ROLAND GARROS

May 29, 2025

Ethan Quinn

Press Conference

E. QUINN/A. Shevchenko

6-4, 4-6, 6-7, 7-6, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: You're making your debut here. You played the qualifications. How do you feel right now?

ETHAN QUINN: The whole experience has been surreal. I didn't expect myself to get this far. Honestly, through the seven weeks I've been in Europe on the clay, I wasn't really expecting to play as many matches as I've played.

To be now in the third round is pretty amazing. My team, we've been talking about it the whole time, is just like each day is just talking about another match. Let's get to 17 matches here. It's just kind of like a small little joke to maybe take the pressure away from it. Just putting every match as if it's just another day, another match.

I think that's really helped me get through each and every match that I've played. Not putting any pressure on it.

I know it's my first main draw in a slam that I quallied into. My first second round. Just doing it that way takes the pressure off and let's me go out there and have fun and smile.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Coming out of the first round, a weird match, how much do you feel you had a new lease on life after getting through that one?

ETHAN QUINN: It was weird walking off the court with that one. I lost the first two sets. I was kind of down and out, I guess you could say. Grigor, at the net, had kind of told me and my team, take advantage of that one. It's almost like it was a lucky-loser type of situation.

It relaxed me a little bit. When you're able to get through a match that maybe I guess you shouldn't have, I was kind of lucky in a sense. At the same time, I was able to earn that luck by quallying in, and by breaking him in the third set. I knew that if I was able to get a break in the third set and win at least one of the sets, then he was going to most likely retire, just not wanting to risk himself later in the season.

I knew that match, getting through that one, I just needed to win that one set. Coming off the court, it freed me up a little bit, like I was saying. Treated this match as if it was just another one. Honestly, I was a little bit more relaxed with it because I knew that I could be back in Florida right now training for grass season.

I was able to live another day, survive and advance. That's kind of the thing that we kept saying after it. Just give myself another chance to play another match in Roland Garros.

Q. Is this longest match you ever played today?

ETHAN QUINN: Probably one of the longest, for sure. Maybe Kalamazoo finals. I don't know exactly how long that one was. I know against Learner Tien, we had gone four sets. It was just a long match. Having to go get the balls yourself. Maybe not quite as much play. That's maybe one of my other long matches that I've played.

Q. What do you tell yourself when you're down two sets to one going into the tiebreaker?

ETHAN QUINN: I was just kind of staying true to what we do. When it comes to our routines, we were trying to make sure, after I held to go 6-All, I went over to my box. They kept telling me seven, which is the number that we kind of use to work with my pacing, work with where my thoughts are, how I'm acting in between the points.

We made sure we put an emphasis on our routines really heavily in that fourth-set breaker. By doing that, I was able to kind of calm myself down. I was able to play through in this little bit of a flow state, I guess you could say. When I'm doing that, I'm able to see the court a lot clearer. I was able to kind of see the patterns, see the plays develop. I was able to then close out that breaker.

By focusing on the routines, I was able to take my mind off the fact that maybe my body wasn't feeling great at the moment. It's a tight moment. Legs were starting to feel a little bit shot, for sure.

But by focusing on the routines, I was able to eliminate the thoughts that are like negative when it comes to, Oh, man, is your body, can you keep going? Do you want it, basically. I was able to shut those thoughts down and was able to stay true to my tennis.

Q. Your first five-setter, I would imagine.

ETHAN QUINN: Yes.

Q. How did it feel being in the first five-setter? Like somebody running their first marathon.

ETHAN QUINN: Yeah.

Q. What was that like being in a fifth set? Was it everything you always dreamed it would be?

ETHAN QUINN: Yeah, I mean, it certainly is more physical than anything I could have imagined. We have a little joke amongst our team is: Just to beat Franco, my strength and conditioning coach. When I had split sets, the first thing my coach said was, Beat Franco. That kind of fired me up a little bit.

My favorite thing is texting him when I come off court telling him that I own him. It's a little funny joke I have. He's able to push me really hard, but at the end of the day I'm able to walk off the court and still tell him that I can still go another five-setter.

I'm sure tomorrow when the adrenaline runs off, my body is certainly going to feel pretty sore. That's where drinking protein, drinking whatever it is, making sure that I'm doing all the things properly, I'm able to be recovered and ready to go in two days.

Q. What was he saying to you at the net?

ETHAN QUINN: At the net, yeah, I'd taken a medical timeout at 6-5 in the fifth set after I just held. I had a blister. You can kind of see it right there. Sorry, I was trying to show it here. I had a blood blister. It had popped. It was bleeding on court.

If you're bleeding on court, you have to get a medical timeout. Once I looked down, I felt it on the point, I could feel it tear. I looked at the chair and said, I need the physio right now, it's bleeding. He came and taped it real quick.

At the net he said, Man, you shouldn't be taking a medical timeout at that time.

I told him, I had a blood blister. It wasn't like I was cramping and getting a medical timeout. I wasn't purposely doing it. Obviously I know it's a big moment in the match, but it's a big moment for me, as well. I have to be able to make sure I'm 100%, especially in that moment. So I had to take a medical timeout. It happened where I just won the next four points.

Q. Thoughts on Griekspoor next?

ETHAN QUINN: I'm excited. Every match is a really tough one. I don't exactly know the score that he had today. I mean, I'm sure he finished a little bit earlier than me. Did it go five?

Q. It went four.

ETHAN QUINN: It went four. Might be a little bit fresher than I am right now.

Yeah, I'm just excited about having another match and getting to compete once more here.