ATP CUP

January 4, 2022

Alex De Minaur

James Duckworth

Team Australia

Press Conference

R. SAFIULIN/J. Duckworth

7-6, 6-4

Russian Tennis Federation - 2

Team Australia - 0

THE MODERATOR: Bad luck in the singles, but obviously Australia is still up for a semifinal spot, depending upon what happens on Thursday. How do you see your next tie Thursday?

JAMES DUCKWORTH: Yeah, it's going to be tough. I know I'm going to have to play a lot better to get a win against Arthur. But, yeah, hopefully the boys can play well in dubs right now and get a win there and then, yeah, we're still a chance.

THE MODERATOR: Alex, talk about your matchup.

ALEX DE MINAUR: Yeah, as James said, a lot of things need to go our way for us to have a little sniff of making it through, but we still have to go out there and prepare and hopefully deliver. They're going to be very touch matches, like every match here at the ATP Cup, especially in our group, so we just got to be ready for another battle out there.

Q. Obviously Daniil is one of the best players in the world is there a way to sort of find the balance for maybe going for too much and not going for enough against him?

ALEX DE MINAUR: Yeah, I mean, he's a very tactical player in the sense of he baits you very well to go for a lot. He's obviously a very good mover with very good end-range shots. I mean, to beat him you got to obviously be aggressive and take the net, but at the same time you don't want to over press and I feel like I did a bit of that today and made a couple too many unforced errors. Yeah, it's a tricky one because you got to find that balance between being too aggressive and not being too passive. So he makes life quite difficult in that aspect and especially on this court his ball was shooting through and it's very tough to get any free points today.

Q. James, obviously it didn't go your way, but just could you describe the experience of playing with your teammates and playing in front of your crowd?

JAMES DUCKWORTH: Yeah, it was difficult for me not to play against Italy, I was really disappointed to miss that one. But, yeah, it was great to play today with having the bench, having my coach, Wayne and Lleyton there and all the boys on the bench and the home support was great, just, yeah, wish I could have performed a bit better.

Q. James, what changed things at 5-2 in the first set?

JAMES DUCKWORTH: I mean, look, I didn't serve well the whole match, so I had already been broken in that set and, yeah, just I was having some long service games on my serve, but, yeah, a lot of it came down to just not being able to land first serves in key moments.

Q. Alex, especially towards the latter stages of the match on the change of ends it looked like you were very frustrated and you were making a lot of comments. What was some of that discussion?

ALEX DE MINAUR: Actually, it wasn't me being frustrated it was actually trying to discuss different game plans and ways of playing the match. I was having discussions with both my coach and Lleyton, seeing how to find a way through, what to try next because I felt like today I didn't really execute, I didn't -- there's a certain type of way you got to play and I wasn't as sharp as I was on the first day, so that made things difficult, so we're just trying to find ways of how do we get back in this match and ultimately the way to get back in that match was to keep playing the way I was but just executing.

So it was actually not frustration, just having conversations. I mean, that's the beauty of ATP Cup. At the change of ends you can talk to your team and see and just bounce off ideas, see what the people on outside are thinking and we were trying to get something working, obviously today it didn't.

Q. James, you obviously missed that first game with that hip problem. Did you pull up okay after this one and was it something you won't really know how you're traveling until tomorrow?

JAMES DUCKWORTH: Yeah, so far so good. Yeah, just had a little bit of treatment. Yeah, it was pretty good for the most part in the match.

But, yeah, it sort of started after a match last time, so, yeah, we'll see tomorrow how it pulls up.

Q. Is it something you're going to have to likely sort of deal with through the summer or is it something that you would hope would sort of disappear in the next couple of weeks before AO?

JAMES DUCKWORTH: Yeah, I'm hopeful with the right treatment and rehab it will sort of go away. So fingers crossed it does.

Q. Alex, it looked like Daniil said as you guys shook hands that you played a great match and he thought you played really well. Is that what he said and what, if it is, what does that sort of mean to you to have a No. 2 player in the world who has just won a Grand Slam to sort of recognize your standard and your level after that match?

ALEX DE MINAUR: Well at the end of the day these are the matches I want to be playing and, sure, it didn't go my way but you live and you learn.

Didn't execute how I wanted to today, but there's always tomorrow, there's always things to improve on, lots of things I learned today and we move on.

We're still alive, I've got another match at least for sure against France and short-term-memory loss, we move on, all focus on to France. Well first obviously the doubles and then France.

Q. If I can get thoughts from both of you, I don't know if you've caught up with the news that Novak has been given a medical exemption. What are your thoughts? You obviously knew because you were expecting it, weren't you?

JAMES DUCKWORTH: Look, I don't know the criteria for exemptions, yeah, apparently it's an independent panel, he must have fit the criteria somehow, so, yeah, if he's fit the criteria, then, yeah, he should be able to come.

ALEX DE MINAUR: That's very politically correct of you. (Laughing).

Yeah, as James has very wisely put out there, I think he's said all the right things there. Look, I just think it's just very interesting, that's all I'm going to say. But, hey, it is what it is, I just hope that the other players that I heard there were other cases as well, they got exemptions, so I hope they will all fit the criteria.