THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 3, 2022

David Goffin

Press Conference

D. GOFFIN/F. Tiafoe

7-6, 5-7, 5-7, 6-4, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: David, give us your thoughts on the match today.

DAVID GOFFIN: Yes, it was an amazing match, tough one. 4 hours 36 minutes. It was tough. A little bit tough ups and downs with a tough first set that was very important for me to take. Long one. More than an hour, 7-6.

I take the lead, and then he started to play much better, much better in the second. I think he deserved the second. Because he had the break, too, it was tough. Even if I came back, he was playing better, serving better.

In the third, I think it was my set. I was a break up. I had more opportunity during the set to break and also to take the lead in that set. Again, he played well. He played solid at the end in that set.

Then I started to fight, started to stay in the match. Okay, stay in the match as long as you can mentally and physically and we'll see what he can do. I stayed. I played well. I played better in the fourth, leading 5-1. It was tough to finish that set.

Then a fifth set like this, it's always tough when you played almost four hours already and you have to play a fifth set. It's not easy.

At the end I took my chance. I was aggressive with the return. Very happy to win that one. It was a tough one, very tough one.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. After your injury struggles and maybe the doubts that you had, what does this run mean to you?

DAVID GOFFIN: It means a lot. For me, it's almost like a back-to-back quarterfinal because I didn't play last year. 2020 was closed with the COVID. The last time I played before this year was the quarterfinal against Novak on Centre Court.

I was very excited to come back here because it's very important tournament for me because it's probably my favorite tournament of the year, place that I love, surface that I can play really well. I had some great results on that surface. It means a lot.

Especially, like you said, last year was a tough year for me with some injuries. I stop for four or five months at the end of the year. At the beginning of the year I had to fight and stay positive to come back to my best level. The last few weeks or last few months was much better.

To reach a quarterfinal again this year in Wimbledon means a lot, yes.

Q. You're taking on a British player in the quarterfinals. It will probably be on Centre Court. How do you feel about that?

DAVID GOFFIN: Yes, I have another opportunity to play on Centre Court to try to have a win, finally to have a win on Centre Court. I didn't have any chances. I had Murray and I had Djokovic. Not easy (smiling).

Another British, against Cameron. He played less than me. I think he was straight sets. He played well from the start of the tournament. He played really well. He's very consistent. He's a tough opponent to play.

But I will try to recover. That's the most important now, today and tomorrow, try to be ready to play against the whole country (smiling).

Q. The one match you had against him, you had to pull out.

DAVID GOFFIN: I think it was on clay, so completely different. I was injured like a year or two ago. Yeah, it's different match, different atmosphere. He's playing at home. Like I said, I will play against the whole crowd. I will do my best to recover and try to play my best tennis again.

Q. Frances said that match had a top-10 caliber at times. Caliber seemed really high.

DAVID GOFFIN: Yeah, it was great. It was nice to play that match. The atmosphere on that court was amazing. You have players that it's always nice to play against, not because of the game or something like this, but just because there's always a nice atmosphere on the court with the opponent, and also the crowd likes it. That was the case today with Frances.

We gave everything on the court. Probably the fans felt it. That's why we tried to stay in the match both. We didn't want to quit. We wanted to stay five, six hours if we had to.

There is a match like this that you feel it's going to be long. That was the case with amazing points, amazing atmosphere. So, yeah, it's a great memory on that court. I'm happy that I won this one.