ROLEX MONTE-CARLO MASTERS

April 13, 2021

Jeremy Chardy

Press Conference

J. CHARDY/A. Bublik

6-4, 0-6, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Questions in French, please.

Q. It's the first time you've won a match after losing a set 6-Love. It never happened to you before.

JEREMY CHARDY: I didn't know that. You have to start somewhere. It's something new. 6-Love doesn't happen to me that often. I don't lose my serve so many times.

But the main thing is I won the match.

Q. 6-Love, was it because of the opponent or was it difficult for you to come back after yesterday or what?

JEREMY CHARDY: I was the first game to win the set, but the conditions were very different from yesterday. I didn't start well. I was not into the match. I made many mistakes. I was missing a lot. And he played very well.

The games went by one after the other. Fortunately I was able to break back at 6-2, 2-Love, otherwise it would have been more difficult.

Q. This match was a strange match because there were very different things, with many ups and downs, like a roller coaster. It was strange.

JEREMY CHARDY: It was not a great match, I agree. As you said, there were moments when I played well, and others where I didn't play well. It was sometimes a mix of both.

It's never easy to play your first match on clay, especially over two days with different conditions. I was not very focused on what I was feeling. I was trying to think tactically. I know it's not the best match of my career, but I just wanted to find a solution to win it.

The main thing is that I won in the end. I didn't really feel good with my tennis. It's not the best match of the season. But I'm still in the tournament. I won the match. So this will help me feel better and better and keep winning, I hope.

Q. Since the beginning of the season, you've been very confident. Is it going to help you for this clay court season?

JEREMY CHARDY: Yes, it's always easier when you are confident and you win matches. In the beginning of the year I was confident. For a match like today, it was very good to be confident. It helped me a lot. When you are confident, you can remain calm and are more lucid about what you have to do. It's going to help me for this clay court season. I like playing on clay. I'm here with a lot of confidence. I hope it will help me play good matches and good tournaments.

Q. How can you explain the first part of the season? You had good results, semifinals, finals. You built up your confidence a lot. How can you explain that? It's the beginning of your career, beginning of the season for your career.

JEREMY CHARDY: I think I had good preparations. This gave me a lot of confidence in my game and in my mind. I was feeling good physically, too. Last year I ended my season early, and I started my preparations early, too. So I really tried to practice full on, and I'm happy now that I have the result of that. Sometimes you do your best and you don't have any results. But now I'm lucky because I'm feeling well, I'm winning matches. I hope it's going to continue that way. I hope I will be able to play as I've been playing for the rest of the season.

Q. Did you react to the announcement of Medvedev being positive? It was a shock, I guess. Are you afraid to be a contact case? How do the players react to that? We know Daniil practiced with Rafa.

JEREMY CHARDY: No, there's no psychosis in the locker room. This week it's Daniil who came out positive. It's bad for him, unlucky. But given the number of people at the tournament who play at the start, if there's only one positive person over how many other people, I don't know, tested, it's not much.

We know COVID is there. Some people can become positive. There's no reason for alarm. It's only one person. You should ask the organizers how many people are tested.

I know the percentage of positive is very low. I think everyone is doing his own thing. Every week there might be people positive. The contact cases, I don't even understand how it works. You need to ask the ATP or the tournament director how it works.