ROLEX MONTE-CARLO MASTERS

April 11, 2022

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Press Conference

M. CILIC/J. Tsonga

6-2, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions in French.

Q. What is the first feeling you have after this match? You said it was your last Monte-Carlo, your last Masters 1000 in your career. The conditions were not ideal for you. What is your first reaction?

JO-WILFRIED TSONGA: The very first reaction is disappointment, because after everything I did the past month and the past weeks made me feel right now a lot better than before, and I lost that match.

Maybe I have been on the tour for too long, but I do have some experience. Today my opponent was extremely strong. I'm disappointed, having played such a difficult opponent and disappointed that I was not able to fight for my chances. And I'm sad because it was my last Monte-Carlo.

I would have preferred a different ending of course, but, well, I'm also very grateful to the tournament for having given me this wildcard and allowing me to experience all those emotions today.

So many feelings are being mixed. It's not always easy, but that's it.

Q. It was your last Masters 1000. You had success in those tournaments. You won Bercy and Toronto. You beat Djokovic and Dimitrov, or Murray and Federer. What is your best victory, Bercy or Toronto?

JO-WILFRIED TSONGA: Bercy.

Q. Why?

JO-WILFRIED TSONGA: Because it was all new. It was the first time and Bercy was in France. I had all my childhood friends with me, the family, all my coaches since I was very young, and by very young, I mean seven years old. Everything came together, and so I was a newcomer in those Masters 1000. Everything was extraordinary.

But of course from the game point of view, Toronto was great because I beat Djokovic, Federer. This is what people asked from me every week and I couldn't do. Beating them one after the other was very complicated, and that week I was able to do that after a difficult period I went through with my team, with Thiery, with Michele, with my brother, with friends. We had set a mission for all of us to win again, so it was also great.

Bercy is taking a lot of room, but of course Toronto humanly also was an exceptional adventure. Often you see what happens during the tournament week, but there's all you have been doing before that, and that counts a lot for me. The result is one thing, but the pathway to the result is also very important.

All these things go very quickly. In the end, it's great to say you won this or that, but the most important thing is to have plenty of fabulous memories and having experienced those very human moments.

Q. Tonight it was cold. There were not many people left, because the last train had gone for Nice. You said yesterday that you didn't want to know about the scheduling, but it is important. Do you think about it? Don't you want to have a good exposure?

JO-WILFRIED TSONGA: Well, people know that I play well when it's warm and the ball bounces high. I'm not the only one. All this is part of our job. We need to adapt.

If I had played a player that would have been disturbed by these conditions, it would have been good for me. Today it was the other way around. He was not bothered, and I was more. This is part of tennis. All these things that sometimes you can consider as unfair I now consider as being part of my job.

Q. So until the French Open, this is one that you can say is done. So day after day, things go past and you only have three left. How do you move forward?

JO-WILFRIED TSONGA: I want to really keep my same routine and do exactly what I do usually. I want to prepare my tournaments. I want to be competitive.

This week is the week I felt the best, but still, there were -- because before there were difficult times, I was working a lot but I had a little pain here, a little pain there. Here I was feeling good, and it's the tournament where I made the worst result against the least-ranked player and scoring the least numbers of games.

I am a player who needs to prepare. I need to practice. I need to feel strong physically. So I'm going to continue what I know how to do, and I will continue with my schedule until the end. I hope at some stage I will be more lucky, because I want to finish it on a high note.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. First of all, congrats on your fantastic career. I'd like to ask you, what are you feeling like after this match? Because I think that the love you received from the crowd can be something you should be proud of.

JO-WILFRIED TSONGA: Yeah, of course. The way the crowd welcomed me all over the world since the start of my career, it's just amazing for me. I mean, I didn't expect something like this, you know.

I didn't know it's going to be all my career, you know. Sometimes you come on the tour, you're fresh, you give a new face, but in fact it was not maybe only my face, only my game, it was maybe even more.

Of course I'm proud of it, and I'm very grateful. I'm very grateful. Yeah, very grateful.

Q. Is there any goal you would like to accomplish in these final tournaments that you are going to play?

JO-WILFRIED TSONGA: Yes, of course. I wish I will be able to win matches and be able to taste the victory again.

Yeah, I will see. We'll see. But I'm feeling better and better every day, and hope in the next few weeks it's going to be realistic, real.