ROLAND GARROS

May 22, 2022

Borna Coric

Press Conference

B. CORIC/C. Taberner

3-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: First meeting with Taberner, how did you feel out there today?

BORNA CORIC: I mean obviously it was a really tough match for me as I never played him. I saw him playing couple of times, but I've actually also never trained with him my whole life, so it was very interesting.

Obviously in the first set I thought on the game on the 1-All I was, I think I was 30-Love up and I played a very, very poor game and since then in the first set I just couldn't find my rhythm.

In the second set I was a little bit lucky maybe to break him in the first game and I would say since then I kind of changed all the momentum of the match. I started to play better, I also started to serve better as well, which was a huge important thing for me and in the end I was very happy with my performance.

Q. Can we go big picture a little bit and look and talk about your struggles to get back on form, how good does it feel to get the first win at a slam since your surgery, since your comeback started?

BORNA CORIC: Yeah, absolutely it does feel great. Like I said, I also didn't know what to expect in terms of my shoulder because I've never been in the fourth set, in the fifth set since one and a half year now.

So it was also kind of worrying for me, I didn't know what to expect, I didn't know how I'm going to feel, how my whole body is maybe going to behave in those later sets. Obviously I've been practicing it, but it's really never the same.

So I was a little bit worried about that but obviously at the same time just really, really happy to be back on the court playing I would say almost pain-free, not completely all the time pain-free, but I'm already kind of used to it as well. So that's okay and, yeah, it does mean a lot to me. Obviously last few weeks hasn't been very easy, I lost many tight matches. I mean, I was also quite happy with my tennis, but I was just losing. So that's never good, so, yeah, it does mean a lot to me, yeah.

Q. How do you think you, how do you feel now and how do you think you'll feel tomorrow? Do you think this was a unique test for the shoulder today?

BORNA CORIC: For sure. I mean, like I said, I never played a fourth set, I haven't played a fourth set since the surgery. In the practice I think I did it once, but again it's not the same because there's not the same intensity.

So definitely I need to see how I'm going to feel tomorrow, how the shoulder's going to feel tomorrow and the whole body. But I'm also quite confident it's going to be pretty well as well.

Q. Can you tell me about the people that helped you through, because I understand it was a difficult time for you in terms of you thought you would be able to play at the US Open last year and by that time you weren't even ready to pick up the racquet yet. So can you talk a little bit about what it was like and maybe about your relationship with Yiani?

BORNA CORIC: Yeah, I've been working with him for the last two and a half years now or almost three years and, yeah, I mean my shoulder and my surgery, it was really crazy story. I still don't know what happened, I mean, I do know, but maybe not exactly and why the doctor said I'm going to be ready pretty much after four months and after three and a half months I wasn't able to, I was still not playing tennis, not even close, actually.

So it was also a little bit worrying, it was not easy, but like I said, then after four months I did really some things and I maybe change my approach a little bit more to the kind of on the physio stuff, so I was not really looking for any medications or, you know, some other surgery or something special, I was really focusing on the work and I was putting a lot of work in my shoulder, two to three hours per day, and I think that's basically what kind of got me through, I think.

I think if I was looking for something special, you know, whatever there is, I don't think that will help. So it was obviously very tough, a very tough situation, but I think I'm, I think it's almost in the past now, so that's good.

Q. Who were you able to lean on emotionally at these times maybe you doubted a little bit that you would ever be the same. Were there some people that helped you through especially?

BORNA CORIC: My physio, Yiani, also is Lyn Watson, she was the one also who was in charge of my shoulder she's the woman from the Melbourne, she's one of the best for the shoulder, especially after the surgery.

So I was speaking to her a lot. I went earlier to, I went to Melbourne on end of November, just to work with her as well. So, yeah, those two guys. Then I always spoke to them and I was just trying to find how I can be better and what we can do better, because obviously my situation was not very good, it was not what I was hoping for after the surgery.

Because, like I said, in my mind and in my doctor's mind, I mean it was not me who said I'm going to play US Open, it was the doctor who said.

So, yeah, I mean obviously they really helped me a lot. They stayed when it was really tough. Obviously because also they didn't know what was happening exactly and why is it taking me so long to come back. But we all stayed strong on our small team and, yeah, I did it.

Q. As you look forward is it more about just being healthy and passing these tests physically or are you focused on how far you can go with this tournament or is it all kind of as we like to say, gravy right now?

BORNA CORIC: I would say it's a bit of both. I mean obviously my health does comes first at this stage of my career. You know, I've been out for one year, which is never easy. So I said, until after Wimbledon, I said, you know, my health needs to come first and after Wimbledon I can kind of try to switch in my mind to just I can start playing more and more tournaments, I can train more and I can focus more on the tennis rather than on my shoulder.

I think I kind of did it as well, I went more to the tennis, I've been practicing last few weeks a lot, I mean I don't think I've ever practiced this much like in the last couple of weeks. So I think already the focus did change a little bit back to the tennis, which is obviously very good, very important, but at the same time, you know, with my shoulder, with my injury, I can never just say, okay, that's good, I don't need to think about my shoulder. I need to do every day what I need to do for my shoulder and then it's going to be fine.

If I don't do it, most likely it won't be fine, so, you know, it's just managing those two things.