MURRAY RIVER OPEN

February 6, 2021

Daniel Evans

Press Conference

D. EVANS/J. Chardy

6-2, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You seem to be riding a wave of confidence, not dropping a set en route to the final. Talk about your match today.

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, played pretty well today. Yeah, it was good to get a quick match. Obviously I had a pretty long day yesterday, so it was good to go through in straight sets.

Q. Your third career final. You seem to do it in odd years, '17, '19, '21. Your thoughts on reaching another final?

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, I mean, yeah, I played some good tennis this week. Last year I played some good stuff, as well. I just didn't -- made some semis, didn't get through. So yeah, I played pretty good at the end of last year and sort of carried it on the start of this year, hopefully. Got in a bit of a rhythm this week. Had a difficult first round and probably didn't play my best, but I'm starting to feel pretty good now.

Q. Your thoughts on playing Felix, first time meeting him in a final or in a match; what are your thoughts going into that one?

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, he's a very good tennis player, very aggressive, big game. I'll have to try and stop his attacking play. Maybe me play a bit more aggressive and put him on the defensive.

Q. Your preparation going into that match, would you do anything differently? Would your routine be exactly as what you've done so far? Are you superstitious on those sorts of things?

DANIEL EVANS: No, no. Like today is great preparation for next week. Tomorrow, as well. I think I'm lucky to have a Tuesday start, I think, if I've read that right. So yeah, I mean, tomorrow for me is just another -- hopefully another good day and some well-needed match -- it's a match, but it's match practice hopefully for next week, a very competitive one. Yeah, hopefully it can put me in good stead to win some matches next week.

Q. What would it mean to you to win a first career title?

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, it would be great to win it, especially in Australia. I've played pretty good in Australia. I really like being in Australia. It's a pretty cool place, very similar to England for me. It's a good place. Be nice, but if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen.

Q. When we spoke to you last year, you said that you were going to be working with Chris Johnstone here. I just wondered, has that happened, and if so, how is it going?

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, it happened. Yeah, it just didn't turn out to be -- it was a trial period, and yeah, it didn't turn out to be what I wanted. I made a difficult decision after two weeks to stop the trial period and carry on searching for a coach, really. I did some work back home with Ben Haran to get me ready for Australia, but with all the -- my plan was obviously to start with the new coach, but that didn't go to plan.

When I'm back home, I'll work with Ben, but he obviously has work back home with pretty prestigious school in Reed's. It's a little difficult at the minute, so I need to find a solution with the travel. Yeah, it's not ideal, but yeah, my game is pretty simple, so it's worked this week so far.

Q. So you're not working with a coach here at all? Who have you got with you?

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, no. Aleah is obviously here. She did the 14 days, and my friend who lives in Australia has come yesterday. He comes every year when I play here, so yeah, we're just sort of going with it.

There's plenty of Brits who have offered help and will hit with me if I need some practice. It's no big deal. It's manageable.

Q. I wanted to ask you about your experiences at the NTC after Christmas. We've heard from a couple of people that the COVID protocols maybe weren't as tight as they've been in the first lockdown and obviously there was an outbreak of the virus. I just wondered what your experiences were.

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, I mean, it was -- obviously the virus got into the center somehow. You know, I think as with anything, people relax a bit because I don't think there was really any cases there. I think Christmas period and the new year period maybe slackened a little bit. So yeah, I mean, and obviously the doctor had COVID, as well, so that coincided with I think players then getting it when she was isolating. It wasn't ideal, but I can't speak to say that they were lax or not because I wasn't really privy to see it.

If I was being a bit harsh, without being rude to some players in there, probably shouldn't have been in there. I don't think they were really of much importance. I think right now the importance should have been on getting people healthy to the Australian Open and there was probably people in there who wasn't preparing for tournaments and they were using the center just to practice, to get out. But they was allowed to, and that was sort of the way it was. But yeah.

Q. Just to follow up, did you feel safe when you were practicing?

DANIEL EVANS: I mean, I used it up until I left. I was pretty nervous the last few days because obviously we knew the virus was there. But yeah, I got out unscathed, and touch wood, I haven't had it yet. I've used the NTC now for a long time because probably the only center being open and I've been looked after well and I haven't had the virus, but the last few weeks before we left was maybe a few too many people in there, yeah.