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ROLAND GARROS

May 31, 2019

Lucas Pouille

Paris, France

M. KLIZAN/L. Pouille

7-6, 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 9-7

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English, please.

Q. Klizan plays best when he thinks the match is lost. Did you get the feeling he played much better in the end when you were winning 5-3 or not?
LUCAS POUILLE: He made a good game at 5-4 with two backhand winners. And I think after that it was a close part of the match. Yeah, maybe he level up his game a little bit.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in French.

Q. How was the recovery? You were able to break back, and then you were broken. What happened in your mind when he came back?
LUCAS POUILLE: Well, I won the set and I broke back. I led 5-3 and what happened is that I was broken back at 5-4.

As I said, he had a beautiful game. He played two winning backhands. Between the restart and the end of the match, it was the only two backhand winners he played.

And then we were 5-All, no tiebreak, and it was one point here or there. And the 7-All I was leading 15-Love, I missed 15-30, and then I miss and I didn't make him play and then it seemed he misses after the serve. But after we came back, it was better than yesterday.

Q. Did you lose this match yesterday or today?
LUCAS POUILLE: I lost it today.

Q. In terms of level, do you have more regrets today or yesterday?
LUCAS POUILLE: The question is a bit weird. Today I'm serving for the match, so I'm not going to say yesterday. When we stop the match yesterday and we resume today, we had finished, we tried to use what we did yesterday to be better today.

Yesterday I had occasions. I had break of concentration in the first. I led 6-2, I was 3-1 in the second set, I lose seven games in a row, and in the end I'm able to come back into the game by playing excellent tennis today and I'm not able to conclude.

So there are regrets for yesterday, but once the match of yesterday is over, I try to think about something else to use what I did yesterday and to focus on today. So most of my regrets are on today.

Q. Can you tell what happened yesterday evening? Was there a debrief? How did you sleep? How did you wake up this morning? How did these 24 hours go by?
LUCAS POUILLE: After the stopping of the match, I was frustrated and angry, because after losing the first I was dominating. I was ahead. I was playing better tennis. And I was led two sets and one break.

The umpire told me the other days we played until 9:45 and he didn't understand that there was a difference of light between cloudy or a sunny day, and if he didn't see the difference in light, he should see someone for eyes. When the Rolex clocks are reflecting and it's the screens that are doing light, it's dark.

So I was a bit angry about that, because when I said, Look at the light, and he shows me the watch, saying, No, it's not time to stop. When he comes on court, he says, You continue. And then two points after he says at the end of the game, Now you can stop, it's not very serious.

But then there was a lot of anger with respect to all that. But this morning I slept very well. I tried to focus back to move on and tried to start a new match.

Q. For us it's quite difficult to understand your season which started very well, a semifinal, and then was a bit more complicated. Do you know what is happening, where you are?
LUCAS POUILLE: Yes, I know at what point I am and not everything is relevant for you, and I know where I am. You just have to go on the Internet, look at the results, and that's it.

The rest, it's my business. It's the business of my team and myself.

Q. When we have identified what is happening, do you have the means or levers to change this trend?
LUCAS POUILLE: Yes, there are levers, but it's not working immediately. Maybe it happened in your life that you had problems, things that were not moving as smoothly as you wanted, or you were able to immediately correct the situation. I don't know. I don't know you. But indeed there are levers.

It's not because you say, I know this, I have identified this, this is going better next week or next tournament you win everything.

Today everyone is playing excellent tennis. All matches are very tight, as we have seen since the beginning of this tournament with a lot of very tight matches. So if you're not excellent, you don't win.

Q. Klizan is a complex opponent because he's capable of the best or worst tennis. When you lack confidence, is it the worst opponents?
LUCAS POUILLE: No, I don't think so. I prefer playing Klizan than Rafa still. But then today I had opportunities. I was in a position to win the match. I led. I was ahead many times between yesterday and today.

So indeed he's capable of being very good. He was excellent at some times. But I was not able to conclude, so it's not really related to him.

Q. AmÃ©lie and Loic are sometimes with you, sometimes they work in turns. Would you not like to have someone fully dedicated? I know it's your decision of operating at the very beginning, but would you not prefer having someone who is always present?
LUCAS POUILLE: If I don't do it it's maybe because I don't want that.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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