TMS MONTE CARLO

April 17, 2001

Julien Boutter

JULIEN BOUTTER: For a month, a month and a half, since I was able to achieve two or three good results, I felt problems being patient and forgiving myself of my own mistakes. I think I'm too demanding with myself. It helps me not to accept my mistakes, the fact that the other player plays well at certain moments, the fact that I lose the point sometimes myself. But although I am aware of this attitude, I know that if you want to play among the top players, you cannot have lapses in your concentration the way I did today, be it against top No. 1 or No. 11, because this is death. This happens to me every four or five matches. Whereas, when I'm not playing too bad, I'm able to do everything I want, and then it happens. There are tight moments, and I don't accept to lose the point or to make a mistake. Starting from there, everything comes one after the other, and I lose my objective, my central objective. I get distracted a little bit. And after the other player starts to defend himself, he attacks, he puts shots into the court. And me, I make mistakes. And after the other player is relaxed, it is easier to make good defensive shots than to attack and come up to the net.

JULIEN BOUTTER: I believe so. But how to explain that? I'm talking about it again, because I believe there's a link. One month, one month and a half ago, I was putting the balls 50 and 60 centimeters inside of the court and I was winning the point. I believe I don't accept to lower the level of my game a little bit or to be safer in my game to tend towards perfection. Therefore, I am stubborn. I absolutely want a result, good hits, and winners. I did not understand the fact that I can win a match just because the other one makes mistakes or plays badly. That's it. The first set we can't say I played well, but he made mistakes. And starting from there, I felt the pressure. I had to hold on to my serve. Therefore, there was no reason why he couldn't continue to make mistakes. But he played well, and I was making the mistakes and that's how it happened.

JULIEN BOUTTER: Yes. Nothing can ever be taken for granted. Although you play well in practice, to keep the same level during a match is more difficult. I never felt that until now, but now I am feeling depression after a good result. There's sometimes a depressive phase after that, and I believe I am a bit in this period. I am not worried, but for many reasons I don't accept the fact that I am playing not-so-well. Whereas if we are lucid, many players, even in the Grand Slams, hold on to their matches and they finish their rounds in five sets. They don't play well, but they go through. For me, it's difficult to accept and to understand.

JULIEN BOUTTER: Yes.

JULIEN BOUTTER: Yes. But if you are lucid and you think about it, there are ways of finding explanations.

JULIEN BOUTTER: It's not a question of adapting when I play well. There are phases where I hit the ball well. I broke him three times in the match in straight games. You can't break a player Top 50 or Top 60 in a match if you don't feel good. So it's a disconnection in my mind rather than in my game. I am not concentrating on the right things, and there it happens. I have plenty of things going through my mind which are useless, and it's difficult for me. It's a pity. There's no reason why I couldn't play well today.

JULIEN BOUTTER: Yes, it's easy to say the right things, but not as easy to do them.

JULIEN BOUTTER: Since I've been playing I did everything almost. I did things that I shouldn't have done but when I did them, I thought it was a good thing and it was useful for my career, my profession. I believe I'm still the same way. After Milan and the good results I had, I practiced even more. I tried to do things even better. Therefore, it's not a lapse I had physically or technically. I worked a lot. Now the thing I have to do is to adapt to the courts. When you go through those periods, you have to put your ego aside and believe that you will not be the best player on the court and you will not win every point.

JULIEN BOUTTER: Yes, this means it's not obvious. I am thinking clearly. I agree that I am saying all these things, but I don't implement them. Therefore, there's something going wrong there, a frustration or a problem. But when you look at all the problems, everything that's going wrong and where I am now, it's still encouraging.

JULIEN BOUTTER: Every time, the last five or six losses have been in two tight sets or three sets. I had my chances during those matches. Today, on three or four important points when I was attacking, if I didn't miss by 20 centimeters and if I had to put it in, I would have won the match. Everything depended on that. So you must be thinking clearly at that moment to do the right shot and not to rush and put the ball out.

JULIEN BOUTTER: In Roland Garros, practicing, I don't know. I have to discuss it with David, see what we are going to do. Either a period of practice, either playing matches, either having two or three days' break, I don't know. I didn't see him yet, because I feel I want to play. That's the most frustrating thing.

JULIEN BOUTTER: Yes. But when you want to play and you travel, you make sacrifices and things. And when you are at the point that you will get the fruit of your work, you miss, it's difficult.