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MASTERS SERIES MONTE-CARLO PRESENTED BY ROLEXApril 21, 2008Fabrice SantoroMONTE CARLO, MONACO K. VLIEGEN/F. Santoro 7-6, 6-1 (Translated from French) THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. You had eight set points, and he was missing easy shots. Did you believe you would be able to turn the match around then? FABRICE SANTORO: Yes. Sometimes it is just because of one shot that you can win a match, so I was trying to be very focused. I really wanted to win that tiebreak, but I didn't. I was up 4-2, but then he was able to come back. Q. Were you called for the Davis Cup? FABRICE SANTORO: No, although I did beat Roddick in November and Blake in January. And also Connors and Patrick McEnroe (laughter). So I beat them all. But there were many other possible players. Q. Do you believe there's lobbying from the Gasquet family? People say Noah is the indisputable captain. What is your opinion? FABRICE SANTORO: I don't understand all this attacking of Gasquet. That stupid photo when he was sending an SMS. Q. That is 90% of the truth, at least. FABRICE SANTORO: When my neck is hurting, I go and see the physio and he treats my core. So the same thing for this SMS: you should try to understand what is the cause and what is the consequence. Q. But something is wrong. FABRICE SANTORO: Well, Richard loves the French team and he loves Davis Cup. Q. But he said in L'Équipe that he thought tennis is a stupid sport, that you have to start all over again all the time, and you are submitted to enormous pressure from the media. So is there a problem with his career? FABRICE SANTORO: Well, for his career, he had a very difficult first term this year, but he never stopped improving. When he was top 100, everybody was saying he should become top 50. When he became top 50, everybody said he should become top 20. He did that, too. Now he's top 7 or 8, and people say he should win the French Open. During his 10-year career, he always made it. There are 1,270 players losing when they play in the French Open. That's many players, and you want him to win. Q. Who puts pressure on him? FABRICE SANTORO: The media. Q. How? FABRICE SANTORO: Well, he's 21 years old. You should try to help him instead of putting pressure on him. Maybe your role is not to help him. Anyway, you're not helping him. Q. How could we help him? FABRICE SANTORO: By stopping accusing him all the time. Maybe you should talk to his coaches. I know he works very hard. You're only there for the matches. But you must know he spends hours and hours trying hard. So it's unfair to attack him all the time. Q. Even if we were there during his practice sessions, how could we see anything positive? FABRICE SANTORO: By talking with the people who know him and work with him, like Eric Deblicker; myself, I know exactly what he's doing; Nicolas, his physio; and his osteopath. They're the ones that know him best and who are competent to talk about him. Q. But something did happen that weekend, didn't it? FABRICE SANTORO: Richard loves the French team. But since I'm also a potential player in that team, I can't say more. Q. How can you help him, since you're a very close friend of his? FABRICE SANTORO: Yes, indeed, we are very close friends. We have the same background. We come from the same type of family, the same social class. We were put through the same pressure from the media since we were very young. I am 14 years older than him, so I can talk to him. I also was criticized by the media. This didn't prevent me from carrying on with my career. I always bounced back. Q. Do you believe you would have more chances to play in the French team if Forget wasn't the captain? FABRICE SANTORO: It's difficult to say. Once he said that I wasn't on the team for reasons having nothing to do with sport. He saw all my matches. He said when I played Ljubicic, that if I could beat him, he would put me on the team. But I lost 6-4 in the third set. He also saw me when I beat Blake. Q. When he doesn't select you, does he call you to give you an explanation? FABRICE SANTORO: I had a message, but I was on the plane between Miami and Geneva. End of FastScripts |
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