ROLEX PARIS MASTERS

November 3, 2021

Adrian Mannarino

Press Conference

G. MONFILS/A. Mannarino

2-6, 7-6, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions in French.

Q. I would like to have your opinion on the match. It seemed that Gael hurt himself.

ADRIAN MANNARINO: Well, he went out of court at the beginning of the match. He didn't have a lot of incident on the rest of the match. He was slightly affected, but it disappeared afterwards.

He had great footwork afterwards. He ran very fast afterwards. It's always a very tough match, because he's capable of doing the best and the worst. We never know what to expect.

Very often he showcases the best skills, actually. It's a pity that I didn't manage to win this match.

Q. How about the Davis Cup? Are you looking forward to it? Are you a bit tensed?

ADRIAN MANNARINO: I would gladly be selected. There are a lot of French players who want to give everything to be selected. My season was difficult. I have managed to play well these last four, five tournaments, and to forget about the rest and play well.

I know that I play good tennis right now. I try to do my job and to show that I am a good tennis player. Then it will be up to the captain to choose the team members, depending upon the results shown during this tournament.

This is an important objective for me, and I would love to be selected.

Q. It was a very tough match, and it was close because the decider was at the tiebreak.

ADRIAN MANNARINO: There was a double fault at 6-4. Had I won this point, he would have had his serve, so I don't think that the decider was there. There are a few regrets. At 0-30, at 5-All, I could have turned the match in my favor, but he managed to have great strokes. He had a great volley, well-angled, and then there was a backhand down the line.

I didn't have a lot of regrets at that point. Then during the tiebreak, at 5-4 I made a mistake. There were nine good points from him, and I didn't manage to stand out. He served very well. Unfortunately I had a fault at 5-4, and then everything went fast.

He played very well. He put a lot of pressure on my shoulders with his level of play. Gael is a great player. It's never easy to play Gael, especially in Paris.

Q. I'm going back to the Davis Cup. You had told us some time ago, that what happened in Chambery was one of your best three memories. The fact that the Davis Cup has changed its format, would it be the same for you to play for the Davis Cup now? Do you still want to do it so much? What is your feeling about it?

ADRIAN MANNARINO: No matter which format we play in, it's an incredible competition. We can live incredible moments, moments that we do not live, we do not feel throughout the year. I can't remember if it was Chambery or elsewhere. When I played against the Dutch, the emotions were incredible. I played with my buddies, and I was actually defending my country.

Whichever format it is, I don't care. I would like to go through such wonderful moments again, but I'm not the one who decides.

Q. You have played Gael several times. We know that Gael's coach tried to do new things. Do you think that he's playing better? What do you think about this?

ADRIAN MANNARINO: Not necessarily. We practice very often before we have tournaments. Every time we are in the same tournaments, we practice together. I do not have the feeling that there is a new player in front of me or that his game playing is different. It's Gael. This is what is so hard, because we know each other so well. That's an added difficulty.

I don't know if the fact that he knows that I know him inside out makes it more difficult, but I know his qualities. His footwork is incredible. He hits the ball in a way that no one else can. He takes a lot of risks, and this is why I need to take more risks, because otherwise I know that the ball will come back. So this is why I tend to make errors.

But I do not feel that this player plays in a different way. He's the one I'm used to, actually.