Tallon Griekspoor Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: First question.

Q. Impressive stats and a lot of self-confidence which one doesn’t see with you because you’re so subdued with emotions. What went into this match from beneath your skin and how do you look at tomorrow’s big finals against an opponent you know and have beaten here?

TALLON GRIEKSPOOR: I mean, I felt good going into the match. Obviously I played three very good matches so far here. I had a very good run last year. I like the circumstances. I like the conditions.

Obviously hurted myself at 5-All in the first set. Played an unbelievable game after to break somehow. Yeah, served extremely well in the second set to give myself a chance to stay in the match.

I mean, I had to go for my shots. I had to go big. I couldn’t really move too much. Yeah, like I said before, I’ve been extremely lucky to even give myself a chance to go to the tiebreak, somehow turn around that tiebreak from 6-4 down. Yeah, just been lucky.

For tomorrow, of course, Daniil is an extremely good opponent. We played an unbelievable match here last year. I definitely need both of my legs when you play against Daniil because he’s going to use his legs.

Yeah, we’ll just try to recover as good as possible, try to give myself a chance to go out there tomorrow to play, and hopefully it’s going to be okay.

Q. Back to the match you played last year. You faced four match points. What are your memories of that match?

TALLON GRIEKSPOOR: Obviously very, very good memories from my side. I was a set and a break down. He was actually all over me. I thought he already then played extremely well.

I somehow found a way to get myself into the match. Won a crazy tiebreak in the second set after saving some match points with serve and volleys.

Yeah, in the end of course was a very good match from myself to turn that around. But Daniil is an extremely hard and tough opponent, someone who looks like he’s getting back to his best tennis.

He’s been playing extremely well this week, from what I’ve seen. His scores have been very, very impressive. Also today against a very good Felix. Yeah, it’s going to be extremely hard if I’m fit. When you’re not fit, it’s going to be even harder.

Like I said, just going to give myself as good as possible chance to go out there and be as good as possible.

Q. 29 years old, this could be the biggest title of your career. How do you mentally approach a match this big?

TALLON GRIEKSPOOR: I guess at this point it’s all about recovering. I’m limping at this point, so it’s going to be all about recovering.

I practice to play these kind of matches. I practice to play finals. You dream of playing those kind of finals against opponents like this. This is why I work every day.

I mean, I didn’t have the best end of the year and beginning of this year. I just kept working extremely hard trying to do everything as good as possible to give myself a chance to play these kind of matches.

For now I’m just extremely happy and I’m going to do everything, yeah, to get ready for tomorrow.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports