TMS MONTE CARLO

April 15, 2002

Nicolas Coutelot

NICOLAS COUTELOT: Every match is difficult. It's not more difficult or less difficult. It's very difficult to answer this question.

NICOLAS COUTELOT: It was better. I had a good beginning of the season in South America on clay, and I came back, I played challengers for four weeks. I almost did only first rounds. When I arrived, the first round was very difficult as far as feeling the ball was concerned, as far as relaxing. I really got out of it with my guts. Yesterday, the same. And today I found my feeling again, like in the beginning of the year. Therefore, it was "easier," if you really have to name things.

NICOLAS COUTELOT: I'm not with the same coach. There was a conflict in Australia. They were not very serious. I am practicing with a former Argentine player called Fito Paganini for four weeks now. It's good. It makes me feel right at the right moment. I'm happy. It's a completely private structure. I'm sharing it with another Argentine player, Enzo, and I'm very pleased with our relationship for the time being.

NICOLAS COUTELOT: I believe I'm more consistent than I was in Roland Garros in spite of the fact that I played well over there. I feel more solid from the baseline. I'm scaring the other players a little bit more, and this is in my favor. They know that I can beat them when I come on to the court. I believe it's important to have good results in the tournaments and to beat good players. Everybody's good at the tournaments, but beating players like Clavet implies a certain point of reference, which explains that now when I come on to the court against someone, it's no longer like before and it is in my favor.

NICOLAS COUTELOT: No problem. I rarely have pain in my legs, I don't know why. I crack up rarely. I believe it never happened with my legs. Since the first round, I had problems with my back and my back was stiff, my shoulder. The balls are quite heavy. But the legs are super. Now the lower part of the back, the neck, and the shoulder are a bit stiff. But treatment here is very good. Therefore, it's all right. The victories I had can a little bit be attributed to the treatment we get here.

NICOLAS COUTELOT: These coincidences happen rarely. For the first round, I waited six hours in the club, I went back to the hotel. I didn't believe I was going to play because of the rain. I started sleeping, and my coach called me to say that half an hour later I had to play. But everybody lives in the same conditions. You have to adapt. This is the most difficult thing to manage - when you have nothing to do, you have to wait for your match. During that time, you think of all sorts of things. You wonder when you are going to play, if you have to eat or not. But these situations only happen once or twice a year, and this time I managed it correctly - all the better.

NICOLAS COUTELOT: I thought it would be Cedric, but I learned he lost. Novak is a very good player. Plus, this year he proved in Australia that we had to count him in. I don't believe here is his best surface, especially with those kind of balls and the heavy courts. I will have to play my game, and I believe in it. I will take matches one after the other. Everybody plays well. All the matches are difficult. This one is as difficult as the other ones, but it's certainly possible.

NICOLAS COUTELOT: When I was with my former coaches, I worked a lot with a mental preparator who made me understand things. These are little details which explain that now I am able not to think too much about the future, that it is important to play point by point, even shot by shot. This work with the mental preparator helped me a lot. Now I'm trying to continue in the same way with my new ways of seeing things, and my new coach is talking about the same things. We continue in the same direction, and I enjoy myself on the court. I really love it in big tournaments. And I believe I'm going to break through the Top 100 this week. I've been playing tennis for 20 years, and all that time these were objectives that are happening now. I came here to see this tournament when I was five, six years old. Now I'm able to play in it. Therefore, to be serious and go to the end of the road. I'm just happy to play tennis and to be in good health. Before I was not realizing my luck. I was not as serious as I am now - even from the general life and hygiene point of view. Today I really enjoyed being on the court and feeling pleasure, and that's it.

NICOLAS COUTELOT: Yes. I was born here, but I started when I was two and a half years old. My parents came here, my father was transferred. I left and I went to Paris when I was 19. So I lived about 15 years in Nice. I am happy. My first coaches came to see me, especially Guillaume Dumas (phonetic spelling). He was almost the first one, apart from my father. I just saw him today. He really taught me how to play tennis when I was 8, 9 and 10 years old. Today those people come and watch me, while every other year they came to watch the great players. So it doesn't mean I'm part of them now, but it's pleasant to play well before the people who appreciate all that and who help me to reach that level.

NICOLAS COUTELOT: Yes, because we started working weeks ago together. I played three challengers. For two of them I was top-seeded, No. 1. So I wanted to win points to enter into Roland Garros' draw, which is closed today. In fact, it was not a good solution. I played a second round, a first round, a first round. Last week I played a Moroccan player in Casablanca. It was not obvious, and he won. When you start a relationship with someone and you try to show it everything you're capable of and when you try to prove yourself, I believe you don't play very well. And the results have not been so good. Today, we understand each other better and better on the court and during practice. He starts to know me really well as a player (we've known each other for a long time.) Plus, he's a friend. And it's very important that a coach also be a friend. I couldn't practice with someone who would be boring to have dinner with or to have lunch with. I appreciate enormously his way of being a human being. We are friends. I have many friends here next to him. I believe Laurent Bensadoum (phonetic spelling), who played tennis all his life, who is my age, with whom I played all my youngest categories since always, was next to my coach. We are very close with him and my friends and my former friends. I like that. I believe it's something extra which made me win that match.