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ROLAND GARROS

May 26, 2019

David Goffin

Paris, France

D. GOFFIN/R. Berankis

6-0, 6-2, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions in French.

Q. You must be very satisfied with the result and the win, which you want?
DAVID GOFFIN: Yes, everything was good there today. It was a good match from beginning to end. It was consistent. I served very well today, and it enabled me to be very aggressive on his serve. He was making my service easy, so I fought all the points. Everywhere I was able to be aggressive and to build the game.

Q. Well done for this match. A great match on a new court. You were talking about the sound. I guess you had never noticed it. How was it?
DAVID GOFFIN: Well, it was a great court. The clay is great, as good as the others. It's never easy to build the clay court from scratch, while we have been playing on the others for years, and there they had to start from scratch. They did a beautiful job as far as the court is concerned, the surface. And the architecture is great with part of the court underground. You hear the ball very well, and it's very pleasant to play on this court.

Q. In fact, I was surprised that you didn't train on it before. You didn't have any warmup on it? Is that not a risk?
DAVID GOFFIN: No, I have no problem with that. I just asked if the court was good, and I was told it was great and that everything was the same as the others.

I didn't warm up. I preferred to come a bit later rather than coming very early and having to wait. I'm very happy, because, first of all, it went well, and secondly, the match before mine was very long, and I'm glad I didn't have that, and I didn't have to stay for hours apart from the hours I had to wait.

Q. You have been saying for a while that you train well. For you, it must be great to be able to show it in a real match and to say, Well, I'm not just saying it to fool you.
DAVID GOFFIN: Well, yes, I knew I was training well. I knew that progressively I could show it. I'm very happy. I trained very well for the past week here in Paris since I arrived, and I'm very happy I was able to prove it. It's obviously much more important to show it in a match, because training, in a way, doesn't count. You have to be able to reproduce this in a match, and this is what I did today. I'm happy. It was a good start, and it was a great match, nice intensity, ideal start.

Q. You varied a lot. There were a lot of dropshots. You also played the net. Had you planned on that, or is it with trust as time goes? And particularly, the first set point?
DAVID GOFFIN: Yes, when you feel that you're doing well on the court, you can be aggressive. You're becoming more and more creative. You're liberating yourself really, and there were more and more solutions as I was releasing my shots better, and it was an active shot that paid off.

He's more used to playing on quick soil, and he has more problem moving on clay.

Q. Now you have two days to rest. Does it not bother you in a way? Don't you feel like you would like to continue with the pace? Two days of rest can be a good thing, but it can also be a bad thing.
DAVID GOFFIN: Well, now we are at the beginning of the tournament, so it's not really a problem. It's more when you have one fight after another. When you have two days to rest you don't know whether you're not going to disconnect with the tournament, because the body reacts differently when you're tired and you have two days to stop and you have to start again and you feel you're fatigued.

But now I'm not tired, so I can train. I can manage the training properly and be whatever is necessary to play on Wednesday.

Q. Your opponents are playing tomorrow. Can you tell us a little bit? Do you know them?
DAVID GOFFIN: Well, I'm going to watch a little bit what they are doing. I don't know what's going to happen. The two players are better on hard surface, but the young Serbian player, Kecmanovic is rising progressively. He was a junior player. But he's serving well. He hits well. He was qualified in Melbourne. He plays well on a hard surface. I haven't seen how he moves around the clay court, how he uses the court. So that's one thing.

And then Kudla is a pure American cement player, but he can be a very solid player, as well. From the baseline, he's very good. He can serve well. He plays flat. He's solid on both sides.

So in both cases, I'll have to play well tactically so that he doesn't feel at ease on the clay court.

Q. What kind of confidence can you get from this past match?
DAVID GOFFIN: Well, I don't know. The way in which I played from beginning to the end, I was able to feel this trust. I had a good intensity. In the beginning, I was able to impose my tempo, my base. And then I accelerated when necessary at the beginning of the second and third set to break. And my service also helped me. Everything was there.

Q. We were talking about the dropshot. This is a new weapon you have since you've been working with Thomas?
DAVID GOFFIN: Yes, it's something that works well on clay, provided you use it well at the right time, and you do it in a relaxed way, because if you're tense or use it at a bad time, then it can be the worst shot.

So you have to master it properly, especially when your opponent moves very well from right to left and you have to know that the dropshot is supposed to bring your opponent to the front. But sometimes it can backfire.

Q. Are there any other things that Thomas insisted on? With Thierry, I know they were insisting on your service. Is there anything else he would like you to insist upon?
DAVID GOFFIN: Well, lately, he was helping me to renew with my game level, with my timing, with my aggressiveness, because I had problems there. Sometimes I was playing well, but sometimes I was a bit too tense. So it was very important for him, and we talked a lot with Thomas to see how I could renew with my shots, with the swing and my timing I usually have to be able to put pressure on my opponents.

Now, we worked hard on my serve but it's not always easy. When you have had habits for a long time, it's difficult to change. But we have seen it works.

Q. Have you recently had any news from Thierry? Have you talked about anything? I know you went through more difficult times. Did he give you any advice?
DAVID GOFFIN: No, not recently. I had no news recently. I know he's full into the federal project, so I have no news from him.

Q. The danger of this success that people might be talking about in the locker room, could that be that people put pressure on you again? Are you afraid of that?
DAVID GOFFIN: Well, obviously I'm very happy with this match. I'm going to enjoy my victory today. I have two days to prepare and to train properly, but, well, as I said, I'm going to prepare for the second match in the same way and only focus on the next match that takes place on Wednesday. I don't know my opponent yet, so I can't prepare fully a tactical level, but I'm going to do it the same way. I'm going to prepare match after match, and try to do it as well as possible and play the best match possible.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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