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ROLAND GARROS

May 25, 2016

Benoit Paire

Paris, France

T. GABASHVILI/B. Paire

6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. Sorry for your loss.
BENOIT PAIRE: It's okay.

Q. You're a very elegant player, I think, your style. I think it's general for French players. Are you facing some struggle in your play due to that you have a very elegant technique but are facing some troubles with the strength?
BENOIT PAIRE: I think I prefer to have a bad technique and win some match (smiling).

Yeah, I don't know. My form is not beautiful style, I think. Is bad shots. Yeah, I try to be elegant on court. I think it's important. I like to feel good on court, and for this I have to be elegant. That's it.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in French.

Q. Could you tell us your experience of the match.
BENOIT PAIRE: It was tough today. My thigh was hurting already a bit. I saw the physiotherapist. I got a thorough massage. It may have worsened things. I wanted to press hard to make it go away, but it seems to have worsened. So at 2-1, I said, My thigh hurts. That's the way it was.

He made a couple of mistakes in the beginning, so it was okay. I took a lot of painkillers. I found it difficult to move around. It took a while to kick in, of course.

Then I tried to do my best. Teymuraz played well today. I had won in Barcelona against him. He hit the ball very hard. Some pretty soft balls. For him it was great. You need to hit really hard. And on Court 2, Court 2 is perfect for that sort of game. It's too bad I couldn't do that, because I had six tiebreak balls after a while, and then, no, he just played very well.

Q. Your pain in the thigh, where does that come from?
BENOIT PAIRE: I don't know. It's been around for two days. At the end of my first match I was okay, and then a little bit of pain. Then on Tuesday, the same. I thought, Go and get a bit of a tough massage. I did a bit of laser this morning. I don't know, it may have been counterproductive in triggering the pain, and it's true that even when I stepped on the court I was in pain.

I tried to do my best. He played well. I had troubles serving for the past few weeks, so it will remain as a kind of disappointing French Open. But it was a good tournament. I did pass the first round. I would have loved to go further, but it's the game. You win or you lose.

Q. Are you going to play your doubles?
BENOIT PAIRE: Yes. Well, I'll see how I feel. I have a game on later on. I'll see how things work and then in doubles, of course, you're only playing on half of the court. I'm with Paul, who is a great doubles player. I'll just try and help him with the ball. He's very good at doubles.

Q. Could you tell us a little bit more about what you're going to be doing in terms of your coach?
BENOIT PAIRE: Do you want the truth? I need to talk to my agent, and then I'll come back and tell you what he's told me to say. So I'll just wait for the doubles match, and I'll tell you more later.

Q. At the start of the fourth set, there was a little incident with Gabashvili's supporters.
BENOIT PAIRE: Oh, nothing important. The atmosphere was great. There were a lot of French supporters, too, supporting me.

Of course it's slightly frustrating when you have these breakpoints and nothing happens.

He's a great player. He was in the eights several times here. When things are moving really fast, court No. 2 with a pretty soft ball and a lot of bounce, a lot can happen. And I think he can be quite dangerous for the rest of the tournament.

You can see that Murray is finding things difficult even against Stepanek, and he's finding things tough against Bourgue, too. The conditions are really not easy and they are very different from the conditions in Rome and Madrid. The balls are really soft here. They were hard over there. So it's difficult to adapt. I think we're probably going to have a lot of surprises for this French Open. The conditions are really different from a lot of other tournaments.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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