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ROLAND GARROS

May 28, 2018

Marco Trungelliti

Paris, France

M. TRUNGELLITI/B. Tomic

6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. First of all, what's your reaction to this room, being in the main room at Roland Garros? And it's almost standing room only.
MARCO TRUNGELLITI: Yeah, I think the main reason is my wife, because I have no network associate, so I have no Instagram, no nothing. She did it, but we didn't know at that time that it was going to be like this (smiling).

But I think it's like this because I won. Otherwise is... No?

Q. Can you give us a few details about the trip? What kind of car were you in? Did you stop at all? How fast was the maximum speed? And so forth.
MARCO TRUNGELLITI: Yeah, okay. We were at home with my family, actually, my brother and my grandma and my mom came a week ago. So supposedly they were going to come here but then I lost, so I left.

Then they rent a car just to take a look in Barcelona or some other cities in Spain that is beautiful.

And then my coach told me, Take a look, Safwat, the Egyptian who played yesterday, he's playing right now, so maybe take a look. Ask if you are going to get in or whatever. So I ask, and then somebody told me that it was the first alternate.

So actually, my grandma was in the shower (smiling) and I told her, Okay, we go to Paris. There are many flights canceled, so I didn't trust too much.

And then there is no train now in France so the best option was always, was just take the car.

It was good. Coffee after two hours. Eat. And then I had a dinner at 9:00 or something like that. So we arrived around noon at the club. Slept five hours, maximum. And then we came here 7:30 or something like that.

But it was good, no? It's beautiful (smiling).

Q. How much time did you have yesterday to make the choice, okay, everybody get in the car? Were you rushing to try to get here?
MARCO TRUNGELLITI: Five minutes. Five minutes. It wasn't that long.

We needed a grandma, for sure, always (smiling). But then -- no, beautiful. Just to have half an hour to make the luggage, the baggage, and then we left.

Q. What did you do in the car for all that time?
MARCO TRUNGELLITI: Think, coffee, and I drove a couple of hours. For me, I like it. So it was quite okay.

And then the rest of the work, my brother did it. Perfect.

Q. What time did you leave Barcelona?
MARCO TRUNGELLITI: 1:00 p.m. And we got here 11:00 or something like that. So it was 10 hours.

But for us, I mean, in Argentina, if you're not living in Buenos Aires, then thousand kilometers is like nothing. You make thousand kilometers and there is no city between.

So it wasn't -- it wasn't a big deal for us. We got used to it, and then, yeah, we had highway, so it's perfect. Argentina, there is one -- we call it the Ruta, it's just one way and the other one is coming against you. So you never know if you're going to be alive after two hours driving (Laughter.)

Q. If I could ask about today, how did you feel on the court? Was it all a bit hard to believe that you were...
MARCO TRUNGELLITI: No, no, no, hard to believe? No, because I knew it from yesterday, actually.

So I think at least mentally I was ready to play. Physically, I had no idea.

So in the end, it was good. I mean, I didn't feel pressure at all, nothing. Because even I lost on Thursday here, so Friday I didn't play. Saturday I didn't practice. Sunday, nothing. So just today the warmup, and then we went to the court.

Q. Your grandmother is very famous here and we are all fans. What can you tell us about her? Does she follow your tennis all the time?
MARCO TRUNGELLITI: No, no, she -- she has no idea what tennis is, really. She has no idea how to count it. And actually, she told me that she didn't know that it was the end of the match until everybody was clapping. (Laughter.)

Yeah, she's amazing. She's turning 89 in one month. It's amazing. Amazing.

Q. Now that you're here, do you plan on winning the whole tournament? What's your attitude after being given this great second chance in this tournament?
MARCO TRUNGELLITI: I was quite relaxed, I guess. I mean, for me was perfect because I lost. I left. I ate barbecue, which for Argentina is one of the main reasons to keep alive, I guess (smiling).

And then I was relaxed. Like a normal thing.

Q. Could you just tell us your mother's, grandmother's, brothers's name, please.
MARCO TRUNGELLITI: My brother has the same last name, good (fist pump) Andre. And then my mama is Suzanna. Grandma is Daphne. I call her Abuelita.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in Spanish.

Q. So now you have overcome the difficult trip that you had to make from Barcelona to here. And now you're a bit more relaxed. But now that you've moved on to the second round, do you feel pressured?
MARCO TRUNGELLITI: No, I know it's a good opportunity to continue to move on. The last two times I lost in the second round, so I really have to move on.

I know that it's an opportunity, and obviously the more tension you're under, the more pressure you're under, the less your chances. So now I'm going to have to start training again, resting, of course, and I'm sure we will meet again on Wednesday.

Q. I'd like you to tell us about what happened in English, but this time in Spanish. Could you tell us?
MARCO TRUNGELLITI: Yes. Well, we were at home. We were preparing to go to the beach. That's one of the reasons why my grandmother had rented a car, because she wanted to visit Barcelona and go all around the area, which is very beautiful.

She always told us that with her husband, they organized a trip from one minute to the next. They were having a coffee and her husband would say, Well -- in Argentina, the cities are very distant one from the other, and they would decide to go to another city. And I told her while she was in the shower that we were going to drive to Paris. And she was really happy.

My suitcase was still done. I hadn't undone it. I added a couple of things in it. And there, we got ready to leave.

We stopped every two hours to have a coffee, because up until then, I didn't really know that I would be playing.

But because I was still expecting it, everybody knew that I was on, and I was on the draw again. But I still had to sign in. I still had to sign.

And then the trip was okay. We didn't really have to stop. And it was a motorway all the way through, which is something we're not used to in Argentina, because in Argentina, you never know who you're going to come across, whether the driver you have coming from the opposite side is under drugs or has been drinking.

Well, so as I said, we got to Paris and then we went to sleep. We didn't sleep for very long, but sometimes to be able to run fast, you need to have slept.

Q. Can you tell us when you lost, when you went to Barcelona, when you came back, and what you did until you received the call?
MARCO TRUNGELLITI: Well, the answer is I lost Thursday afternoon. The next day I didn't do anything. We had to get the prize money and take a few things from here.

And then I left on Friday night. Flights are already delayed because of strikes. I got to the -- I got to where I was staying at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. The next day we had a barbecue, which is something very important for us.

Then Sunday we were going to have a restful day, and we were going to go to the beach, but that was it. We went to Paris.

Q. How did you feel on the court? You lost the second set, and then what happened?
MARCO TRUNGELLITI: Well, clearly my opponent was not a player on clay. He's more used to a hard surface, because he's a fast player.

And although he's a very talented player at a fairly high level, he wasn't at his best. Obviously you can try and exploit the faults when you see them.

I don't know whether he felt well, but I felt very well, and that was the most important. I was really relaxed, and that's it.

Q. Some more details? You drove for ten hours? Were you listening to music? What music were you listening to?
MARCO TRUNGELLITI: My brother was the one who drove most out of the ten hours. He drove maybe six hours. I drove four hours with lots of different music. Sometimes without music. With the Bluetooth, you know, we used Bluetooth. We have a type of music which is very typical of folk music from my city. We listened to that, as well. But very quietly. There was no reason to be stressed.

Q. What about the tiredness, sleeping five hours, traveling, et cetera? Are you tired, or do you still have the adrenaline from the match? Or do you need a day and a half to sleep?
MARCO TRUNGELLITI: Well, I wish I could sleep for a day and a half. There was not so much adrenaline, because, you know, if you have too much pressure or if you think about the situation too much, it gets worse.

Okay, it's true that I was tired, so the last thing I needed was to think about the party. I tried to take the match as a normal match in a normal situation, and that's it. And it went well.

Q. It's the third year that you have something special happening to you in Roland Garros. Well, what is going to happen next?
MARCO TRUNGELLITI: Well, the next thing would be for me to win on Wednesday, would be great, especially mentally for more than any other reasons. It's true that it doesn't happen every day playing a second round in a Grand Slam. But I know that he's one of the best players in the world; so it's going to be rather complex.

But I will take the match quietly.

Q. We saw you rather relaxed on the court and on the other side. Your opponent was surprised by your strokes along the line. Do you think you played a better level or did you play at the same level?
MARCO TRUNGELLITI: I believe that I played better today, because my opponent demanded such a game. But more than the tennis level, I was more regular than in my previous match.

Previously, there were moments when I played well, and other moments when I couldn't give the best I had. But during the match, I don't know, I was leading 2-0, and I don't know what happened. I was almost asleep. And this is how I lost the match.

But this match was much more uniform, if you want, less ups and downs. I had better serves than I'm used to, because very often I'm sort of distracted.

Q. Coming back to your grandmother, during the match, she looked rather stressed. How is she now? Will she be quiet? What are you going to do? Is she going to visit France?
MARCO TRUNGELLITI: Well, she was already in Paris about 20 years ago. She already knows the city. And the nerves is due to the fact that she never goes to the matches, so she never sees our matches.

She believes in God very strongly, so she always puts candles to all the saints, and it's very rare that she would be on the court.

I hope she's okay. Well, I wouldn't want her to die of stress.

Q. It was a bit of a surprise. You were on the social network through your wife. Did you think at any point, no, traveling again, going back? What about other players? Do you think they would have reacted the same way?
MARCO TRUNGELLITI: Yes. I think it's an opportunity that you don't get very often. To be an alternate and then be the Lucky Loser is not something that happens very often. I could very well have come and there had been no retirement and I wouldn't have played.

But these tournaments deserve you to be ready, deserve for you to be ready.

Q. Are you aware of the fact that today you're sort of the main figure of the tournament?
MARCO TRUNGELLITI: Well, I don't know. I never had a press conference with so many people. Not even when I played against Cilic two years ago.

But as I'm not on the social networks, you know, I'm not always aware of what people are saying, and I just know about it through my wife. And that's it. Otherwise I'm not aware of things.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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