VOLVO MONTE-CARLO OPEN

April 18, 1994

Cedric Pioline

CEDRIC PIOLINE: I think -- I don't know. I would like to know, but I think I played too short with the coming to the net, so I have a lot of pressure and I think that is the reason.

CEDRIC PIOLINE: No.

CEDRIC PIOLINE: Well, in the beginning I started very slow into that match and I was not hitting well, the ball, and he was taking his chances. He was hitting the ball very early and he was going up to the net with a lot of success and after I was well into the match, quite well, but although I was not doing everything I wanted to do, and after I decomposed myself, I was not able to start playing better again and it was difficult to come back in those conditions and this is why I lost the match.

CEDRIC PIOLINE: I was talking about pressure because he was going up to the net and this pressured me because I had to make the passing shot. When you are not playing very well, it is very difficult.

CEDRIC PIOLINE: It is always difficult to play first round for everybody. For me, today, things didn't turn out well. But I am going to keep on training and I hope for the next tournaments things will turn out better.

CEDRIC PIOLINE: Well, not much. I started playing ten days ago. I started training again, but some of those days, there was rain, so in fact, it is a bit less than that.

CEDRIC PIOLINE: Not really because I played well on every surface, so I played very good last year here and I played Munchen very good, so I don't think I play a lot better on hard court or indoor.

CEDRIC PIOLINE: Well, while you are playing the match, you don't think about those things. There are more urgent things to do and winning points or losing points is our daily need in this sport anyway and I don't consider myself as a young player anymore so I got used to this idea. In fact, I had many points to fight for this week and I will have many points next week too, but afterwards not so many. In fact, the ideal things is to win as well as last year where you have points and also to win better points where you didn't win them last year. But during the match, you don't think about all that.

CEDRIC PIOLINE: No, I think the most difficult thing is the concentration and the mental aspect. In fact, today I was able to dominate many times and in the end I am not the one who won the match. So the important thing is to negotiate those important moments and also the moments right after that to be able to conclude on the advantages we can take, so I was able to have some advantages but they were not decisive, so it is more the mental aspect.

CEDRIC PIOLINE: No, it is a matter of being a bit apprehensive of what will happen and of not being sure of oneself. When you don't go through those moments several times before, you can't manage them well. The idea would be to take the initiative, but very often it is the contrary that happens and then the opponent takes the initiatives and ends up winning the points. So you must go through those moments several times before to be able to manage them well.

CEDRIC PIOLINE: Well, always the same. Munich, and then one week after then Rome; then Dusseldorf; then Paris.

CEDRIC PIOLINE: In fact I wanted to play a lot. So it is very good because I didn't play many matches lately, so I will be able to play every week afterwards. I will do a lot of training and hopefully I will play matches and sometime the other things are going to start going well. In fact it is a matter of training. At one stage, you start feeling exactly what you do; whereas the minute before, you couldn't feel it properly. And I am looking after this sensation now.