	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

COUPE ROGERS

August 13, 2015

Novak Djokovic

MONTREAL, QUEBEC

N. DJOKOVIC/J. Sock
6‑2, 6‑1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Just want to know the first two games on his serve, did you have any trouble with the spin of his serves or something else before you really got into it?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, I never played him before so it took me some time to really figure out, you know, what his patterns are of the serves, just his game in general.
I did watch him many times before, but it's different when you're standing on the court, you know, trying to read the rotation especially of his forehand because he's got a very quick wrist, very quick motion, good forehand.
I think turning point was the 3‑2 game when I made a break. After that I just felt in control of the match.

Q. Can we have a comment on the Kyrgios event? Like what do you think of this behavior?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: I haven't watched the match, but I've seen the video. I think everybody knows what happened.
I think it's very important to keep the fairness of the sport. I'm not one who should judge the reaction, but in my opinion it was completely unnecessary to comment something like that.
So I think he was fined. I think it's official. He deserved it. I think he's going to learn a lesson in a hard way. Hopefully this won't happen to him anymore.
I understand that every player goes through a certain tantrums, emotional ups and downs during the match. In a big fight and at this level, I understand. But it's not, I would say, fair, and there's no excuse of directing your tantrums to your opponent, especially to somebody that is not even there.

Q. Does Kyrgios have a bad reputation on the tour? What's the reputation of Kyrgios?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: He's young. He just started playing professional tennis recently. He's definitely one of the players that everybody's looking up to. His quality of tennis is really remarkable for his age. He's doing very well. Played quarters of Wimbledon last year.
From the tennis perspective, I'm sure that he's right at the top of the rising tennis stars. He's got his own character, his own personality. This is individual sport. You've got to accept that.
Again, I don't know what kind of reputation goes around. But for me it's important being there for now over a decade that at least there is a respect, you know, between the players and towards the sport as well. I think that's something that he's got to learn, you know, how to deal with that.
Other than that, I think he's a good guy. I never had any problems with him personally. Off the court we had nice chats, practiced with each other.
Some players have problems to control themselves on the court. Sometimes when you go through the emotional challenges, it slips out of your mouth.
But, again, there's no excuse for what he has said yesterday.

Q. Back to the game. After you settled in, you made it look easy. It only took 54 minutes. Was it as easy for you as it looked?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, the beginning of the match he had some breakpoints. As I said before, it took me some time to figure out what I need to do on the court, kind of read his game.
I gave myself a little more space. I backed up and started swinging through the ball more rather than picking up half volleys, because he was playing pretty good shots, especially from the forehand side.
After that I was returning very well. I thought I neutralized his serve, which is one of his biggest weapons. That has helped me to win the match in straights.

Q. We'd like to know more about your French word protocol. What is it? How many words do you know? Where did you learn French?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, I live in Monaco, which is a French‑speaking region. Obviously whenever I'm there, I'm trying to speak French and trying to improve my knowledge of this language. That is not easy at times.
I learned English and German and Italian when I was younger, when I was I think being able to absorb the information quicker than I do now. It makes it a little bit more difficult.
But I like it. It's a beautiful language. Languages have always attracted me. To learn at least a couple of phrases, I think it shows the respect to the country where you are in, to the people. So I'm trying. I'm trying.
I know that my vocabulary is not perfect. I'm trying to get at least a couple of new words every week. But I'm still putting my sentences together somewhere between French and English as you could hear today.

Q. How many languages do you speak?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: A few (smiling).

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297