Cincinnati Masters - Tono



Nelson : Congratulations Tono ! Finally, after 43 tournaments, you obtain your first "real" title in the LLTL. Well of course you already won a small Challenger, but among only 4 players. I guess the taste of this M1000 is quite different ;-) When did you know you were able to achieve this performance ?

Tono : Thanks for the congrats, it was nice to finally win a M1000 event on LLTL after reaching two semi-finals last season in 2019.
I was a semi-finalist in Cincy last year so I think I enjoy this tournament, this year I got that little bit of luck required to go all the way, I thought I had blown it by not picking Tsitsipas to make the semi's or final, however Raonic did me a favour by toppling the Greek.
I have had a few good finishes in some of the bigger events, so I thought if a little bit of good fortune went my way I would eventually win one of these at some stage, the next goal now is to win a Grand Slam event. ;)

Nelson : the context is really strange, and I guess a lot of players will be affected by this super long covid break. Please share with us your tips and how you went through this long break !

Tono : This break with Covid has made us all miss tennis I think, however I would prefer it to be back with crowds again, much more enjoyable to watch that way, after the long break I made my bracket picks really quick for Cincy, maybe that is the key? haha