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EUTELSAT MONTE CARLO OPENApril 27, 1996Cedric PiolineMONTE CARLO, MONACO Q. What feeling is dominant now? Is it the disappointment to have lost the semifinal or is it the positive result of the week? CEDRIC PIOLINE: Both. No feeling is dominant, it's 50/50. I am satisfied to have been in semifinals for a first tournament on clay, and I'm happy that I beat good players, and also I'm disappointed that I lost today. Q. Yesterday you said that meeting Muster helped you to evaluate your game at the upper level. What do you draw from this evaluation? CEDRIC PIOLINE: That he is at a higher level. He is very solid. I have improvements to make if I want to bother him more. For the time being, I'm not talking about beating him. Q. In both sets you were able to break him, and then after you lost. What happened? CEDRIC PIOLINE: He's very solid. Maybe I did more brilliant things than he did, but on the whole match, I am not at the higher level, and he is more like a steam roller. What he's doing is a long-term work during the match. He undermined you. Q. Do you believe that you had to pay for yesterday's late match? CEDRIC PIOLINE: I wasn't lucky since the beginning of the week for all my matches. For example, Muster had only one rain delay yesterday, whereas I had rain delays during my first match, my third match and my fourth match. This is the way it happened. It's up to me to adapt, but all this accumulated. Q. Muster said that you were playing very aggressive in the beginning and that he forced you to change tactics by playing higher balls and by playing more topspin. CEDRIC PIOLINE: It's true that he slowed down the game. Yes, he really played well. Q. Physically you were suffering as of the first set or you had no physical problems? CEDRIC PIOLINE: I had a little general tiredness, plus a tiredness due to what he was imposing on me during the game. Q. During the second set, you tried to do things differently with softer rallies? CEDRIC PIOLINE: When I saw that my first tactic wasn't working, that he was changing his own tactics, I also tried to change. It worked for a couple of games, and after I wasn't strong enough to hold out for a long time. Q. What were you thinking when you realized you were not strong enough and that he might change his tactics two or three times? CEDRIC PIOLINE: It started to become worrisome. We see the way to the locker rooms coming up. When you try different things and it doesn't work, it means the opponent is stronger than you are. Q. Is it frustrating, difficult? CEDRIC PIOLINE: It's frustrating and at the same time it shows that there are things you can improve upon. Q. Until the French Open, are you going to take one tournament after the other as they come or do you have the French Open as the main objective? Are you going to do specific preparations for that tournament? CEDRIC PIOLINE: I'm playing Hamburg and Rome, which are the same level as here before the French Open, which is a Grand Slam tournament. For the time being, I think I believe I have to play those tournaments. When the French Open will come, I will enter into it completely. For the time being, I'm thinking about Hamburg and Rome. Q. You play always with the same rhythm. You are not going to stop for a specific preparation, from a physical point of view? CEDRIC PIOLINE: The French Open is in one month from now. I have two weeks off and two tournaments. It's not one month before that you prepare for a tournament; the tournament is prepared for since a long time. Q. Do you believe your physical condition with the work you've been doing, that it will be enough before the French Open to play against a physical monument like Muster in five-setters in the French Open? CEDRIC PIOLINE: It's a different tournament from a tournament like this one. First of all, it lasts two weeks, and you play only one day out of two. It's true that it's best of five, but between one match and the other, you almost have two days. You have two nights and almost two days, so it's very, very different. Maybe I can improve with a small percentage my fitness before the French Open, but I'm not going to double what I am today. Q. What is most bothersome against Muster? Is it his coverage of the court or the weight he puts into his shots? CEDRIC PIOLINE: What is difficult is that the ball comes back all the time, and he has very few concentration lapses, so you have to make the game yourself all the time. It's tiring in the long-term. Q. Compared with other matches you played against him before, do you believe he improved enormously or not? CEDRIC PIOLINE: Yes, he improved a lot. He is much more aware of his game. He controls the whole game, and physically he's very, very strong. Q. Wouldn't you have preferred to play him in quarters or eighths of finals when you played Medvedev? CEDRIC PIOLINE: When you start making assumptions ..... Q. You were fresher and maybe he was not yet into the tournament completely? CEDRIC PIOLINE: The question is to know whether it's interesting to beat Muster once or whether it is interesting to go to the semifinals or the finals. Q. For example, between the match against Medvedev, which was a great match where you were playing well and he was playing well also, and this match, there is a great difference? CEDRIC PIOLINE: The conditions are completely different. If one of them is No. 1 or 2 and the other one is 15, it means that there is automatically a difference. Q. The psychological approach to the match, how was it? The fact that he is No. 1 or 2, that he won everything on clay, does it play a role for you? CEDRIC PIOLINE: It's his game. What counts is what he's doing on the court. I believe that I am beyond that stage where I am impressed by those types of things. Q. Sometimes we saw you rallying a long time with him and we thought it was not exactly what has to be done against Muster. Was it because you didn't have the choice and you couldn't do otherwise or because you were tired or because he was imposing it on you? CEDRIC PIOLINE: Yes, he's imposing this on you; it's his game. When I started playing fast in the first set, he counterattacked, I changed my tactics. Q. (Inaudible). CEDRIC PIOLINE: Yes, it's not always a sign of protection. It's better to be a top-seeded player in the French Open than not to be. It means that you have good results behind you. It protects you a bit more. I believe that I will not be very far from being a seeded player in the French. I will try to do what I have to do during the two remaining tournaments to reach that rank. Q. Were you resigned to lose in this match earlier than scheduled? CEDRIC PIOLINE: No. Q. In the beginning you said that the chances were 50/50. When you came out, you really looked disappointed. Is it a great disappointment today for you? CEDRIC PIOLINE: I am disappointed that I lost. I thought I could do a bit better. But this is the way it happened. The only thing I can think of is that I have to improve to give him trouble. Q. You were able to find out your limits. Did you know it would be that way? CEDRIC PIOLINE: No. He showed a certain number of things. End of FastScripts.... |
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