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BNP PARIBAS MASTERS PARIS

November 2, 2016

Lucas Pouille

Paris, France

L. POUILLE/F. Lopez

6-7, 6-3, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions in French.

Q. With Feliciano, you had very tight matches lately. Why did it go your way this time?
LUCAS POUILLE: Well, because I was able to win the match point. Last week I had a match point, and I didn't win it. He made a beautiful volley on that match point.

At the end of the first set, I started playing better for the second and third set. It was a good match from both of us. We both served very well. It was a fast surface, the rallies were not long but I was able to return well. That made a difference.

Q. This is an important match that you needed to win. Can it be decisive for the end of season?
LUCAS POUILLE: No, it's not going to change much. Of course I can go further in this tournament, but it's the last tournament of the year, and after that I will have a break. When I will be on holidays, I won't think about it anymore.

But it is important because I wanted to finish off this season very well here. I wanted to play well, and I'm happy that I can get another opportunity of playing again tomorrow on that court. I hope I'll play well.

Q. The season was long. Are you mentally and physically totally exhausted or not?
LUCAS POUILLE: Well, physically you're okay, because if you have a couple of days' rest, you're good again.

It's mentally that we are getting tired. It's very difficult to keep it up during practices, during the matches. But I'm going to try to do that for the whole week and try to enjoy this tournament as much as I can.

Q. And the crowd support? Does it give you more energy?
LUCAS POUILLE: Yes, it's also a reason why I want to play well here. There were many people here today watching, and they supported me for the match. So you don't want to let go, of course. You want to go further.

Q. Possibly you might play Murray next round. Is it scary?
LUCAS POUILLE: Scary? No. I know it's going to be a tough match. It's going to be complicated. I guess it's going to be a night session match like he's playing tonight. So there will be the crowd there. I'll try to enjoy it and maybe to create a surprise if I can beat him, if he wins today, and then I'll be in the quarterfinal.

Q. You played Andy twice this season, Shanghai and Rome. What did you learn from those matches?
LUCAS POUILLE: Once I lost 1 and 2, and the second time 1 and 3 (Smiling.)).

Well, they were not bad matches. On the contrary, in Asia, in Shanghai, I had many game points, especially on my serve. There is only one game where I didn't have a game point, and in spite of that there's a very big difference in the score.

So this time I'm going to try to stay in there and maybe he can have some doubts, because once he's ahead in the score, he's difficult to beat.

Q. Physically how do you approach a match like that? Andy is almost impossible to play, right?
LUCAS POUILLE: Well, anyway, I have no pressure. I'm far from being a favorite. It's the last tournament of the year. The only thing I have to do is try to go as far as I can here. Nothing after that. So I want to enjoy that match and just try to beat him. That's all. Do my best.

Q. You must have seen Andy in Dubai. Nobody knows how he practices. Did he share some secrets with you?
LUCAS POUILLE: Nobody has a secret that explains it all. It's a matter of work. Nadal doesn't have a secret explaining why he physically was the best for a while. He just worked hard. That is the only secret.

Of course I practiced with those players and they practice a lot. This is what I'm trying to do. When I practice with Stan, he's a monster in practice. He practices for hours and hours. That's why he won Grand Slams and was able to win long matches.

There's not one single secret. But I shared tennis and physical fitness exercises with him, and he's keeping nothing secret. He's okay to share. He doesn't do anything special. He just works more. And of course he also has physical qualities helping him.

Q. There is more attention on you, especially this week. Do you feel it?
LUCAS POUILLE: It is positive. If there was no attention and the stadium was empty when I was playing, it would be worrying, right?

So it's nice that people are there to support me, and they expect from me to fight and to go as far as I can. This is due to my good results and the fact that I'm improved a lot this year. It's only positive.

Q. This last tournament of the year is the time to assess your year. What are the good things and bad things?
LUCAS POUILLE: Well, I hope the best part of the year will be here in this tournament. I won in Metz. I won twice in quarterfinal in a Grand Slam. These are important moments of this season.

The flop, the bad thing, is maybe the match in Indian Wells. That's when I was not playing well and mentally I was not feeling well, but otherwise there were not many bad things.

Q. You might possibly be better ranked than Roger soon.
LUCAS POUILLE: Except that he only played four months (Smiling.) I'm not thinking about it. The goal was not to be better ranked than Roger or other players. It's an anecdote. He just didn't play this year. He's not been playing for the past six months.

Of course, it's a good thing to be ahead of him, but if one day I have his results, it will be even better.

Q. Back to Murray. You said in Shanghai you didn't play a bad match. The score was tough. So what do you have to do to have a tighter score?
LUCAS POUILLE: I believe I answered that. I need to win the important points and win more games, the games I didn't win in the previous matches. I need to try to win those points so that the score will be tighter and maybe then he will get annoyed and become more tense. Because if a set goes in 20 minutes, of course he's more relaxed.

Q. Apparently you're just calm and composed with everything happening to you. Did you ever realize the progress you made in such a short time?
LUCAS POUILLE: Well, I started improving a long time ago, as soon as Miami. I won three or four matches there. After, I played well in Monte-Carlo. I beat Richard and Mahut, and then I beat Goffin in Madrid where I was qualified. I lost to Querrey, and then I went to the semis in Rome. Everything followed.

It's only in the French Open that I was disappointed. I wanted to do better than that. So it's been increasing, stepping up since that moment. I hope I'm not going to stop where I am now.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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