Yoshihito Nishioka – Saturday, March 9, 2019

Y. NISHIOKA/R. Bautista Agut
7-6, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How happy are you with the way you played today?

YOSHIHITO NISHIOKA: Oh, yeah. For sure, it’s very happy for today. And also, today I play very well from the beginning. You know, I know it’s going to be very long rally, for sure, and who can be — which player can be more aggressive, you know.

And then, I tried to be very aggressive if I have chance, try to pressure on him. I know his good passing shot or everything on the groundstrokes, but I just need to try and keep pressure on it.

And then if I have chance, just go to the net. It worked today a lot. Yeah, I play very well, I think, today.

Q. I have to ask how you feel about playing against Felix?

YOSHIHITO NISHIOKA: Oh, yeah, for sure it’s going to be tough. He’s like on fire right now. He’s winning a lot of matches this year.

Well, he’s young, so he have so much power. We played each other one time when he was 14 years old in Granby Challenger in Canada. And the time I won, but it was very close match. And I know it’s very different right now, but I have more experience match than him, so I use my experience and try to play on what he doesn’t want to do, you know.

Yeah, I think he gonna play, like, very aggressive, you know, good forehand and good service, much power.

I need to try move him and think my brain, use my ball control, everything. That’s my plan.

Q. When he was 14, did you think he was going to be a very good player some day?