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BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR FINALSNovember 25, 2011Janko TipsarevicLONDON, ENGLAND J. TIPSAREVIC/N. Djokovic THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. At the beginning of the second set, a game of 10 minutes. Even though you are both Serbians, it was a big battle there on the court. JANKO TIPSAREVIC: I felt that the tides have changed in the beginning of the second set where I managed to get out of my first two or three service games. It was always deuce, advantage, deuce, advantage. And once I managed to survive those couple of games, I was always and constantly putting pressure on Novak's serve until the end of the match. So this just proves that no matter how much one player is dominant on court, which Novak was in the beginning of the match, it proves that on this level things can change dramatically really fast. Q. You obviously know him very well, especially from practice. Did you get a sense today that he is playing on an empty tank? JANKO TIPSAREVIC: Not trying to undermine my performance or my victory today, I can freely say that this was not Novak Djokovic from the US Open or Wimbledon, you know, which is in a way normal. He won everything a person can win. He had the best season, if I'm not mistaking, in the history of this sport. So it's normal that he had some shoulder issues, whatever. But on the other way, I saw him trying and fighting till the end. I'm giving credit to me because I managed to beat the world No.1 maybe ‑ maybe ‑ not at his best day. But still I feel that's a victory that no one can take away from me. Q. Can you talk about how much your friendship and relationship with Novak has helped you as a tennis player. JANKO TIPSAREVIC: I said before and I'm saying it again, I feel extremely lucky that I am able to see the world's best player, how is he living his life, doing practices, playing matches from a first‑row seat. I am a kind of guy who is not ashamed to ask anyone in order to improve. What are you thinking? What are you doing? What are you working on? Any advices, any tips, whatever. I really feel like being around him helped me to become a better player. But you have to know that this is only 5%. I feel that the main change comes within a player, and I can say within me that I had a will this year to manage to change some things. Q. You came into this tournament as the first alternate. You pushed Berdych to three sets and now you've beaten Djokovic. How do you feel about your performances and your year in general? JANKO TIPSAREVIC: Even though I wasn't a hundred percent fit for this tournament, I have to say also that I was running on an empty tank after Paris. After Rafael Nadal, I don't think there is a guy on tour who played more matches than me this year. This is a fact which people should know. You have all these guys saying that they're playing on their empty tanks, but I think even counting Davis Cup, I think I'm the guy who probably played the most matches, you know, this season on tour. I managed to play good because this is all new for me. This is something amazing. I hope that I will be here next year and in years to come. But when something is new, you're always excited about it. Suddenly out of nothing I got a chance to play, and I didn't really want to, first of all, disappoint myself and disappoint all the people around me and finish this brilliant year in a bad way. So regarding the two matches, I don't feel that anything strange has happened. This year I have beaten Tomas twice. In Paris we played a tight match. Every time I play him it's extremely tight until the end, so... And against Novak, I'm really happy that I managed to win finally. Every time we played, I managed to win a set and then lose in the end. So I am really happy that I managed to, you know, win today in the end and strangely finish the season with a victory. I'm not really used to do that (smiling). Q. You said 'shoulder' and 'US Open'. You're one of the few people who can compare this in terms of speed, power, motion, placement. How much has Novak's serve changed from the US Open when you played him there to here in London? JANKO TIPSAREVIC: I don't think that his serve's changed at all. I might say that he's missing the sharpness in overall performance which he had in the US Open. But you cannot play better than that. You can then start to judge Roger if he manages to lose to someone and say, That's not the Roger, when he won Wimbledon five times. We all have our good and our bad days. I feel that, you know, even though Novak, as I said, was probably not playing his best tennis, he was trying and fighting to win. And in the end, I feel really, really happy that I managed to turn the tides and finally beat him. I lost I think four or five times already against the guy, and always in tight matches. Q. Three times. JANKO TIPSAREVIC: Three times, okay. Q. You talked about the year, it's been great, things are new. Next year you'll be a marked man. Have you started thinking about a different mindset for dealing with the fact that it will be different than rising into the top 10? JANKO TIPSAREVIC: I feel that next year is going to be even tougher than this. I know it sounds maybe strange and something unexpected which you guys maybe don't hear often. But I feel that players will take me a little bit more seriously after this year and I will not be able to catch them off guard. I don't know how is my reputation on tour. But I was imagining that in these previous years people were thinking, He's a good player, he can play really good, but in one point he's going to crack, just stay with him. I know that I need to improve my tennis even if I want to stay here where I am. I promise you, if I play the tennis that I played this year, I will drop out of top 10. I am aware that I need to improve and play even better if I want to stay where I am and improve on the ranking. I know it's early to speak. The season is over for me and I don't want to start thinking about goals for next year at least for another two weeks because my vacation is starting. But, you know, I really, really want to improve. If you see players like Nadal, Djokovic and Federer, even though they're at the top, year after year they're improving, you know, improving themselves. I feel this is something which I want to have. Q. This is obviously your first time here. What makes this tournament so special and what's the one memory you'll take away? JANKO TIPSAREVIC: I will probably take away the victory today because beating the world No.1 in the last match of the season is something that I feel everyone is going to remember. I'm not talking about the crowd; I'm talking about a person by itself. The tournament in my opinion is perfect. I'm not saying this out of happiness and because I'm happy that I won today. I'm saying this trying to be realistic, you know. The tournament director is doing an incredible job. He asked my manager a couple of times, Is there something that I can improve? He's not afraid to talk to people and see in which aspect he can improve the event. Everything from start to finish is unbelievable because the people are really caring for the players and holding them like not stars, but superstars. I generally love the British crowd because they're in love with this sport, but they don't damage the tradition around it. They respect the players. If the referee says, Quiet, please, I can hear the other guy breathe on the other side of the net. They love this sport, but they respect the values and they respect the players on court. Q. Where are you going on vacation? JANKO TIPSAREVIC: I'm going to Maldives on Monday, hopefully with Novak. He's going to come there on Thursday. I was telling you guys that we are close off court, not just with him but with Nenad. I'm having dinner with the guy tomorrow, and I saw him this morning on breakfast. I generally don't like playing Serbian players because we're so close off court. I hope that we can all play next year here in London. That means that all of us had great season. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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