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By Blair Henley / Thursday, January 16, 2014
Though he’s only 17, Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis has
proven he has major star power. Check out his conversation
with Rafael Nadal before their second round matchup.
Photo Courtesy: Babolat
MELBOURNE, Australia — It has been a big week for
17-year-old Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis. He
played and won the first Grand Slam match of his career in
front of his home crowd in a four-set match against
Igor Sjisling. He’ll face world No. 1 Rafael
Nadal Thursday, but the two won’t be meeting for
the first time as they step out on the court. Just days before
the Australian Open kicked off, Kokkinakis had a chance to
interview Nadal at an event for their mutual sponsor, Babolat.
Perhaps the teen’s best question for Nadal focused on their Day
Four showdown: “If we both win our first round here, we play
each other. Will you be nervous?” Find out what Nadal had to
say below.
Thanasi Kokkinakis: You happy to be here? What is your
favorite memory?
Rafa Nadal: It’s good to be back in this place
where you have great memories. Memories, I have a lot of ones.
The last one is the final against Novak in 2012. That is a
great memory. It was a great match. I was really close to
winning. And for sure 2009 was a special one that I won the
final against Roger and the semis against Verdasco. Back to
back, very tough matches.
TK: Any regrets from your time in
Australia?
RN: It’s been the toughest Grand Slam for me
to play because I’ve had a lot of problems in this tournament
in the past. In 2006, I didn’t play because I had an injury on
the feet. I remember 2010, I had to retire against Andy in the
quarterfinals. In 2011, I tore a little bit the muscle in the
quarterfinals against David Ferrer, and last
year I didn’t have the chance to play. So it’s a tougher one in
my career to play. The [Australian Open] organization is the
best one for the players. It is more friendly with players, and
players feel very special about this tournament.
TK: Australian fans want to know if you would ever
considered playing warm-up tournaments in Australia like Sydney
and Brisbane.
RN: Well, you never know. Tough to think about
this. The normal thing that I do is I don’t play the week
before a Grand Slam. I like to play two weeks before then rest
the week before and practice at the tournament and prepare
myself well. The conditions, even though everybody says they
are the same, there are always changes. I like to prepare for
the tournament one week before. Brisbane, you never know.
Normally we play an exhibition in Abu Dhabi before the first
tournament and then we finish normally on Saturday night. [A
flight to] Brisbane, it’s a very long flight. That’s why I play
in Doha because it’s one hour by the plane and same time
[zone].
TK: Since he always gets to finals and wins, he’s got
to have enough time (laughs). You often practice with juniors.
What are the positives you see in these practices?
I always like to play with young players. When I was a young
player, I loved it when I had the chance to play with a
professional player. I try to do the same things that I like
when I was a kid. I really have fun playing and practicing
every day. It’s good because you feel free to work on what you
want. You feel a little more free to say, “Can we do that? Can
we do another thing?” When you play with another professional
player, everybody wants to work on his thing. Ninety percent of
the time we warm-up and play a set. We don’t work on specific
things.
TK: Do you see anything different when you were a
junior compared to the juniors you play now? Evolution in game
style or something like that?
RN: No. I don’t remember very well that era
for me. Today the young players are starting on tour a little
bit later. You can see the average age on the professional tour
is older than when I started playing tennis. My generation, say
Novak, Andy, del Potro, Hewitt, Federer, Moya, all of these
guys came on the tour at a young age. I went top 100 when I was
16, so I cannot remember very well because I went straight from
Futures to professional. I think something is changing in the
world of tennis. The players become professional later. I
really don’t see the reason why that’s happening. We have to
find the reason.
TK: When you play tournaments around the world, do you
get any quality time to visit stuff away from the tennis
courts, or do you think you’ll have to go back when you finish
playing tennis?
RN: Yeah, I have to go back to a lot of places
that I have been. It’s difficult when you are at a tournament
to visit places. You practice, you work more at the gym and the
tennis court, and then you work with your physio. It’s very
difficult to find time. Me, normally, I go for dinner everyday
outside, but not very often I have the chance to have
interesting visits.
TN: If we both win our first round here, we play each
other. Will you be nervous?
RN: (Laughter) Sure. I am always nervous
(smiling).
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