ROLAND GARROS

October 3, 2020

Daniel Altmaier

Press Conference

D. ALTMAIER/M. Berrettini

6-2, 7-6, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I'd like to know how do you explain it? In Italy you lost once to Giustino.

DANIEL ALTMAIER: No, no, no, I beat Giustino, my friend.

Q. Did you lose to Musetti?

DANIEL ALTMAIER: Once, yes.

Q. How do you explain your big explosion, your almost unbelievable results? You haven't lost a set. Why do you speak also Russian?

DANIEL ALTMAIER: So first of all, thanks. Yes, I mean, personally I was always believing I can be here, I can perform good, I can play well and beat those guys. I played now. So for me personally I was working really hard with my team to be in this position, to feel stable, to really, yeah, play well and compete against the top guys of the game.

I always believe in this, so I think that's why, yeah, it's happening at the moment.

Regarding the Russian, I have a Russian background. My dad is Ukrainian and my mom is from Russia. That's why I speak Russian, yes. Basically at home I grew up speaking Russian. All my family basically are Russian.

Q. I heard when a big point you said 'allez' in French. I wanted to know about that.

DANIEL ALTMAIER: 'Allez' is coming a little bit from my idol Stan Wawrinka. When I was watching him, he always say, 'Allez, Stan.' I a little bit copy because I like it to say, 'Allez, Dan.' That's little bit the connection.

I like to, yeah, mix it up, to push myself, to be the best friend with me on the court. That's how sometimes I push myself.

Q. I've read about this on interviews you've given. You've had a hard personal journey to get to this point: repeated injuries, unlucky fall on a hard court, then even last week. Could you talk us through all of that to give us that history. How did you use the hiatus when there was no tennis? You worked using Zoom to make yourself fit and strong?

DANIEL ALTMAIER: Yeah, so basically I am now repeating myself. My injury was, I had a previous shoulder injury, I injured my hip on a hard court once when I fall down. That's basically force me a little bit that I had structure problems of my body, always muscle problems around that area, abdominal, hip area. This was just really not fun.

I was setting myself up with the good team, especially to get fit again. That's basically on my injury side.

Yeah, it's a funny story regarding how I got fit in the quarantine or during corona time. I was working via Zoom with my physical coach from Argentina, his name is Esteban. He is also here with Thiago Monteiro. A group of players. Cuevas is in it also.

We worked 11 weeks basically in a room, every day, five, six times a week. Sometimes he was waking up at 5 a.m. to give me my schedule, push me through my sessions.

Yeah, it meant a lot to me. Yeah, we got paid off by the results I think.

Q. You said your idol is Stan Wawrinka. Was that the thing at the end, your finger pointing to your head, was that Stan?

DANIEL ALTMAIER: Yes.

Q. About the finances, obviously it's been a tough two years of injury for you. How have you coped financially? Still debts to pay off? With this run now, it would have all been paid off, you can think about the future?

DANIEL ALTMAIER: Yeah, first of all, for sure, I mean, you guys know that my idol is Stan Wawrinka already for many years now. Yeah, at the end I had this mentality of trying to win the match. Also when Stan is switching on, it's just a mentality which is changing to win a match. I think this a little bit connect me.

I look up to him. I look up the way he plays tennis. I think I was able to put a great performance on. I'm very thanks-full for him because he help me a lot also through my injuries. Probably he is a huge help why I'm healthy at the moment.

Regarding how I do it financially is I'm very lucky to have a good team behind me already also who are supporting me financially. I had an investor since I'm very young. He always kept believing in me. That's how I basically was able to, yeah, just do my job, to do my tennis.

I have been never really struggling with money because of sponsors. My family background obviously, I think without sponsors, I couldn't be able to play tennis, that's for sure. So I'm really happy to have a stable team behind me back. Also my management is helping me hugely in having a great team and also financially be stable.

Q. Five players at this tournament on the men's and women's side have reached the round of 16, and all those players have never won a match at a Grand Slam before. You've beaten three well-established players. Would you say this is an example of the fact that your generation, younger players, don't have any fear about the established players?

DANIEL ALTMAIER: Yes, for me personally tennis is doing a big change at the moment. I was feeling this already on the challenger tour, even future tour. Literally everyone can beat everyone at the moment. Physically everybody is getting stronger. Tennis-wise players are playing smarter, more disciplined. You can see this by following the last Grand Slams. Especially here in Roland Garros, the tennis really changed after this corona break.

Yeah, I'm happy to be one of them who is showing, let's say, his skills at the moment. Also others are doing fantastic in this. It's just I think very healthy and helping tennis hugely to see new faces, to see tough battles by unknown players.

Q. Through all your difficult times with injuries, did you ever use a sports psychologist or anyone to help you deal with these things?

DANIEL ALTMAIER: I was able to have some life lessons, I would say. It was not specific psychologist, it was just meeting a lot of people. Doesn't matter from the side of tennis, business-wise or other athletes.

I was able through my partnership with Sky, who is supporting me already for four years, seeing the background of this company, meeting Anthony Joshua, who is unbelievable star worldwide, to have the contact to them. David Haye (phonetic), I had really long talks, who is a huge tennis fan. There were a lot of people who I was just able to speak to.

Everyone, yeah, was able to give me some parts or helping me through difficult times. That's how I was really able to also enjoy my setbacks. They are part of the game. That's why I can enjoy probably these moments right here more because I was preparing for this. Also people already were preparing me for this. The right mentality, yeah, is helping hugely to have success in sport or even other businesses, investing money. The mentalities are very similar of success for people.