Frederik Nielsen Gives An Interview At The Hopman Cup

Written by: Staff on 4th January 2012

Frederik Nielsen Gives An Interview At The Hopman Cup

CORRECTING NAME: Frederik Nielsen
Frederik Nielsen of Denmark in action against Mardy Fish of the USA during the session 4 men's singles match of the Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia, 02 January 2012. EPA/TONY MCDONOUGH AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT |

(Courtesy of the Hopman Cup)

Frederik can I ask you first of all how you’ve enjoyed the whole experience here at the Hopman Cup, given that I take it you spend most of your year on the challenger tour, and the differences playing here to some of the places where you stay and play on the challenger tour? How big is the difference?

It’s a huge difference. Like you said, it’s a completely different level of tournament and the size of the court – I mean this is the biggest stage I’ve ever played on. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. I know that next week its back to reality and I’m ‘Joe-nobody’ again, so I really appreciate every second here and it’s such a great tournament. They take such good care of us players and to be able to play on a stage like that, in front of a great crowd, it’s big for me. It’s a big pleasure, it really is.

The website that I looked at said that you’ve earned about $300,000 over your career – do you make ends meet as a professional tennis player?

Well the money that I make I try to invest in my own game by hiring coaches in different areas of the game. So I don’t really come out with a profit at the end of every year because I can always improve my team and get coaches in more weeks. So it would be nice if it gave a profit, but where I am right now in the rankings, it’s enough to keep going. I wish I could make a little bit more so I could get my coach with me a little bit more and get a bigger team.

What have you learnt about your own game in these last few days? You’ve played guys you don’t normally get to play.

Oh absolutely, that’s the approach that I’ve been going in with, that it was a really good test for my game. I’ve been working the last month or so to be faithful to the style I believe in and the style that we and my coaches believe is the right way to go. I’ve been able to certain level to be able to play here on a big court, for the first time on a big stage. If I’m able to play here then there should be a good chance that I’m able to play like this on court 7 in a challenger in Italy or somewhere like that. Its bee n a really good experience and I’ve been able to play some tough competitive sets against some really, really good players – quality players. It’s been good for me to see that the style that I believe in is the right way for me to go.

Your 28 now – how long will you keep going?

Until I can. I mean just because I enjoy it. It’s the number one thing that I want to do with my life and if I was in it for the money and everything I would have quit five years ago because then it wouldn’t have made sense. This is my life and I really love it and as long as I can keep doing it, then this is a dream come true for me. We’ll just have to see. Maybe in two years time I’m hopeless and dropped in the rankings and maybe it’s a different story then, but so far I’m just taking it one day at a time. There’s no need for me to put a limit on it. As long as I’m fit and I keep improving and I find it to be the best thing to do with my life, I’ll keep going.

Are you known as Frederik or Fred? There’s already a Frederik – are you known as Fred or Freddie? What –

Everything.

And may I ask then, why are you known as turtle?

Because I’m not a very fast person. I’m very thorough with the stuff I do. I can make even the simplest tasks take forever. So my friends say ‘Oh, we are waiting for the turtle again’. That’s how it came about.

(Courtesy of the Hopman Cup)

Topics: Frederik Nielsen

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