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ROLAND GARROS

May 27, 2016

Stan Wawrinka

Paris, France

S. WAWRINKA/J. Chardy

6-4, 6-3, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Questions in French.

Q. Well done. Your impressions about the match where you were obviously better.
STAN WAWRINKA: Great match. I'm very happy with the level of my game. Everything that I did today was pretty high-level. I hit the ball well. I was moving around well. I managed to do what I wanted. I played quite heavily. I was "the" aggressive player to try and prevent him from playing, and I'm really happy with what I did today.

Q. I don't know if it's finished, Troicki, is that finished? Four matches, four wins, what do you expect?
STAN WAWRINKA: Yes, an opponent I know well. I played against him twice on a hard surface. I think the last time I played on clay was in Belgrade, a three-hour match.

But he's a player who plays well, who's robust, who plays his own round of tennis. He plays from the baseline. First service is pretty good. Second ball not so good. But it all depends on what's going to happen on there.

Q. You had a very difficult match against Rosol.
STAN WAWRINKA: Please go ahead. (Laughter.)

Q. A lot of pressure.
STAN WAWRINKA: You'll be judged on your first question.

Q. Nishikori did five sets against Verdasco. It looks like there is a very slim of margin for the best guys. But they always win in the end. What do you think makes the difference? What's the difference between the Wawrinka of the Big 4 and the Wawrinka of the few years ago when you were in the top 16?
STAN WAWRINKA: The margin, well, the margin isn't that huge. Between playing a five-set match and a three-set that's easier, sometimes there's not that much of a difference, unlike what the score would seem to indicate.

I came here, played Rosol, who was playing really well. My legs were not so good. It perhaps wasn't my best tennis. But in the end, I had to fight for these five sets. He played well.

These are difficult matches. Everyone else is there to win, too. And then what makes a difference between me a few years back and me now, everything in the sense that everything is much stronger. My level of play is much stronger. Physically things are much stronger. I'm much more confident.

I have defeated all these guys over the past few years. So I can play anyone.

When I'm playing against Troicki or a player like today, it's all up to me.

A few years back it wasn't just up to me. If I just come along and I move physically and I feel the ball, I have the match under my control. Then of course I need to win it. But it's already great to be able to think like that.

Q. Can you talk about when Rafa -- did you hear about rumors about his wrist, or is it a huge surprise?
STAN WAWRINKA: It's a total surprise in the sense that we all saw photographs where he was touching his wrist or his wrist was hurting. It was no big secret.

But then again, it is a surprise because no one knew how much it hurt. It's unfortunate for the tournament, for the fans, for tennis.

But it's very tough for him, because wrists are fragile things, and I hope that he's managed to stop in time to get this fixed.

I know how much an injury is difficult, and I'm always sad when such champions need to retire from a competition. These types of people are great for tennis, in general.

Q. Let me pick up on that question.
STAN WAWRINKA: What? You have been allowed to ask questions for a long time?

Q. But I mean, the top player, there are sort of common strengths that you have to win these five-set matches that others lose, even if you have different play styles. Don't you think there are points in common in the top players in those five-set situations?
STAN WAWRINKA: Well, obviously those who are top seed win more matches. I'll talk about my own position, because that's what I am legitimate to talk about.

When there are days that I'm not playing too well, I know that there is always a way out. It makes a huge difference when you're not playing your best tennis but you can still win a five-set match in a Grand Slam tournament.

Maybe that's what we have in common with the top-seed players. There are days where we accept the play isn't going to be as nice as usual. I've lost five-set matches in my life, too. There is no guarantee.

But maybe we are a little bit calmer than the others.

Q. In the first round it was five sets, today three sets. What is your opinion of that?
STAN WAWRINKA: It's very positive, and that's essential. I knew I was going to have a difficult early tournament, because I just came from Geneva. There was just two days.

It did of course -- it was mentally difficult, because I was very eager to win a tournament in my home country.

But I ramped up. I used the two days that I rested to rest fully. Yesterday I came here, I got a couple of treatments, and then went away again.

So I have really managed to use the Grand Slam to move forward in this tournament. I feel tonight, after this third match, I feel I'm at 100% in every aspect, and I hope I can continue.

Q. People have said you should never play the week before a Grand Slam tournament. How did you make it? Because the pressure builds up a week before these tournaments. How can you not think about it?
STAN WAWRINKA: Clearly usually don't play in the week before a Grand Slam tournament. I may have did it a little in Wimbledon, but I lost in the first round.

So when I saw that there was this tournament in Geneva, it's a huge opportunity in a career. To play at home, it's Geneva, it's not the other end of Switzerland. It was really important to me.

So I told my team straight out, I said, Listen, guys, I want to do this. What solutions do you have? The best possible program? We tried to have a global, an overall vision in all of this.

We didn't just look, okay, he's playing the week before that, it's going to be an overload. We said, okay, we have the rest of the year. Maybe we're going to lighten other weeks later or before. We'll run the risk of maybe being tired in a Grand Slam tournament, but with that solution, we have the maximum possibilities of things to be good.

I lost in the quarterfinals. I wasn't playing too well. Geneva, I won the tournament. It was really good. Geneva is right next to home. It was a fantastic moment. It was a very tough match.

The first round here, I decided to hang in there, but now I'm doing good. I might lose the next one, who knows? But I'm really feeling 100% in every field.

At a Grand Slam, you play every other day. On a day off, the two days off, I didn't train at all, because I know that I can do that. I just adapt to the way I feel.

That's what's great about having a team around you is that you can talk about things, see how you feel, and find solutions for things to work out as well as possible on the court, because that's what we're looking for.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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