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WIMBLEDON

July 3, 2016

Richard Gasquet

London, England

R. GASQUET/A. Ramos‑Vinolas
2‑6, 7‑6, 6‑2, 6‑3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I just want to ask you about playing on the middle Sunday. What was it like on the court? I heard the courts were quite quiet and muted. What was it like?
RICHARD GASQUET: Yeah, it was unusual experience, for sure. More people on Centre Court and Court 1. But I think it's good to play on Sunday, especially because it's raining a lot.
Tomorrow it's Monday, so it's a good idea I think to play today. It was important to finish the match because I played yesterday, and not finish today and finish tomorrow I think it would be tough.

Q. Smaller crowd, did it make any difference the way you played? Was it easier, harder?
RICHARD GASQUET: Strange feeling, a little bit, yes, because everywhere I don't see many people around. So of course it's a little bit different, but, you know, it's not a big problem.
I had to concentrate on my serve, and, yeah, I tried to do it and I did a great set. I think it was better for me to finish on Sunday than tomorrow.

Q. What do you think Novak's loss does for the psyche of all the other guys who are still left in the tournament?
RICHARD GASQUET: Yeah, I think it's a big surprise that he lost yesterday, of course. I think he was a bit tired after Paris mentally. I think it was tough for him.
But, you know, now Novak is not in the draw, so it's, as I said, big surprise but there are a lot of big players still in the draw.

Q. What about the idea of a door opening?
RICHARD GASQUET: But for me, the door is not so open because I have Murray on my side. Jo Tsonga is there. Many players are on my side. But for sure for further up, I think for Querrey, maybe for Raonic, guys like Goffin, they can go to semis. So of course it's another draw that's hard, but for me it doesn't change.

Q. As a general rule, kind of a message, when something like that happens, what does it say about doors opening, you know, for opportunity?
RICHARD GASQUET: Yeah, it's important. You know, in the draw sometimes you need to be a little bit lucky. Sometimes a big seed is losing. So that's the case with Novak.
Now another player will go in some semis and final. You never know. So maybe Federer is not facing Djokovic maybe in semis, so it can be a different tournament.

Q. We don't know who your opponent will be in the next round because Isner and Tsonga are still playing. So I'm going to ask you, if you don't mind, to kind of preview each of them. If you were to play Isner, for example...
RICHARD GASQUET: Yeah, it's tough. He's a big player. Incredible serve. You have to play incredible to win him because he has such a big serve. So of course when you have a break point, you have to do it because you have not so many on his serve. So of course I need to concentrate a lot on my serve, too. So I need to play a big match.
If it's Jo Tsonga, one of my good friends, we know each other so well. We played since we were child. So of course he's a good friend, so of course it's different to play against him. We are both French. We know each other well, so it will be a tough match.

Q. It makes it different with Tsonga, but is it a more difficult match?
RICHARD GASQUET: We used to. I faced him a lot of times, so we used to play each other. So of course it's a little bit different because we know each other so well.
I practiced a lot with him, so of course it will be a different match. But we have to forget it for some hours and then life goes on.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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