ROLEX MONTE-CARLO MASTERS

April 15, 2021

Daniel Evans

Press Conference

D. EVANS/N. Djokovic

6-4, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. (Question about today's match.)

DANIEL EVANS: It's good to win, sort of put the first match behind me. Tomorrow now, yeah, it's difficult. Obviously a bit more attention. Yeah, not so fond of that. Just hopefully focus on tomorrow.

Yeah, obviously I'm happy. I'm still in the tournament. After the tournament, I'll look back at what a good day it was. Yeah, it was obviously an amazing feeling to win and to come through.

Q. Novak has the capacity to turn around any losing position. At what stage did you think you really had his number? Was there a point that you felt you had him?

DANIEL EVANS: No, I felt comfortable from the outset. In myself, I felt very good. But more importantly I didn't feel he was being too aggressive, pushing me back too much. I was comfortable in the points. I hit my forehand well.

When I got the first set, I had to deal with a bit of adversity at 3-Love and just hang in there. I guess when I held at 5-4 after the set point, I think I sort of sensed he really wanted that. Obviously he wanted the point, but he made a big error. I felt that was because of the pressure I was applying on him. He felt he needed to take that point there and then.

I felt pretty relaxed up until probably 40-15, to be honest. He come at me at 40-15, and I felt, Just give it a good go here. It's a nice feeling when it was over.

Like I said, it's a great day. Got some more matches to go this week, yeah.

Q. I just wonder what you might have thought if a year or two ago someone would have said to you you're going to make your first Masters Series singles quarterfinal on clay. Would you have thought that's just not going to happen or what?

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, obviously it's not my favorite surface. But I think the conditions have actually suited me this week. It's not been very warm. The ball stayed low. I'm moving way better on the clay. That's definitely helped.

Q. When you see that he's maybe under pressure, and you're using your backhand slice as well as you do, do you know in your mind you're able to keep him from getting into a rhythm?

DANIEL EVANS: I didn't know that before the match. Obviously, I had a fair idea that he wouldn't be that comfortable with it. I thought he struggled to generate much pace off my slice. I was using that more and more in the match because I didn't feel he was hurting me off it. I actually thought I could get on offense from that.

That's how the match went, I think. If you look at it, I sliced well, ran around and hit good forehands, put him under quite a bit of pressure.

Q. How do you explain to yourself that you may lose to Musetti, even if you had four match points last week, then beat the No. 1 in the world? That's tennis, it can happen, but in your mind what kind of explanation do you give?

DANIEL EVANS: I mean, it happens. You and Musetti should get a set of manners on him. How he spoke last week was embarrassing. Let's not talk about Musetti in my press conference.

Last week he said some things in the Italian press about me that was disrespectful. Musetti, if he apologizes, I will answer. He's a good tennis player, but he's got no manners.

Q. I'm asking you how do you explain the different performance between that match and today? What Musetti says doesn't concern me.

DANIEL EVANS: Just tennis, he played very well last week. I wasn't good enough. I didn't take the match points. Yeah, it's just tennis.

Yeah, he could do with learning some manners.

Q. You said in your post match interview that Novak kept you waiting at the beginning, and that got you fired up. Talk us through what happened and how long you were waiting.

DANIEL EVANS: No, it was just a bit of a joke. No, no, obviously the match went pretty quick before. Yeah, we were just told a bit of a time. I was waiting a little bit. It was no big deal.

Yeah, no, I was just joking with I think it was Tim or Amazon, one of them.

Q. You said you came out quick off the blocks, caught him cold.

DANIEL EVANS: I had a plan first few games to take on his second serve. It's obviously a little easier said than done. I don't want to say he gave me the games, I don't want to speak bad of him, but he played not such a good game in the first game. Sort of settled me into the match. I got a decent hold on the board. It just settled me down into the court, to the surroundings, everything really.

Then obviously I knew he's obviously going to start coming back at some point and playing some good tennis. Yeah, I think I did well to get out the first set.

I think he had breakpoints at 4-All. Yeah, you always know with those top guys that they're going to start coming at you at some point. I thought I weathered the mini storm pretty well, yeah.

Q. Are you not working with Sebastian this week, but you're working with his brother this week?

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, so his brother is a fitness coach. So, yeah, to work with -- not to work with Sebastian, but basically it was to use a trainer as well. He gave me an option or two, so I took his brother. He could start before Sebastian.

He started, I mean, three days after I agreed with Sebastian that we were going to trial. Sebastian couldn't go from Argentina until I think it's the 19th, which is next Tuesday.

I mean, regardless, yeah, he's been with me since the last tournament, Sardinia. He's a fitness trainer and he can hit a few balls and feed me. So Sebastian has been obviously telling him. I've been in conversation with Sebastian every day. Yeah, he's been telling him what to work on, little things. I've been speaking to Sebastian about game plan, et cetera. But he starts next week.

Q. You showed today that your slice backhand is a big weapon. How do you explain that today almost no one player uses a shot like you?

DANIEL EVANS: I mean, not the only shot, but that was just the shot I used quite a bit. It became effective, I guess. It's a bit better than my topspin backhand. I just try to use it as my strength.

Yeah, I mean, it worked pretty well today. Sometimes it's a bit too predictable if you use it too much. I think I used it pretty well today, good variation.

Q. You mentioned earlier that --

THE MODERATOR: The connection with you is really bad.

DANIEL EVANS: I didn't get that. Go again.

Q. Earlier you said you don't like attention. I'm wondering why?

DANIEL EVANS: Just don't feel that comfortable with it. I like to just be with close people, relax, yeah. So, yeah, sometimes it's a little embarrassing are saying (indiscernible) too much. That's the way I feel. I can't help it.