AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 14, 2025

Tristan Boyer

Press Conference

T. BOYER/F. Coria

6-3, 6-7, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: First of all, congrats, Tristan, on your first Grand Slam major win. How do you feel after the victory? Do you look forward to the next match against Alex?

TRISTAN BOYER: Yeah, very excited to play Alex. I I'm just happy to have got it done today. Yeah, first five-set match. Yeah, it was a battle. Coria is a fighter. Just happy to be through it, yeah.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Tristan, I want to ask you, first of all, are you residing right now in Buenos Aires? How long have you been working with Alejandro as well? I heard him turn to you like, (speaking Spanish), and he was giving you some indications in Spanish. Do you understand Spanish as well?

TRISTAN BOYER: Yeah, I speak Spanish. I've been training in Argentina. I had been going once in a while since, I mean, for a while. My dad was close with a coach from there, so that's how I kind of started going there.

He introduced me to the coach I was working with last year, Diego Cristin, and the coach I was working with for 2023. Well, I was working -- sorry. I was working with from 2019 through 2023.

I started training there full-time after I left school in March 2022, but yeah, I mean, I still don't live there. I just go there for training blocks. Yeah, I think it's the best. I think Buenos Aires is the best city to train in the world I think in terms of number of players and clubs and everything that they have there. It's great.

I don't know where you're from, but it's -- Buenos Aires is unbelievable. Everything is there. It's super easy to get everywhere. It's cheap. Everyone is, like, a lot of gyms, a lot of clubs. Everything is really high-quality. There are, like, hundreds of players, for all levels.

I mean, I really like the situation we have there. I love my team that's there. I'm just really, really happy with having a base there, a training base.

Yeah, I mean, I still live at home, probably half between home and Buenos Aires, probably half and half when I'm not playing tournaments. I still live in L.A.

Q. Is there a pattern to when you were switching languages on court? Probably coincidence, but it seemed like you started playing a lot better when you switched to English.

TRISTAN BOYER: When I switched to English?

Q. I don't know. When you switched to English, I was understanding you, balls started landing in.

TRISTAN BOYER: I think when I was super upset, I maybe kept it in Spanish a little bit just in case... It's harder for me to avoid codes (laughter).

Yeah, I also didn't really want -- my family is there. I don't know. I didn't want people to understand what was going on, what I was yelling about.

Yeah, I definitely was (speaking Spanish). I forgot the English word. That's crazy. I didn't want to have any codes, to be honest.

It's honestly, like, a pretty random mix. With Alejandro I speak full-time in Spanish. Once in a while in the match, I mean, if he wants me to really get something, I don't know, he'll say it in English. Then with my other coach, Marcelo, we speak English because he speaks perfect English, so it's easier for us to do that.

But, yeah, it just depends, honestly... I don't know... how I'm feeling.

Q. What are you thinking in while you play?

TRISTAN BOYER: In English. In English.

Q. You play de Minaur next. Most certainly Laver. What are your thoughts on that for your second slam match?

TRISTAN BOYER: I'm extremely excited about that. It's going to be super, super fun. I've never played a match on a stadium like that. Practiced on Ashe a few times, but that's it.

Yeah, it's going to be really fun. I'm just excited to go play tennis.

Q. Just the prospect of playing an Australian in Australia.

TRISTAN BOYER: Yeah, yeah.

Q. It's a hometown situation.

TRISTAN BOYER: Obviously I'm not going to be a favorite, but the Australian fans are obviously, like, the best. It's awesome. Maybe after the New York fans for an American, but I mean, it's just fun to play tennis in an atmosphere like that, so I'm excited.

Q. You're from L.A. What is, for you, going on back home and sort of what is the difficulty of doing your job here, focusing on what's going on here versus keeping up with friends, family, homes back there with what's going on?

TRISTAN BOYER: Yeah. I mean, I think being a high-level athlete, there's always kind of distractions from what you are doing, so I kind of just treat this as another one of those when it's time to kind of lock in.

One thing that you focus on a lot is just controlling your controllables and what you can control. That's just a general thing. This kind of falls into that category. It's something that I can't really do anything about right now, but I mean, obviously when I come off the court and after I've done all the prep and everything, yeah, it's crazy what's happening.

I mean, I'm from Altadena. My dad had to evacuate our house. Luckily it's okay, but we have friends and family who are homeless now. It's really, really devastating to see.

Yeah, I mean, obviously trying to do what I need to do to prep and play tennis, but control what I can control in this moment. But, yeah, it's hard for sure.

Yeah, I mean, I just want to give people good news. We have friends there, and they're following me. So, yeah, I just want to do the best I can for them and hopefully gets resolved quickly.

Q. Just one quick one in the context earlier of speaking Spanish, so maybe bad words couldn't be heard in English, you mentioned having family here. Who is with you?

TRISTAN BOYER: My mom and my grandpa are here. Yeah, my mom and her dad. So it's been awesome. Yeah, he wanted to come. He's never been to Australia. He's, like, I'll come out. It's great. It's awesome.

Yeah, he's been great, so... he's such a -- we get along so well. We're really close, and he's just such, like, a nice presence, a happy person. He's in great shape, so it's awesome to have him here and have my mom also. It's great. Comfort meals and everything. It's great.

Q. Somebody from L.A. who was linking your success through quallies before you had won tonight to the Rams winning. I was wondering if there was some sort of L.A. super-power moment going on of inspiration. Do you feel at all like, you know, any sort of, yeah, inspiration or something, I don't know, that you are playing for -- I know you said playing for Altadena, but does that feel like that when you are on court?

TRISTAN BOYER: I definitely like playing for people that are really struggling. It's something that's motivating me right now. In this match also I didn't really -- yeah, it's something that I like and I'm thinking about, yeah.

I honestly didn't know the Rams were doing well. I'm super glad about that.

Q. I didn't know if you were a Rams fan. They're new.

TRISTAN BOYER: I follow all the L.A. teams when they're doing well, but I'm not really following football, to be honest. I'm definitely extremely motivated to kind of be something that people definitely can take their minds off of and say, He's from here, and he's playing his best for us. That's my goal. That's definitely a motivating factor, for sure.

Q. Just back on Alex again, I'm not sure how much you've watched of him, but I'm sure you're aware of his reputation of chasing every ball down, and you're coming off a five-setter. Do you feel ready for that physical challenge that you are about to embark on?

TRISTAN BOYER: Yeah, I think physically, I mean, I have an awesome, like, training team. I feel like I just came off of a really, really good preseason. I think physically I'm up for it for sure.

I mean, he's an unbelievable tennis player, obviously, so it's going to be really tough. I feel confident that physically it's something that I can lean on, so...

Q. Can I just get you to extrapolate a little bit on Alex as a player, as a...

TRISTAN BOYER: I think tomorrow we'll go into detail about it. My coach is probably researching now. He's obviously extremely fast. Watching him, that's like one of the biggest things and taking it all super, really, really good. He puts a lot of pressure by taking the ball early and rushing you. Yeah, that's probably the thing he does best.

We're going to talk about it as a team tomorrow and plan it out and see what happens. Yeah, he's great. He's super fun to watch. I really enjoy watching him play. Seeing someone who is coming forward that much and taking the ball out early and is that quick, it's always fun to see. I'm excited to play him.

Q. Tristan, of course, you play a lot of challengers in South America. Now with these weeks or these couple of days here in Melbourne, maybe you are starting to look up to the ATP tour. Soon is getting the Golden Swing in South America... Buenos Aires, Rio, Chile. Of course, there are tournaments as well in the U.S. I'm going to ask, are you going to come to South America to play for the ATP tour?

TRISTAN BOYER: We were definitely thinking about it, for sure. That was kind of the initial plan and then we were going to wait and see how it went here.

Obviously, I mean, I'm feeling like I'm playing well on hard court. So I think the plan now is to go to Dallas and Delray and Acapulco so that kind of continues on hard court, and then I'll be ready for Indian Wells and Miami and all that.

But we definitely thought about it. Before this week that was the plan. It's a nice swing for sure. I didn't play last year, but you know, there's always someone from kind of the up-and-coming guys who does well there. That was the thought that it could be us.

But, yeah, I'm feeling confident on hard court. I would rather play in the U.S. still, even though I'm really comfortable there. So, yeah, I'll probably go to Dallas now, but yeah.

Q. Tristan, do you know what it's going to be like back in L.A. for your friends, family, watching you in this next match? Are they getting together? Just set the scene for us, that experience back there.

TRISTAN BOYER: I don't know when I'm going to play. Hopefully it's something they can watch. Yeah, most of my friends are kind of moved out, but I'm sure that they'll, I mean, be watching at some point.

Then, I mean, I don't know of any specifics of, like, friends who are in Altadena watching and kind of what their situations are, but yeah, I hope I can be -- they can kind of see me playing and have something -- some good news.

Q. Will your dad be back in his house?

TRISTAN BOYER: So the gas is shut off, and I think gas and water maybe is shut off in our houses, in Altadena. Yeah, so he's out of the house for a little bit.

So, yeah, I think he's staying with a friend of ours, and they have a couple of people at that house right now. I'm sure they'll watch. Then, yeah, I mean, I don't know specifics, but I hope so. Hopefully they can see it and be a little distracted for a little bit.

Q. With your family being here and your mom specifically, are you talking about what's going on up there, and how much are you trying to not talk about what's going on up there?

TRISTAN BOYER: I mean, they've been good about kind of when I don't want to talk about it, we're not discussing it. If I bring it up, we'll talk about it. But, yeah, not that much. Obviously I call my dad every day and ask how he's doing. He'll give me an update.

But it's not like -- I'm not, like, reading everything that's going on. That's kind of what I was saying before about it's not something I can control. So especially match day, before, I'm trying to not think about it because it's just something I can't do anything about right now, unfortunately.

Yeah, I'm trying to stay updated and make sure people, friends and family are safe, yeah.