Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the sitdown. I'm Viv Christie, managing
Speaker 1: editor of US joe In Tennis magazine.
Speaker 2: And I'm Mattrolope, a writer for oz open dot Com
Speaker 2: and viv this week, why are we sitting down with Alexipopperin.
Speaker 1: Well, we are sitting down with Alexi because he is
Speaker 1: riding an absolute high in his career at the moment.
Speaker 1: He arrives at the US Open as a seated player
Speaker 1: for the first time at a Grand Slam tournament, on
Speaker 1: the back of his first ATP Master's one thousand title
Speaker 1: in Montreal. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now, I actually didn't do this interview. It was you
Speaker 2: and John Hooven, us host of the Aoshow Weekly, and
Speaker 2: you guys were lucky enough to catch Alexi early Melbourne
Speaker 2: time from New York, which was really cool and it
Speaker 2: was just great to hear him talk about the kind
Speaker 2: of place he's out in his career at the moment,
Speaker 2: the wave of confidence he's riding and you know what
Speaker 2: might lie ahead.
Speaker 1: Alexi, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 3: Yeah, good to be here. Thank you.
Speaker 1: We are talking to you in what we would have
Speaker 1: to describe as a career best season. You've had a
Speaker 1: third round run at the Olympics, a series of top
Speaker 1: ten wins, and our first ATP Masters one thousand title.
Speaker 1: It must be feeling pretty good for you right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's definitely feeling good. You know, I've had it,
Speaker 3: I would say, up to this point, a little up
Speaker 3: and down year, topsy turvy year. But yeah, last week
Speaker 3: really really showed that I'm able to play at that
Speaker 3: level and play consistently at that level, which is, you know,
Speaker 3: a testament to all the hard work we've done over
Speaker 3: the past two years.
Speaker 4: An incredible run and some big performances within that Montreal
Speaker 4: title with wins over Shelton, dimetro of her catch quarter
Speaker 4: and rub lev tell me first of all about the
Speaker 4: personal significance of this title win.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's definitely it's massive for me. You know, I
Speaker 3: don't take many players in their career, go through their
Speaker 3: career when you know, and win a Mass one thousand,
Speaker 3: and for me to be able to do that is honestly,
Speaker 3: it is a dream come true. But at the same time,
Speaker 3: you know, the work doesn't stop here. You know, we
Speaker 3: still have goals and we saw have ambitions or our
Speaker 3: own as a team where as to where we want
Speaker 3: to get to it or how we want to play
Speaker 3: and it's definitely not the last Master final that I
Speaker 3: want to play in and try and win. So you know,
Speaker 3: I've got big ambitions and know we were straight back
Speaker 3: to work as soon as soon as we were done.
Speaker 4: Fantastic attitude. And I'm sure you would have seen some
Speaker 4: of the media coverage back home here in Australia where
Speaker 4: a lot of the focus was on the historical significance
Speaker 4: the first Australian man in twenty one years to win
Speaker 4: a title of this magnitude, and of course that was
Speaker 4: since Leyton Hewitt. So what does it mean to you
Speaker 4: to have been the first man in over two decades
Speaker 4: to replicate what he did at Indian Wells in two
Speaker 4: thousand and three.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's definitely an honor. You know, I think Lane's
Speaker 3: been a really big part of kind of my my
Speaker 3: professional career, you know, as David's cub captain, as you know,
Speaker 3: is kind of, you know, the kind of role model
Speaker 3: leader that all Aussie boys inside the top und all
Speaker 3: Aussie talnis players kind of looked to. And you know
Speaker 3: he's really helped a lot throughout all of our careers
Speaker 3: and you know, to have him by my side and
Speaker 3: kind of, you know, kind of helped me along the
Speaker 3: way is really amazing. And for me to be able
Speaker 3: to you know, win this title and first since he
Speaker 3: did it is a true honor and definitely something I'm
Speaker 3: really proud of, Alexi.
Speaker 1: Who else would you say has been influential in your
Speaker 1: career so far?
Speaker 3: You know, I think my team right now that I have,
Speaker 3: my two coaches have been have been unbelievable for me,
Speaker 3: Nevil Godwin and Xavier in the least. I think those
Speaker 3: two they came in at around about the same time,
Speaker 3: never came in a little bit later than Xavier, and
Speaker 3: you know, they kind of flip my game upside down
Speaker 3: and kind of mentally helped me get back on the
Speaker 3: right track after my very disappointing year into the twenty two.
Speaker 3: And also, you know, the team, the rest of the
Speaker 3: team that I've surrounded myself, Valentine match is your I Evan,
Speaker 3: my sitness coach who I recently hired, and I think
Speaker 3: he was kind of the missing piece and the puzzle,
Speaker 3: you know, he was. He's been believable since he's been
Speaker 3: on the team, kind of integrated in straight away and
Speaker 3: also baftly I can't. I can't forget my family, you know,
Speaker 3: the the sacrifices that they've made for me and then
Speaker 3: my brother for our tennis careers. You know, they've they've
Speaker 3: really sacrificed so much, you know, leaving Australia at a
Speaker 3: very early age and kind of focusing on tennis, and
Speaker 3: my parent and my mom not missing a match or
Speaker 3: practice until I was about to twenty one, twenty two
Speaker 3: years old, which is amazing, and my dad, you know,
Speaker 3: always finding a way to be able to pay for
Speaker 3: all of this because you know, tennis isn't chieved at all,
Speaker 3: and it's it's it's definitely something that I'm eternally grateful
Speaker 3: for my parents.
Speaker 4: For a big rankings rise following that title, and that
Speaker 4: means you'll be entering the US Open as a seed.
Speaker 4: Tell me about what that does to your mindset, entering
Speaker 4: a major as a seed, the good and the bad aspects.
Speaker 3: I don't think that's much different to entering a tournament
Speaker 3: of seed on not the seed. You know, for me,
Speaker 3: it's it's really important the process that we kind of
Speaker 3: implement before the tournament and during the tournament, you know,
Speaker 3: because it's it's it's there's no different. You know, you
Speaker 3: go to every Grand Slatin and you try and win it.
Speaker 3: And for me, that's always been kind of my idea.
Speaker 3: I've always thought that I could go deep in Slams,
Speaker 3: and you know, I think I've showed it with consistent
Speaker 3: third round runs and haven't been able to kind of
Speaker 3: pass the third round hurdle, which has been a shame.
Speaker 3: I've had some close matches over the past few years.
Speaker 3: But you know, for me, it's it's not not much changes.
Speaker 3: You know, the preparation is still the same, the mentality
Speaker 3: is still the same. You go into might try to
Speaker 3: win it and then we see what comes.
Speaker 4: You know, last week on the podcast, we had Simon
Speaker 4: Ray from the Game Insight Group and Dad some analysis
Speaker 4: on your performances in Montreal and notice that your return
Speaker 4: of serve numbers were just through the roof, growing exponentially
Speaker 4: throughout the latter stages of that title. Have you been
Speaker 4: putting work into that area.
Speaker 1: Of your game?
Speaker 4: If not, where have you been focusing your attention this year?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's definitely something that we've we've highlighted as a
Speaker 3: place that we have to improve in. We have been
Speaker 3: putting work, but not kind of over the top work,
Speaker 3: and all we've been focusing on is our return. It's
Speaker 3: not that kind of work, but there were a few,
Speaker 3: you know, adjustments that we made. And also I feel
Speaker 3: like this year I've been returning much better on the
Speaker 3: faster surfaces. For some reason, it's just sort of clicked
Speaker 3: in my head a little bit since the start of
Speaker 3: the year. Honestly, again, you know, that's something that comes
Speaker 3: to you as a tennis player just naturally. You know,
Speaker 3: it's just some things click unexplainably, and you're able to
Speaker 3: return a little bit better, or hit a forehand a
Speaker 3: little bit better, or serve a little bit better, and
Speaker 3: you know, you try and understand those feelings and you
Speaker 3: just roll with them, honestly, And that's what that's what
Speaker 3: I've been doing in the last few months. And I
Speaker 3: feel like on the grass I returned quite well. I
Speaker 3: was quite comfortable returning on the grass, and also honestly
Speaker 3: on the clay. So for me, it's it's been a big,
Speaker 3: big improvement and and it's something that hopefully will continue improving.
Speaker 3: But you know, we've been working a lot on my
Speaker 3: serve actually, that's probably been the main thing that we've
Speaker 3: been focusing on trying trying to have a variety, variety
Speaker 3: on my serve. You know, I'm able to serve you know,
Speaker 3: a big two thirty kilometer an hour serve. But for
Speaker 3: me to be able to change the pace, change the
Speaker 3: change the direction, that's that's something that kind of you know,
Speaker 3: it took me a while to kind of grass because
Speaker 3: you know, when you're able to serve big, you kind
Speaker 3: just want to continue serving beag. But it becomes quite
Speaker 3: easier to return, believe it or not, because players get
Speaker 3: adjusted to it and they kind of start figuring out
Speaker 3: what you do. So if you start mixing it in
Speaker 3: a few kicks when they least expected, then you know
Speaker 3: your first the big bomb becomes more effective. Great insights, Alexi.
Speaker 1: You say that you said that not much changes for
Speaker 1: you after winning in Montreal, But what about the perspective
Speaker 1: and I guess the confidence boost that you gain from
Speaker 1: beating such a series of big names, and you know
Speaker 1: you also save match points against Dimotrov in that run.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's definitely it's definitely helps with the confidence. But
Speaker 3: I don't think me beating what one top ten player,
Speaker 3: you know, is something new. You know, I've been able
Speaker 3: to do it in the past a few times. But
Speaker 3: for me, the biggest thing that I keep saying after
Speaker 3: that tournament is beating three of those top ten players
Speaker 3: and five top twenty players in one week. That kind
Speaker 3: of consistency, it doesn't come easy and it's not something
Speaker 3: that you know, I've been able to do in my career.
Speaker 3: And that was kind of the first week while I
Speaker 3: was able to put you know, a string of six
Speaker 3: matches against high quality opponents and beat them. So for me,
Speaker 3: that's that's the most pleasing thing and the most that's
Speaker 3: the thing that builds the most confidence in me.
Speaker 1: How much inspiration did you take from your Olympics experience.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's been. There was a lot of inspiration honestly,
Speaker 3: you know, seeing other athletes, seeing other you know, the
Speaker 3: best athletes in the world and there and their respective sports,
Speaker 3: you know, seeing how they go about their business. You know,
Speaker 3: it kind of gives you a liarm of inside as
Speaker 3: to how you should be going about your business. And
Speaker 3: you know, it just showed me that what I've been
Speaker 3: doing was kind of the right thing. As all athletes,
Speaker 3: you know are super focused on the nutrition, super focus
Speaker 3: on their gym work, and you know, they go and
Speaker 3: do their head stuff. But off the court, you know
Speaker 3: that they're amazing human beings and you know, I think
Speaker 3: think it's I think that just you know, highlighted the
Speaker 3: faact that you know, what I was doing was the
Speaker 3: right part and the right way and that I just
Speaker 3: had to stick with it. In one of these days
Speaker 3: it would click and you know that that's something that
Speaker 3: you know, being in that big village seeing other athletes,
Speaker 3: seeing how they worked. Yeah, highlight But at that.
Speaker 1: Watching from Afar, it seemed like there's well it always
Speaker 1: does seem like there's such a great team spirit among
Speaker 1: the Australian players. Does does it help to spend time
Speaker 1: with the likes of Layton and obviously you're friends with
Speaker 1: Alex and other players.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it definitely does for sure. No, I think us
Speaker 3: as a Davis Cup squad, you know, we've made back
Speaker 3: to back Davis Cup finals and that wouldn't come if
Speaker 3: we didn't get along as a squad as players and
Speaker 3: also the boys that haven't been on the Davis Cup squad,
Speaker 3: you know, like viog Oags, you know, Rinky, you know
Speaker 3: all of those guys. We all get along super well.
Speaker 3: You know, we all go we try and get a
Speaker 3: round of golf and every now and then. You know,
Speaker 3: me and Demon have been close since we've been kids,
Speaker 3: you know, and we've kind of been pushing each other
Speaker 3: to higher standards and to kind of improve in our game.
Speaker 3: And that's kind of the competitiveness that you want in
Speaker 3: tennis and in sport. And you know, I think having
Speaker 3: so many players inside the top hundred now seeing then
Speaker 3: we can and helping them and kind of and practicing
Speaker 3: together and helping each other, you know that not many
Speaker 3: countries have this, and we're super lucky to have it,
Speaker 3: and we definitely don't take it for granted.
Speaker 1: And you know, obviously the odd round of golf here
Speaker 1: and there. What else are you doing off court to
Speaker 1: decompress away from tennis?
Speaker 3: Honestly, A lot of it is golf. I just I
Speaker 3: love my golfum because yeah, I to be honest, I
Speaker 3: travel with my golf clubs to some places to be
Speaker 3: able to play, to be afule to play golf, well
Speaker 3: you know, uh yeah, And you know I like to
Speaker 3: spend time with Tim, but a lot of the time,
Speaker 3: you know, I I just really enjoyed playing golf and
Speaker 3: and you know, spending time with my girlfriend off the court.
Speaker 3: You know, we like to go to some plays here
Speaker 3: and there. We'd like to go to dinner together, So
Speaker 3: it's a it's very Yeah, I have a few things
Speaker 3: that I like to do and sometimes when I really
Speaker 3: like it, I like to I like to play and PlayStation.
Speaker 3: So that's that's that's about it.
Speaker 1: We know that you're famously close to your family. As
Speaker 1: as you mentioned earlier, what was their reaction after your
Speaker 1: your winning Montreal?
Speaker 3: Surely it was amazing. I think I called them as
Speaker 3: soon as I got into the gym and and called
Speaker 3: my girlfriend and added my family to the to the
Speaker 3: chat and to the call, and yeah, there were tears flowing,
Speaker 3: there was a there was a lot of congratulations and
Speaker 3: and uh, super proud and some time as my parents
Speaker 3: can get a little bit ahead of themselves and say,
Speaker 3: you know, go win the slab now, and I was thanks,
Speaker 3: I'm trying to tell them, you know, I just take
Speaker 3: it easy, let's enjoy this one first and then and
Speaker 3: then we'll think about the rest. So yeah, but honestly,
Speaker 3: everybody was just super proud, and you know, they know
Speaker 3: that I wouldn't be able to do this without them,
Speaker 3: and I'm eternally grateful to them.
Speaker 4: Alexie, if you can take your mind back to the
Speaker 4: start of the year, a lot of players, I guess
Speaker 4: cast their goals for the year. Can you tell us
Speaker 4: what your goals were at the beginning of twenty twenty
Speaker 4: four and how they've changed now that you've got this
Speaker 4: Master's one thousand title under your belt.
Speaker 3: You know, I think in terms of goals, I don't
Speaker 3: really set myself goals. I like to go buy the
Speaker 3: you know, the day to day work, the goals off
Speaker 3: the court in practice and how we and how we
Speaker 3: practice and how we go about our business, and that
Speaker 3: for me is the most important thing. And the ranking
Speaker 3: and the results will naturally come if you're able to
Speaker 3: do it consistently. So for me, it's that's a huge
Speaker 3: part of the process, and goals is not really a
Speaker 3: big thing for me. I really don't like setting ranking goals,
Speaker 3: au toonament goals or any of that stuff, because for me,
Speaker 3: it just it puts my mind. I only focus on that,
Speaker 3: and for me, that's not the that's not the way
Speaker 3: to go about it.
Speaker 1: What are you most looking forward to over the next
Speaker 1: few months.
Speaker 3: I'm just I know it's a it's getting a little
Speaker 3: bit old, but just the process, honestly, just the just
Speaker 3: the constant work off the court. For me, that's that's
Speaker 3: the most enjoyable thing, you know, going to going to
Speaker 3: the gym, practicing on court with my team, spending some
Speaker 3: time with my team, you know, on on and off
Speaker 3: the court, you know, for me, that's that's the that's
Speaker 3: the thing that I look to the most. And then
Speaker 3: for me, you know, the confidence that I have right now.
Speaker 3: I was telling my team the other day that, you know,
Speaker 3: it's so amazing to be able to play tennis when
Speaker 3: you're high on confidence, because I've I've been really low
Speaker 3: in confidence and that's really not enjoyable at all. But
Speaker 3: to be able to step on court and feel like
Speaker 3: you're able to produce any shot or do anything, that's
Speaker 3: a feeling that you try and keep forever. And that's
Speaker 3: the feeling that I'll be trying to keep for a
Speaker 3: very wrong time, just to play in confidence. Because you know,
Speaker 3: these guys in the top ten, top five, you know,
Speaker 3: I think they constantly nearly we can week out play
Speaker 3: with confidence, and they can produce the kind of shots
Speaker 3: and tennis that they're producing. We can weak out and
Speaker 3: that's something you know, you take one week on Montreal,
Speaker 3: you feel like that confidence flowing, you wanted to proceed
Speaker 3: into the next week, and that's that's something that I'm
Speaker 3: looking for, but to hopefully I can continue that confidence going.
Speaker 1: Well, it sounds like you are enjoying your tennis a lot,
Speaker 1: and we are certainly enjoying watching you as well.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much. Yeah, it's definitely fun playing tennis
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 2: Well, Viv, that was a great check. Congratulations. I really
Speaker 2: enjoyed the note that that interview finished on. I'm really
Speaker 2: enjoying my tennis. You can just hear that Alexi and
Speaker 2: all the work he's doing, the team he's got around him,
Speaker 2: and the momentum he's built. He's really enjoying writing that wave,
Speaker 2: and it sounds like he's very excited to see where
Speaker 2: his career might go from here. So I think US
Speaker 2: Open could be really interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you, Matt. It was really great to catch
Speaker 1: up with Alexi and he is obviously in a really
Speaker 1: great spot at the moment. He's enjoying his tennis. He's
Speaker 1: feeling a real sense of belonging. I think after such
Speaker 1: a series of great wins in Montreal, and yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: equally excited to see what he does next. Yeah, we'll
Speaker 1: be back next week with another episode of sit Down,
Speaker 1: and in the meantime, you can tune into John and
Speaker 1: the team on The Aos Show weekly on Thursday.
Speaker 2: Details for how to contact us are in the show
Speaker 2: notes below, and please remember to subscribe, rate, and review.
Speaker 2: We'll see you next week, vib.
Speaker 1: Look forward to it.
Speaker 3: Matt