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ROLEX PARIS MASTERS

October 29, 2018

Adrian Mannarino

Paris, France

A. MANNARINO/U. Humbert

6-4, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions in French, please.

Q. This match was quite tight against such a French player. You said on the mic what was important was to strike right at the beginning, didn't you?
ADRIAN MANNARINO: I had never trained with him before. So I just watched him on videos, some extracts of his match on video. I know he has nothing to lose. I know he has some confidence.

I tried to give him as less rhythm as possible so that he couldn't get into the match, so that he couldn't get some confidence. I tried to shorten the rallies as much as I could.

And on top of it, I felt quite good today. So it worked out well. Even on the serve, I served well. So the tactic worked out well in the end.

Q. It seems that the Davis Cup selection is quite open. Is it also your feeling, can the French have the upper hand in the end?
ADRIAN MANNARINO: Well, there's a French player who plays well here who will certainly be confident here. There's a lot of good players in France. And honestly, I'm not asking myself any questions. I'm far from being the favorite because it's on clay.

So I don't think about it yet. I will just focus on trying to play as well as I can for now, and we will see for the future.

Q. In Shanghai your confidence level was not very high. The Moscow final certainly boosted you somehow. So how do you feel in terms of your choices? Do you feel better mentally speaking?
ADRIAN MANNARINO: Well, yes. There was good momentum in Moscow and then it went down afterwards. But winning a few matches is always good, you know.

Then I have to change my approach for 2019. During the postseason I'll try to do everything I can to change my game, to do some changes. I have a few weeks ahead to think about it.

For now, I will just try to enjoy my last tournament of the year. And of course, winning a few matches in Russia was actually helped me feel better, more confident today. We'll see how it goes.

Q. What about your next opponent? You're playing against Nishikori. He's quite in shape right now. Do you like playing against him or is it hard?
ADRIAN MANNARINO: He's a great player. There will be a lot of rallies. He plays very fast. He doesn't serve like Isner or Anderson. There will be some rallies. Even if on the paper he's stronger than me, I will take pleasure in playing against him because it's always frustrating when you play against great server because you can't have rallies. This will be the opposite.

I never played against Nishikori. It will be a first. So in a way I know what to expect, but it will still be new on the court.

It's always good and better to play when you have played a match one day before. So it will be an advantage for me against Nishikori, who hasn't played yet. But I think his type of game should suit me in general.

Q. [In English.] So you meet Nishikori in next round. What are your impressions or what are your expectations for that?
ADRIAN MANNARINO: [In English.] It was the first time I'm playing against him so I don't really know. But only thing I know is that he's playing really well at the moment. He just played a final in Vienna. So I'm expecting to have good match. It's the kind of game that I appreciate. I think I'll play a good match and we'll see how he's doing. Hopefully he's not playing such a good match.

But, you know, I already played one match here. So I think it's a good thing for me and he's going to be first match here so I'm going to try to use everything. It's going to be a cool match anyway.

THE MODERATOR: Last one in French.

Q. If you're selected for the Davis Cup, do you think that you will have blue clothes with a skull? Is that official?
ADRIAN MANNARINO: If I play the final, yes. They will make sure that I have all the apparel. But Guillaume is dealing with this, and I'm sure he's already very well organized and he's already organized everything.

Q. Is it meant to frighten the Croatians?
ADRIAN MANNARINO: Certainly. (Laughter.)

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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