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BNP PARIBAS MASTERSOctober 30, 2014Jo-Wilfried TsongaPARIS, FRANCE K. NISHIKORI/J. Tsonga THE MODERATOR: Questions in French, please. Q. You were able to come back in this match and even in the third set you were ahead. What happened? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Well, it was that last game where I started badly. It happens sometimes. It's just a matter of one or two points that I let go, and then I lose the game. But it was a good match. Of course for the first set I have nothing much to say. He was extremely good. He was dominating. I broke him at the start, but he reacted extremely well. So I don't have comments for the first set. On the second set I tried to give everything I had on the court, and then the momentum was reversed. He was able to be ahead, to be more aggressive on my serve games, more efficient. I had some opportunities at the beginning of the third set that I did not make unfortunately. I wasn't aggressive enough. I was stepping back a bit on my returns. After, it was a tight fight, and I lost that battle. I'm disappointed of course. I would've liked to play better here. But although I'm disappointed, I can see some positive things. It was a good match and a beautiful struggle until the end, so I will see that as positive. Q. So with these two matches played here, are you reassured about your level? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: No, not really. But I was able to compete, and this is a good thing after the two or three injuries I had. After Tokyo it's good thing that now I am feeling good physically again. As I said, the good thing was I was able to play at the highest level. It was a good match. But I'm not going to use this as a great support, because what's going to happen in three weeks is totally different. Q. So I guess your strategy is to have a peak for the Davis Cup and not here. JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Well, when you talk about a peak, I always try to be better than the previous time every time I play. It's difficult to calculate a specific day for your peak, for you to peak. I just need to be good on the Davis Cup weekend. That's all. I just need to be present. Q. Maybe the lack of competition can explain this loss, or not? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: No, no, because on the game he won, he served ‑‑ I mean, there were four aces and I played a point very far from him and he was able to make it. I mean, all in all he is better than I was, and I don't think I can have regrets. Sometimes you must be able to just say, Well played. Even if Nishikori won the first set, I still stayed in that match and I fought. I lost it, but it was very close. Although in the first set he was a lot better than I was. Q. Of course in France there is a lot talk about Davis Cup. People are going to look at how you played here, how Stan played here. Do you think it's relevant to see how you played here, or is Davis Cup something totally different? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Yes, I think in Davis Cup it's going to start from scratch. I mean, if tennis was a science we would not have a chance to win, because they are better players than we are. Or they have been lately. So if it was mathematical, this would be the result. But wisdom says that we will know who is going to win the title only in the end, after all the matches. Q. If we forget the Davis Cup final, tell us how you see this season. JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: I'm quite optimistic. Last year in the end of the year I was in a difficult situation. I didn't really know what was going to happen the following year. It was going to start badly because my knee was hurting; I was not feeling good. I was able to make my goals in spite of that. I wanted to come back at the highest level. I wanted to play matches like I did today. I'm able now to fight with the best players, the top players, and I'm back in the top 10. That was the goal. Physically I'm fine again and I'm able to improve my game now. I try to have new goals every time. I'm never happy with the level I have. I want to improve all the time because the other players are improving. You always have to go further. I don't know what I'm saying. It makes no sense. You have to improve, and even more. What I mean is that you have to give a lot if you want to stay at the highest level, and you have to try to be better than all the others. I believe this year I was very serious. I trained seriously and I worked hard. Thanks to that, I hope I will have good victories in the following months and weeks. Q. You are going Bordeaux with the team to have a training session? Is it just for tennis or to create a strong team spirit? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Bordeaux is a good way for practicing. As you said, it's mainly going to be practice, getting used to clay, learn how to slide again. And also play with top players, because we are lucky we have great players in our group. Each one of us could have a sparring partner, but the sparring partner wouldn't be as good. So this is really good to have a high‑level group as we have. It's motivating. And also, it is going to with be good for the team. We will be able to sort of assess the importance of the event. Because what we want to do is realize this type of event is not something that you experience every day or every year. We want to create memories between us that we will keep for the rest of our lives. So because of all these reasons, we chose to stay together there during that week. Q. Three weeks is long. How are you going to manage that? What will be your schedule? When are you going to start playing on clay? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: I will try to do that as soon as possible. I think I'm going to try to start hitting on clay on Monday, right? Q. Well, you may be happy to play that final, but are you scared? There will be thousands and millions of people watching. We all know what it's going to be. Are you a bit tense? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Yes. Oh, yeah, it makes you scared. Q. What makes you scared? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Well, if you were standing by the cliff and you were asking, Why re you afraid? Well, you know, it's a bit like that. Because we have everything to win, but we also have everything to lose in this. Of course it's scary. I know of no one who would play this kind of event just saying I don't care. I don't know any at least. I'm not part of those. Of course I'm scared. But also this is something that makes me alive. I think if we all play tennis, it's just to experience these kind of moments with a lot of adrenaline. We are putting ourselves in a dangerous position. It's a bit masochistic. But at the same time we are extremely motivated. When players stop playing tennis, they always say that they miss the adrenaline, the emotions on the court. We are really in the middle of that, and's good. This is what we're waiting for. There are matches we're playing during the season we will not remember, but I'm sure we will remember that event, positive or negative. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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