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ROLEX PARIS MASTERS

November 3, 2017

Guy Forget

Paris, France

GUY FORGET: Do you want us to start with your questions? I'm sure you have many different questions.

But as an introduction I would say that I know Rafa came to see you. And he mentioned to me that he was going to withdraw ten minutes before coming to see you. So everything happened very quickly.

As you have seen against Cuevas, he had his knee strapped, and when I asked him how he was and I saw his face, on his face that he had pain, and I believed it was not a good sign.

Going backwards, a few days before the tournament, in Basel, he had withdrawn. And I had called Carlos Costa to get some news and he said he's just hitting the ball. He's not moving at all on the court. But he's going to come. He wants to come. You can count on us.

And I must admit, this was a relief for me. When he came to Paris, it was the first time he was running laterally on the court and he had positive feelings and the federation was relieved.

But, of course, he still could lose because, of course, as he couldn't move well, he was in danger of losing confidence. But it went well.

Unfortunately, yesterday he played a very tough opponent who was playing fast, trying everything he could, and there it happened. The pain came back. He had a strap. Then he had a pain in the other leg.

Yesterday night he felt pain and Bernard Montalvan, the doctor, gave him a treatment yesterday and this morning. But this morning he said, I can't even go on the court. I can't move at all.

So you know him as well as I do. And if a guy is tough to pain, he's the one. And he always keeps his word and his promises. He can sustain pain. And he apologized to me ten times. Like if he was a child having done something wrong.

So I told him, Of course, we are sad for the tournament and sad to see you leave the tournament. But I thanked him because we've been confronted with many withdrawals since the beginning of the tournament. And he came after Basel. He could have decided to try everything he could for London and skip this tournament.

I believe he's quite skeptical about his chances in playing in London now, and he came in Paris all the same. So what I remember is the great effort he made and he went to the end of what he could do.

So I really thank him for having come here and I think he pleased many people, thousands of people, coming here. And you too.

And well, he had to leave and he's sad about it. So this is the summary I can give you about Rafa's situation. I will answer your questions later, but now it's just coming to me, but we know that the date for our tournament in the year's schedule is a bit difficult.

As tournament director in 2012, I remember we had a very empty draw. Especially we had the London tournament the week later.

And we also other times had extraordinary additions with the top eight players in the quarterfinals here. Last year you will remember that Murray became No. 1 in the world during this particular tournament. And Rafa is ending the year No. 1. So there are good stories that are happening here, but there are also disappointments.

And, of course, this year we are a bit disturbed I would say. Novak pulled out. But he hasn't been playing for nine month and a half. Last Saturday he said, I played twice since I stopped, with my left hand. Andy Murray has hip problems that are more than serious for the rest of his career even. Wawrinka had a surgery on his knee.

So these players have been missing many, many tournaments since their injury. So it doesn't have something to do only with the Paris Masters. Now Julien Benneteau is still playing. He's still in the tournament. Marin Cilic won the US Open, and he is there.

In the beginning of the tournament, I had dinner with Chris, the president of the ATP. And he said, you know, talking about the walkovers, he said, Cilic is going to win the tournament. And I said, How? How do you know? And here it is. He has been playing well since the beginning of this tournament. He's a very good player.

Of course, we'll wish good luck to Julien Benneteau. When you give a wildcard, sometimes you make a mistake and only the player himself can prove us right. And I think the wildcards we gave were very good this year.

So we will remember the good matches of this edition.

Q. Indeed, you are running the risk of having tired players. What is the solution for the future? Because, as you said, some players were not coming because they were qualified for the Masters here. It was not the case. So it's a bit a question of luck. Some years are good. Some years are bad. Is there a possibility for changing dates? We've been talking about that for 10 years. The Masters, as it's going to happen, is it a threat?
GUY FORGET: Well, the Masters in Asia is not scary to me at all. It is not for now anyway, and the Shanghai tournament is not going to last ten days. So we can keep this date.

But as you said, like for wines, some years are better than others. 2012 was not a good year. And this year, of course, will also be a tough year.

I had hoped that in spite of those walkovers and withdrawals it would be a change of period. You will remember the generation of Sampras and everything, when at a certain stage we had to do without them. And then we started watching Hewitt and a young Federer. There was a change in generations.

So I believe in the next month, next years, we are seeing the birth of a new generation that we are dreaming of and have been for years.

But I must say that for the time being I'm a bit surprised because, I'm not criticizing, of course, but Dominic Thiem, Zverev, Kyrgios didn't play, but we could have thought, you know, without the usual top players those players could have gone far. They are playing well, of course, but the transition didn't happen here this year. That's what I want to say.

Maybe it will happen in a few month, next year at least. So these players have not taken advantage of this great opportunity. Often you can see some draws opening up and some players take advantage of it and become a revelation. Remember Kuerten, Wilander, Chang. They created history.

Now, as far as the calendar is concerned, we've been asking for the month of February for this tournament for a long time. But the thing is, we can't just change us because there's a South American tour at that period in February also at the same time. So this possibility has not been accepted until now.

If it were to be accepted, we will be ready here in the federation. But anyway, next year we are keeping the same date as this year.

I hope that in one year from now I will be able to give you good news about this tournament. Whether there is another space in the calendar or not, this is a beautiful indoor tournament and just before the Masters of London it can be an advantage. Although this year it was obviously not.

Q. Of course, for the calendar, fall is always complicated. It's not only that, there was the Laver Cup, there was Roger Federer, Kyrgios, Nadal, Thiem who were not here this year or didn't play well. So what is your opinion about the exhibitions that are coming up and that can be a threat for your tournaments?
GUY FORGET: When you are a professional, you have to make choices all along your career according to your age, to your ranking, to your fitness of the moment. So I know that some players have played this competition and they will not play it next year. They prefer to fly one hour to Prague instead of going that far. Because they see the effect of having a jet lag on their body going back to the States.

As to the other players, they are smart. I'm sure they will draw the consequences. So this event, I don't want to condemn it because, on paper, it looked good. There was a good atmosphere, good matches and those who participated really played the game. We thought it was good for promoting tennis.

But it did have an impact on the Basel tournament, on the Paris Masters, maybe on the following tournaments.

So players are not unanimous about this event. There are no ATP points. The future will tell what can come out of it. Federer promoted that event, supported it. Is this event going to continue to exist the day he will stop doing that? We'll see.

Of course, a nonofficial competition, when the calendar is so packed, can become a problem and Chris from the ATP is totally aware of that.

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