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DUBAI DUTY FREE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPSFebruary 23, 2015Joao SousaDUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES J. SOUSA/J. McGee THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. How was that? What are your thoughts on that? JOAO SOUSA: I think I played a good match. Was not easy to play today, a little bit of windy especially at the beginning. We were a little bit maybe nervous, both the players. I know him very well, because he used to practice in Barcelona with me, same academy. Yeah, it was more a clash of friends, so, yeah, was not easy to play against him, but I think I could play good tennis, and I am happy to be in second round. Q. How many years did you spend with him in Barcelona? JOAO SOUSA: Well, I think three or four? Yeah. He was there a long time. Q. He is obviously determined to make it on the ATP Tour, which he doesn't come from a particularly renowned tennis country. Do you think he's got a chance? JOAO SOUSA: Yeah. I mean, he has been improving a lot. I remember him from Barcelona, and he's a great player, a lot of power. Sometimes just his head is going away of the match, but I think he has been improving a lot. I mean, I hope he will get to the top. I think he has good chances. Q. In the next round you may face Andy Murray. What are your thoughts on facing the third seed here? JOAO SOUSA: Well, I mean, first he has to play and he has to win. He's playing a great player who has been playing very good from the beginning of the year, so he has a good fight tomorrow. I will wait to see who's the next one, if it's Andy or if it's Gilles. They are both great players, so it's going to be a tough match for me, for sure. Q. Can you talk about how popular tennis is in Portugal? JOAO SOUSA: Well, hopefully it's becoming a little bit bigger. We have some more players coming, good players, young players, so I think it's very important that we could keep our ATP event in Portugal, which was a priority for us. I'm really happy to have the chance to play home with my crowd. We have many tournaments, Futures, so tennis is improving and I'm really happy about it. Q. Are the facilities or infrastructures and in terms of coaching, all that improving? JOAO SOUSA: Well, if you're comparing with France, England or Spain or Australia, it's ‑‑yeah, we are far away from them. But, yeah, we are starting to have some good facilities to the players, and I hope we will have great players in the future. Q. If you drive around in the Algarve, you see lots of tennis courts. Is it a popular sport? JOAO SOUSA: No, not really, no. They have a lot of courts because you guys go there and play (laughter). That's why they have a lot of courts. Well, I mean, a lot of English and German people go there for the summer. We have great weather, great golf courses. I think of course tennis it's a very good sport in Portugal, and it's an elite sport. You need a lot of money to play in Portugal. Unfortunately it's like this that people think about it. Q. What's the main summer sport in Portugal? JOAO SOUSA: Football. Summer, winter, wherever. Q. Even not in the football season? JOAO SOUSA: Not even the football season. You can have news that Ronaldo went to the toilet three times a day, and that's the news. Make semifinals and nothing. So, yeah. That's the news. Q. How important is it to have an icon to kind of inspire kids to play tennis? JOAO SOUSA: Well, I think tennis, I mean, tennis is improving. I think as I am playing better and I'm improving and I make results, I think people start to speak about it. And the young players, they see that they can maybe become professionals. So that's very important, because before players just play to have some good facilities to go to university. You have, in Portugal if you are player and you are like trying to be professional, you have some good facilities to go to university. So the main goal was this one. Now we have young players, they really want to be professional. I think maybe right now I'm the icon, as you say, of the tennis, and I'm happy to make them feel that they can be professionals. So it's good for me and it's good for tennis. Q. How did you make the transformation? JOAO SOUSA: Well, I moved to Barcelona because of the facilities, as you said, when I was 15. Was a bet from my parents and for me. Today I'm having good results. A lot of work, of course. I mean, I had to move from Portugal. Otherwise I probably would not be here today. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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