US OPEN

September 12, 2026

Marcel Latak

Press Conference

M. LATAK/G. Miguel

3-6, 7-5, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Marcel, congratulations.

MARCEL LATAK: Thank you so much.

THE MODERATOR: 15-13, clean winner to close it out. Your thoughts on your accomplishments today?

MARCEL LATAK: Yeah, I'm pretty, you know, stoked about how today went down for the singles. I mean, I just told myself to go for it. I mean, I know I saved a couple -- I was up most of the breaker in the third set, so, you know, dropping those match points honestly wasn't anything new. I've dropped so many this tournament before I closed them out (smiling).

No, but I'm really happy that I went for it. Even when I was down in a tiebreak too when I saved those championship points.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Congratulations, Marcel. Well done. I don't know where to start from that match, but let's go back a little bit. Tell me how you came back from being down in the second set. You hadn't played him in three years. Did it take a while to get used to his style and be able to figure out how you could attack him, or what was the turnaround?

MARCEL LATAK: No, I mean, obviously he's an incredible player. He's No. 1 in the world for a reason. It definitely took a lot of thinking in the second set to kind of figure out what he likes, doesn't like, what I'm doing better than him essentially.

But mostly it was mental, to be honest. Not, like, really strategy, so...

Q. What were your thoughts when you double-faulted at 9-8?

MARCEL LATAK: I mean, I wasn't too upset. I went for the second serve. Yeah, I missed so many second serves not going for it. I was, If I'm going to miss it, at least I went for it. So not really too many thoughts.

Yeah, and like I said earlier, I've dropped so many match points this tournament before I actually closed out matches. Yeah, I don't know, it wasn't really anything different.

Q. He seemed to serve very well at the end of the tiebreaker. I don't think he missed a first serve, but you managed to break one of the points. Was it your returns? Was it just focus? What was it that made the difference there?

MARCEL LATAK: Instinct, to be honest. I think I broke to win the match at 14-13, so I don't know. I kind of just thought he was going to go T, and he did go T, so I got pretty lucky.

Yeah, the way he picked up his serve in the tiebreak was actually, like, incredible, though. I mean, can't be too surprised. The guy is No. 1 in the world, so...

Q. He said that he would probably remember that forehand he missed, though, at match point.

MARCEL LATAK: Yeah, I remember that one too.

Q. He won't sleep for two days or something thinking about that one.

MARCEL LATAK: Yeah, I don't know. I don't know really what to say about that one.

Q. How did you feel when you saw that ball went wide?

MARCEL LATAK: I mean, he definitely had some nerves too. He played essentially an almost perfect tiebreak for the most part. I don't know. If he makes that, too good. Not much really I can do there.

Q. Take me through the match point. You drew him wide. Looked like he was maybe about to fall, and then you see the ball coming toward you and you know you've got the whole court. What's the thought process, and how are you handling not going for it?

MARCEL LATAK: The second I saw that he hit it to my backhand, I knew I was going to win the point, essentially, yeah. I was just praying that he hit that forehand down the line, and he did. I don't know.

But, no, no, no, yeah, I tried to go for it, because the points prior to the ones that he played that he had match points on, he played very tense. He kind of took a step back, so I just wanted to do the opposite of that. I wanted to go for it and end it on my terms.

Q. What was your immediate emotion?

MARCEL LATAK: Shock. Yeah, shock. That's literally it.

Q. I found it interesting in the match tiebreak you were so focused throughout. Your eyes were kind of in your own little world really kind of, like, staying away from all the craziness that was there. But when you got the championship point, the last one, you rallied and you kind of, like, got out of your shell. I wonder if that was a decision or just something uncontrollable that was happening with the fact that you felt you were finally going to put...

MARCEL LATAK: Yeah, I mean, I would be nervous too if I dropped three match points as well, so I mean, I knew that he had nerves going into the 13-All point. I kind of wanted him to, I don't know, kind of feel it a little bit that he's down, you know, championship point.

I don't really usually do that. I kind of see it as bad luck a little bit, because it's not a good look if you do that and lose the next point. I don't know. I just really had to focus on that next one.

Q. All week you've been saying, I can't believe this, this is surreal, I'm in the quarterfinals, I'm in the semifinals. It's been a couple of hours. Does it feel real to you yet?

MARCEL LATAK: No. Still no. Yeah, I don't know, I probably need to let it soak in a little bit. Maybe tomorrow morning when I wake up, I'll definitely feel it. Maybe see a couple of posts on Instagram, but then it will probably go back to normal in a few days.

Q. What about the atmosphere throughout? You've played Kalamazoo final, but that was incredible.

MARCEL LATAK: I mean, Kalamazoo final, 90% of the people are cheering for me, and I think today 90% were against me. I don't know. Two different feels.

Yeah, in the beginning I kind of felt it a little bit. Like, you could definitely hear them. They were so loud for him, but I don't know. I feel like eventually you get used to it. You kind of block out the noise a little bit. Especially in a tiebreak.

Like, I honestly couldn't even hear anything, to be honest. I think it was mainly focus. Adrenaline is going. You're not looking at them; you're looking at yourself. I don't know.

I mean, I heard the "U.S.," though. I heard a couple of "U.S." chants in the breaker. Yeah, I definitely heard those.

Q. It seemed like as the match went on, more and more people came and more and more people started to see that, oh, they're rooting for their guy, we've got to do it for our guy.

MARCEL LATAK: Yeah. No, I'm happy. I'm happy for the people that, you know, stood out there, a couple of people.

Q. Would you say there is something that you problem-solved? You said it was mostly mental, but was there something you found that worked better that maybe didn't work in the first set and a half?

MARCEL LATAK: Probably playing too passive is a big one. I don't know. I felt like I was giving way too many looks on, like, I don't know, going for shots, going big.

I don't know, getting that first ball and making him kind of think a little bit, like, I don't know, for instance, in the beginning of the match, I felt like after the serve I was being a little too passive, maybe not going for it as big as I can. Especially with his forehand. I mean, if he gets a forehand, essentially the point is over.

I don't know. Just kind of playing bigger tennis essentially was the big one for me.

Q. I spoke to Christian a little while ago. He's very proud of you, I'm sure, as you know. He said, I told you a couple of weeks ago, get your bleep together. He was really angry with you. Can you talk about what was going on, and certainly I think you have, but what was going then?

MARCEL LATAK: I mean, I definitely think that he expects a lot from me, which I mean, he should, as he should. With the goals that I have and I want to achieve, I need to step it up a little bit.

I don't know. He definitely kind of put that in where it's, like, you know, If there's a time to kind of go for it and play your game, it's now.

You know, that was before Kalamazoo. I was there for, like, almost two months, played Kalamazoo. Didn't have the worst tournament. I mean, tough loss. Really tough loss. Yeah, 6-4, 5-2 serving.

I don't know. I definitely saw improvements after he told me to, you know, step it up a little bit and really kind of pushed me, so...

Q. I'm wondering how much time you had to prepare for doubles, and also, how long have you been playing with your doubles partner?

MARCEL LATAK: I had about 35 minutes, I think. I think that's what they told me when I got off court. First thing I did was get a sandwich, Coke, get some quick sugar, and then physio immediately. That's kind of -- that's it. That's all I kind of did. No warmup, no nothing.

I've been playing with Tanishk since last December maybe. Yeah, last December, I'm pretty sure. We've been playing with each other for a while.

Q. Mom said dad wasn't allowed to come to mess up the superstition. Is that true? Did you tell dad not to fly in and come today?

MARCEL LATAK: I did. I may or may not have told him that, yeah.

Q. Is he allowed to come to the next one?

MARCEL LATAK: Yeah. At one point, I was going to be, like, Hey, you can come. Mom was, like, No, you're not coming.

Originally I was, like, maybe it's a little superstitious, but then she kind of put the nail in the coffin, so I was, like, Okay, that's fine.