could, and sometimes you have to go for maybe some very good winners. Maybe you miss some; maybe you make some.

It's not easy to grind him out, because he's a very -- he's very fast and he makes a lot of balls back. I'm happy with the match, even though I didn't win, and I had some chances and I felt like I pushed him pretty well. I think, yeah, we all have good respect for how good he plays tennis and, yeah, how good of a player he is.

Q. You have obviously played really well throughout the whole week. How do you sort of assess that and the fact that your off-season work is reaping dividends so early in the season?
CASPER RUUD: It's great feedback for me to play three very good matches in the beginning of the year. You know, I won, like, two of three matches but we only won one out of the three team matches.

But like I said, I won two singles matches, which of course I'm very happy with and trying to take that with me on my next tournaments. And especially into Melbourne, you know, that's the biggest tournament of all of them down here, and I think this has been a very good start of the year and not practice but a good way to start before Melbourne.

Q. Viktor, you seemed to grow in confidence throughout the week. What are you actually going to take out of this tournament for future weeks and events that you play in?
VIKTOR DURASOVIC: Well, of course now I've gotten even more experience on what the higher level is like. So, you know, now I have a more clear image of what I need to do better in order to get here.

You know, it's just very simple, really. The experience will teach me what I need to do to get better.

Q. Christian, how pleased are you with the performances of everyone and even the whole team?
CHRISTIAN RUUD: Yeah, I'm happy with the young guys who have been cheering well from the bench. And Casper and Viktor, we did a great job beating USA. Played a great doubles against a good doubles team.

Against Italy we were also close. We have been pushing the big countries well, and I mean, like Casper said, we are happy with the week. We have been playing some good matches and shown that Norway is a good tennis nation, I think.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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