ROLAND GARROS

May 25, 2022

Gregoire Barrere

Press Conference

J. ISNER/G. Barrere

6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Can you tell us a word about this difficult battle against John Isner? It was complicated shots and reactions and you could have believe in it in the last set?

GREGOIRE BARRERE: Yes. He's really good. It was a lot of rhythm and I had quite a few breaks, but I made direct faults and it's the danger with players like that when you're on your service and they put pressure on you. So that's why I lost the first two sets.

Then I tried to refocus, to stay cool, and I managed to make a few points, but no more, and that was the way it is.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in French.

Q. You said two days ago that you didn't think you would go all that far and that it was already a feat. What do you think about this tournament?

GREGOIRE BARRERE: Well, I'm not disappointed at all after this match. Well, of course you're disappointed after a defeat. But if I think back where I was awhile ago I never thought I'd get that far.

So I had a great match and with a great atmosphere. In the first round it was really positive and now, okay, I lost, but I did hold for the sets, five sets, and now the summer is arriving and I will do my best to get up in the ranking.

Q. Talking about the match against John Isner, there's a lot of frustration in a match like this. Can you find some keys for such matches? Because, for example, at the end he got in an ace. What can you do against that?

GREGOIRE BARRERE: Well, I should have fought better on his service and to return his first serve and maybe get at least to tiebreak. Sometimes it was just impossible.

Then afterwards I got the impression I was returning better and after the second, third, obviously there's some frustration, but it's his game. Everyone has their own style of game and it's perfectly normal that he should perform like this.

Well, I wish I had had more rallies, but it's probably my fault for not anticipating when the ball was coming.

Q. You were on the Simonne Mathieu court yesterday. It was on fire. Can you tell us about this court?

GREGOIRE BARRERE: Yes. It's a beautiful court with some echo, some resonance, it's slightly underground and I had played on it the other day and you can feel that the public is quite close to you.

It was full this morning. I really enjoyed being on this court and it's a beautiful one and you can feel it can be like a boiling pot, so to say. I saw the end of Gilles game yesterday, and then I was able to review his game today and it's really a plus.

Q. One word about the future. You were saying you felt good?

GREGOIRE BARRERE: Yes, I feel good. I'm going to stay on clay. I used to go to grass. Right after Roland Garros I will try to continue with clay. I have one tournament in Poland and two in France. I didn't think I would play the week before Wimbledon and I would go to London to play on grass, well, no, I'll play a Challenger in France to try and get as many points as possible. I played so badly last year that I haven't got much to defend there.