TMS MONTE CARLO

April 18, 2003

Julien Boutter

JULIEN BOUTTER: Is it true?

JULIEN BOUTTER: No, honestly, I don't remember. I had a set point? Well, if at that moment when I was down 4-1, double break, playing against Moya, No. 5 in the world, I thought, "That's finished." I came back into the match because I concentrated on the characteristics of my game. I tried to put pressure on him, whatever the result of the point was. Suddenly, he made a double-fault. He had a ball in the middle of the court that he missed. I was able to come back in the score. I didn't start thinking, "I have two breaks, I'm two breaks behind, I have to break him twice." This particular point you're talking about, how did I play it?

JULIEN BOUTTER: Well, this is something that happened today. Maybe it's because I played Moya. One shot I didn't use very much today, and it could have bothered him, is hit the ball very early and play cross-court. Very often I tried along the line, and he killed me after that. This may be the only criticism I can find about that match today. I believe on this particular point if I had played that shot differently, I would have been able to win more points, some afterward. It cost me a lot. Maybe if it had been another player, I would have been more aggressive, but I was looking at the statistics about his other matches and I saw he played very few passing shots. So I thought the solution was to come to net. Instead of thinking of my strong points, I rather thought about him. If I played cross-court with my forehand, it would have been better.

JULIEN BOUTTER: Well, we are working on the fact that we don't know how a match will turn around when we come to a tiebreaker. Because at that stage of the match, you don't know what is going to happen. I don't know if I'm clear, but it's a bit difficult to explain. It's not really the score, but it's just knowing if you're ahead or down. We don't think about the score, we know we're down a break or up a break, but we play the same.

JULIEN BOUTTER: Well, if I miss it that way, although we worked half an hour on it in practice in the morning, of course I will be angry.

JULIEN BOUTTER: Well, for example, a guy like Hewitt, if it's 40-love, he's going to play as hard as he can. So that's the difference. Some points are more important than others, but in the end, all the points count. I kept on putting pressure on him even on his second serve. This is good for me for the following games, because he knows that if his second serve is not good enough, I will be there. "So is it this particular shot which is important, this particular point or not?" This doesn't matter. What counts is the pressure I put on him during the match. It's true that score-wise, there are some more important points than others, but what we are working on is putting pressure on the opponent all the time to wear him out. This is his strong point, that's why he was strong today, because I tried to play as I was taught. But six or seven times in the tiebreaker I missed at the net because he played a very good passing shot. That's incredible. He played so well. It's difficult from then on.

JULIEN BOUTTER: But it's a bit of a special game. He was going up more and more. I started to force myself. The ball went very fast. So sometimes when there's a little more on one side and a little less on the other side, it changes the situation. However, I continued to return his serve, to do my best, but it's not a coincidence. If I had remained passive, I would have lost easy. I saw Juan Carlos' match today. He didn't make a single mistake. I tried to do the same. I was serving, I was trying to hit the ball early. When he was not well positioned, he made a mistake. So what you have to think about is not about the other player, you have to think about your own game.

JULIEN BOUTTER: Yes, it's obvious. Because generally speaking, what is obvious is that I'm able not to live in the past or in the future, I'm just living the present moment. I can also better manage a defeat or a victory. So this is completely different from my attitude six months ago. I was thinking, "I have to defend my points, I have to win two, three matches." I was thinking about a future and there were too many things I had to manage at the same time.

JULIEN BOUTTER: Yes, I have the same goals as last year. After Hamburg, I was asked the question. My goal is to finish Top 20. We are going to work on assessing a match according to the way I played rather than according to the result. The work has to be of good quality. It's difficult to have long-term goals and keep thinking about the present. Things always change. Every morning when I get up, I have different feelings from the day before. Sometimes I think, "I don't understand. Yesterday I managed this very well and today I can't." So, generally speaking, the main goal is to be concentrated on the present moment and problems.

JULIEN BOUTTER: That's what happened to me last year. People expected a lot of me in the French Open. I missed my tournament, in fact. I was not able to manage the situation. So what I will try to do is to set up procedures, shots, trying not to think about the pressure and all that and the expectations. When at a certain moment, people have expectations on you, you have to accept it and you have to remain detached.

JULIEN BOUTTER: Well, already I'm going to try to be calm and feel well and do well what I can do when I'm well. Of course this seems simple, but I will try not to think about the external aspects of the situation. I was never able to manage that before. This period of time is the first time I'm able to do that. I'm controlling the situation now.

JULIEN BOUTTER: Well, every day since Casablanca I followed the same routine. Even if I was playing late in the evening and I had to get up early in the morning or I had my breakfast, I practiced. I kept my energy and I used my time on what is beneficial to my game and to my job. I tried not to waste energy in, I don't know, video games, for example. It's not my case, but other stupid things. The only thing I have is books. I'm reading three books at a time now. It's a bit disorganized now. I have the "Ecology of Love," I have a book about Tom Bundit (phonetic), and another book called, "The Third Twin." I usually don't start two or three books at a time, but according to my feelings, I'd rather read one rather than the other. I'm going to have indigestion because of chocolate. During the past three days I had a problem, my groin was hurting a little bit. So if I had lost before, I would have had to travel and go and practice somewhere else. So it's better like this. It was not very rational. Now, I'm going to go back home tonight or tomorrow and rest for two or three days and start again on Monday. I think my next tournament will be Aix. After Barcelona, it's Aix. Well, yes, so it's going to be Aix.

JULIEN BOUTTER: Yes. It all depended on what I was doing here. If I had lost early, I would have played in Barcelona. I wouldn't have gone in Aix. But after that, there's Rome, Hamburg... I think Munich is at the same time as Aix. So there's Rome and Hamburg. Both Masters Series I'm in the quallies. It's not that bad. It's not as difficult as in Barcelona, except if you go far in Aix.

JULIEN BOUTTER: Being sure of winning all the time would be a bit too ambitious, but I'm going to follow the path I started here. It will mean a lot of work. The only thing is I don't have to start dreaming, I have to keep taking care of the basics. Win or lose, I have to work. I mean, the objective is to win, of course. But I need to follow certain procedures and keep working the way I have done lately and reproduce the same things, the same schemes, follow my program of the day as usual - exactly like I did the last two weeks. There will be nothing unrealistic.

JULIEN BOUTTER: Yes, exactly. That's it. Because it's not a matter of timing, of practicing, energy. I was never lazy in my life about practicing and getting up early. But what I mainly have to do is... what is the word... optimize the time I spend working and not having wrong ideas about the way I have to work. I have to remain simple. Remaining simple helped me to start winning and playing well. So being rigorous and consistent. When you see the Top 10 at the end of the year, you see that they've been very consistent during the whole year. So this is the main factor. The major problem we have to manage is every week we have to travel, so we have to find stability somewhere in different places that we don't always know. I call that kind of thing "following procedures," but, in fact, the question is to make a stable environment around you.

JULIEN BOUTTER: Yes, I had a problem.

JULIEN BOUTTER: No, that's not what I was talking about, but I had an antidoping test. When I came off the court, I couldn't hold myself, I went to the toilet. Five minutes later, I was asked to do it again. I said, "No, I can't anymore." So I drank three or four liters of water. So this is the reason why I came late. But normally I'll try to be on time. So this is the reason why my program was a bit changed today.