US OPEN

September 7, 2020

Dominic Thiem

Press Conference

D. THIEM/F. Auger-Aliassime

7-6, 6-1, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You spoke very highly of your opponent afterwards. What is it you think makes him such a potential superstar?

DOMINIC THIEM: For me, you can see it on the court, the way he plays. First of all, he's already super good now. Second of all, he has still many, many things to improve. That makes it even more dangerous, I guess, if you have so much potential in almost every stroke.

I mean, I played a great match today, the best one from my whole America trip. So I'm very happy about that. But doesn't change my opinion on what Felix is capable of.

Q. I know you said on court what happened to Novak yesterday doesn't make any difference to you or any of the other guys. Obviously Novak, Rafa, Roger, they've been a roadblock for you in slams, and your whole generation. It must feel different with none of those guys here now.

DOMINIC THIEM: Yeah, I mean, there is a difference that none of these three are left in the draw. That's the only difference.

But for me personally, it never mattered. I just always tried to focus on my next match. My focus or my concentration, it's the same. It doesn't matter if I play one of the big three members or if I play somebody else.

Well, I mean, what happened happened. Nobody of the other players has any or had any influence of that. We just need to focus and focus on ourselves.

Of course, it's probably a little bit of a bigger chance for all of us to win the first slam, but basically the things didn't change that much, at least for myself.

Q. You were speaking on court about playing Alex in the next match. How quick is Alex, in your opinion? How difficult does that make it for opponents?

DOMINIC THIEM: Definitely one of the fastest players on tour. I think that he also is moving not only super fast but also very accurate. That's what makes it even better, his movement.

Played him twice. Kind of these two matches were before he really had his breakthrough. He improved massively in especially last one and a half, two years I would say. So I'm looking forward to that one.

Well, every opponent of course is really, really great player in the last eight. Now try to enjoy this great win what I had today for some hours, then full focus on the next one.

Q. On Alex, what do you think of Alex as a player? Also, those two matches you played against him before, one of them being at the US Open in 2017 in the first round, do those matches come into calculation at all when you play him now or is it too long ago and he's a different player and so are you?

DOMINIC THIEM: Well, he definitely developed more, especially physically, than I did. I think he was only 17 at our first match at the US Open. He was skinny, super fast back then already, but now he's a man, a super experienced player already. It's going to be a different story.

The match we had was on clay, the other one, so cannot take this one as well. It's going to be something completely new on Wednesday. Of course, I saw many matches of him in the last year, year and a half, especially what he did in Australia, ATP Cup. Last year the tournament in Sydney and Australian Open, was very, very impressive.

It's going to be a great encounter. I'm looking forward to that one. The thing I try is to keep that great form which I had set two and three today to take it to the next match.