00:00First of all, congrats, Daniel, on your new family member.
00:06How do you feel after arriving in Melbourne?
00:08Great. I feel in a great place, very happy.
00:12I mean, life of a dead on tour is that next day the baby is born
00:17and the next day you're on the flight to Australia,
00:19which takes like 24 hours, a 10-hour difference.
00:22But that's fine with me.
00:24Like I always said, I like tennis, I like travelling.
00:27So I'm feeling great before the start of the season and looking forward.
00:31Great. Questions, please.
00:36Yeah, go for it.
00:38Happy New Year. What do you think of yourself coming to this with no tournament prep,
00:43obviously, and then what was your preparation able to be like
00:46while you were home waiting for this child?
00:48Honestly, the preparation was great.
00:50I don't want to make like too big of a statement,
00:52but I felt like that was one of the best pre-seasons I made.
00:55And I had quite some time.
00:57I think we made five weeks, which is a lot.
01:00And to be honest, I don't see myself like I was thinking about this year
01:04because last year I made the same.
01:05I know no tournaments.
01:07And in my opinion, it starts too early.
01:09Like especially I don't celebrate Christmas the 25th.
01:13But in Russia, it's more important like the 31st.
01:17And the first one is like very important.
01:19Like that's where Santa Claus comes in Russia and gives you presents, etc.
01:24And I feel like I'm at the age where I just want to be at home.
01:29So I don't see myself ever playing something before Australian Open
01:32because I really like to spend this time with my family, which is growing.
01:37So, yeah, I think the season starts too early,
01:39but I feel great because it gives me extra time to practice.
01:43I think we're going to see a lot of interesting things from me
01:45and I'm looking forward to it.
01:49You're known as one of the great problem solvers on tour.
01:52Andy Murray is one of the other ones.
01:54Obviously, he's now solving problems from the coaching box.
01:57I wonder if you've ever thought what it would be like to sit in a coaching box
02:00and try and do what you do on court from there rather than from the baseline.
02:05How different do you think it would be?
02:07And what do you think his impact on Novak Djokovic would be like?
02:10Yeah, about the impact on Novak, tough to say because Novak...
02:13The thing about coaching Novak is that he's so strong that imagine he wins.
02:17We're like, is it because of Andy or is it because it's Novak?
02:20So, I never know, but it's a great partnership, I think, in terms of everything,
02:24in terms of even energy, media-wise, tennis-wise, growing like tennis.
02:32It's great.
02:33Imagine Messi would become the coach of Cristiano Ronaldo.
02:37It would be strange.
02:39But about me being a coach, look, I have no idea what I will do after my career.
02:45It can be anything.
02:46It can be related to tennis or not.
02:49I heard from everyone that it's pretty stressful to be in the box
02:53because in a way you cannot control what your player is doing there.
02:57So, it's a much tougher feeling, and I can feel it when I play team competitions
03:01and you really want your teammate to win.
03:03Like, when he misses, you're like, come on, do better.
03:06It's not the same when you're on the court.
03:08So, it could be pretty fun.
03:12I remember last year a lot of the talk coming in here was about Yannick and Carlos,
03:17and yet you still managed to get to the final,
03:19and you were pretty pleased with your position as a disruptor in the sport.
03:23I'm just wondering, do you still feel like a disruptor,
03:27or has maybe some of your confidence been at all dented
03:31by some of the results you've had against those guys?
03:33Well, I would say a bit less.
03:35Why? Because I didn't manage to last year, except Australia Open.
03:38I was less of a disruptor because Yannick and Carlos were beating me a lot of times,
03:43and so a lot of tournaments I was getting to the good stages,
03:46but not being able to beat them.
03:47So, I would like to become again, let's call it the...
03:51I don't even know this word, but the disruptor.
03:54Because it means that I will be able to get to these later stages and win them,
03:58because, again, at this moment they're clearly the favourites, and that's normal.
04:03And that's, you know, I try to develop something and let's see if it works,
04:10because, as I say, last year I could see that it's not enough,
04:13what I'm doing against them.
04:14So, I'll try to improve.
04:18Again, looking back to last year a bit,
04:20obviously you started the tournament with an incredibly late finish,
04:23and given that and kind of what that meant for the next few days,
04:27or even maybe the rest of your tournament,
04:29I wondered, will you be requesting not to play last at night again?
04:34Does that affect anything for you this year?
04:37No, I'm OK, because I probably like to play more at night than in the morning.
04:42I prefer even last, second after seven, than to eleven start matches.
04:46So, I'm OK, I got super unlucky with the tie-break of Helena and Anna.
04:51They played, what was it, 22-20, I think, or something crazy,
04:56I don't even remember the exact score, but it was like a 40-minute tie-break.
04:59So, I got super unlucky, and my match was also long, which could happen.
05:04So, I'm OK to play second after seven.
05:06Again, me personally, I think that the night match should start at six,
05:09so we don't have these problems,
05:10because then I would not finish at 3.30, but 2.30, and it's a big difference.
05:15But it's OK, again, I would not request,
05:17because I don't want to play at 11, I would better play at night.
05:23How much are you driven by the ranking and, you know,
05:27having been at the top and been right there at number two,
05:31and now sort of dropped down out of the top four?
05:34Does that go into your mind at all,
05:37especially as you approach the beginning of the year?
05:39Do you set goals in terms of where you want to be by the end of the year?
05:43I'm somewhere in the middle, because ranking is important,
05:46because it literally shows how did you do, you know, this year.
05:51So, yeah, you know, Yannick made an unbelievable last year,
05:56and he's number one, deservedly so.
05:58And so, I think it shows that, you know, I was not at my best last year,
06:03because some years I finished higher, and other guys were better than me.
06:07And at the same time, it's something when I go to the tournament,
06:10you know, here, I don't care if I'm after the tournament number four,
06:14number three, number six, because it's going to show,
06:18if I make final, I'm probably going to be number four,
06:21because three is in one part.
06:23So, just I try to do my best, and the ranking will show it.
06:27But I don't change the ranking,
06:29because otherwise I would play more tournaments last year,
06:31and probably get some more points, 250s or 500s.
06:36And so, I don't chase it, but I need to do better to be higher ranked.
06:41Prashanth.
06:44I wanted to ask you about the locker room and Kyrgios' somewhat,
06:49you know, he's been very vocal about the Sinha case, Sinha and Svantech.
06:54I wonder if these kind of comments, they disrupt the locker room,
07:00the harmony of the locker room.
07:02I just wanted to ask you about that.
07:05It's tough for me to say, I've been here one and a half day,
07:08and everyone that sees me in the locker room for the moment is congratulating me.
07:12So, I have a lot of harmony in the locker room,
07:15and I didn't see Nick yet.
07:17Actually, it would be interesting to see if they pass with Yannick,
07:21how it is, what is the energy.
07:23But if not, I think it depends, again, exactly.
07:27Like, in the end of the day, you know players you talk to more,
07:31you know players you talk to less,
07:33you know people you smile with and love,
07:35and maybe other ones you just say hi.
07:37So, in general, I don't think that what, let's call it the beef,
07:43or like the arguing between two, three, four players,
07:47is not going to change the whole locker room, I think.
07:49So, I didn't see any change.
07:52Charlie Howard, yeah.
07:55It's fun that there's been talk recently about certain handshakes,
07:57cold handshakes in the matches.
07:59It's quite a weird thing in tennis you have that.
08:02How do you find that, and is that something you ever think about
08:04during a match, like, oh, I wonder how it's going to be?
08:06If it's been like a particularly, you know, touchy match.
08:09During the match, I don't think I ever thought about this.
08:14No, I don't think I thought about this during the match,
08:16and for sure what happens sometimes is like,
08:17when you have the handshake,
08:19you can create some reactions, either from your side or from not.
08:23I personally, but again, I think we should be,
08:28as all the tennis players,
08:29maybe a bit more open to cold handshakes in a way,
08:32even if personally I like more Novak's style,
08:35and when I was young I was always admiring it.
08:38You know, Novak on the court can be tricky,
08:40you know, he can even be tough to his box,
08:45not to the opponent, but you can see he can get frustrated
08:48by the opponent playing well or something.
08:50But then once a match finishes, and he tells it himself, it's done.
08:54The battle is done, so he always congratulates his opponent,
08:57no matter he won, he lost, always smiling,
08:59and I like this, and at the same time,
09:01I can understand some people when they lose,
09:03you're frustrated and you don't want to smile at your opponent
09:07that just beat you, so I'm okay with both,
09:10but I prefer more warm handshakes.
09:13Last question, Howard.
09:17Why don't you like to play at 11 a.m.?
09:19You said you'd rather be out there at 2 a.m. than at 11, why not?
09:23Just because I'm more of an evening person,
09:25I don't like to stand up early, and I do a lot for practice,
09:32because this makes your, not your day shorter,
09:34but if your first practice is at 12,
09:37you know your day is going to be till 8 p.m.
09:39If your first practice is at 10, at least it's till 6 p.m.,
09:42and it's important for evening time, family time, et cetera.
09:45But when it's a tennis match, it's a different story,
09:47and I play worse, actually, when I play at 11,
09:50and that's, again, something I was also thinking about this year,
09:54and we'll try to change it,
09:56but I definitely feel better when I play in the evening and play better.
