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COUPE ROGERSAugust 6, 2013Filip PeliwoMONTREAL, QUEBEC F. PELIWO/J. Nieminen THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Can you just go back a couple of days. I assume you were preparing to play the qualifying matches.  When did you learn you received the wild card? FILIP PELIWO: I actually learned after I got my quallies badge. I was about to go practice and my coach said he needed to talk to me for a couple minutes. We went into his office and he said, You got the wild card for the main draw. I was so taken aback, I had no expectation. I got my quallies badge already. So definitely ecstatic about that. Afterwards, just prepared for the next few days. Did a little bit of work with him. I guess it worked. Q.  Who is your coach? FILIP PELIWO: Guillaume Marx and Joycelin Robichaud. Q. Can you describe how it is to win your first match of the Rogers Cup? FILIP PELIWO: Unbelievable. Especially being down, I thought the match was pretty much over. I was down two breaks, and that match point, I don't really know what I did. I just threw my hands up at the volley and it went in. Definitely the best feeling I've had in a while. It's such a big win for me, I think. Ranking‑wise, I'll get a lot of points. Confidence, to be able to say I beat a top 50, top 40 player, I'm not sure what he is right now. Still trying to realize what I did. Q. You were talking about consistency. You struggled with that in the first part. FILIP PELIWO: I went out there trying to tell myself, You have nothing to lose, this guy is ranked way ahead of you, this is your first Rogers Cup, just swing, go for it. I was tight. I was really tight. I really couldn't get anything going. I was missing a lot. Just couldn't relax. I think just got it going a little bit, got that first break. That helped me out. Just tried to keep going for it and stay in the match. I really just knew I had to stay with it mentally and not freak out and not give up either, not get angry at myself. But the biggest thing was just to keep fighting and I was hoping that my game would come along a bit, I'd loosen up. I gave myself that chance, got really lucky with the match point that I saved. After that, it just went way up. I started playing a lot better, a lot smarter, moving faster. I think everything that was happening in the beginning of the match, I was way too tense to play the way I set out to play. Q. Did you notice a big difference from him once he got injured? FILIP PELIWO: Yeah. I mean, I try not to pay attention to it too much. If you think about that, you don't focus on your game enough. But I noticed he was getting tired towards the end of the second set. Wasn't sure what it was. As I said, I wasn't trying to pay too much attention to it. Afterwards, that last game before he retired, before he went out actually to serve, I saw him like moving around his hamstring. I wasn't sure if he was limping or not, but I guess he was. I did notice that he wasn't 100%, that's for sure. Q. A quick statement about how happy you are about that win. FILIP PELIWO: It was a great experience for me. That win really means a lot to me. I think as far as confidence goes, it's going to be a huge boost. Hopefully I can bring it up in the next match, play a bit better and get a better start. Q. What is your goal for the end of the year? Did you set yourself a goal? FILIP PELIWO: Well, my goal was to be top 300 minimum, top 250 if I can, and top 200 if it goes really well. I think with this win I broke through the top 300. So going for the top 250 next. Q. How did you start playing tennis when you were young? Family or... FILIP PELIWO: My parents, my dad mostly, he played in the park with his friends recreationally for fun. As a kid I was always really active. I was one of those kids that runs around all the time, never walks, has a lot of energy. I played a lot of sport, did everything to be active. Tennis was something I wanted to try. I saw my dad playing it. I was interested in trying it out. I asked him one day, Can I get a racquet, try out playing? He bought me one. Since then, my interest and passion just grew and grew and grew as the years went on. Q. What age? FILIP PELIWO: Four years old. Then I started getting a bit more serious about the training when I was nine or ten, realized that's what I wanted to do. Q. How has the transition been? Looks like there's been a few down moments along the way. FILIP PELIWO: It was a tough beginning of the year. I didn't really get any great results with the futures that I played in Florida. Then obviously I sprained my ankle, which kept me out for about a month, I think. So once I went into Rimouski, I wasn't match fit. I wasn't physically fit enough to keep with those guys because I hadn't been running at all. So I lost a lot of points. About half of my points from Rimouski dropped off completely. Since then, until about a month ago, I was just making back points to get back the ranking I was at at the beginning of the year. Even good results, I didn't notice them as much because my ranking wasn't there. So it was an up‑and‑down year. I struggled a bit with my game. Things were coming together, like my serve was getting better, the next week my ground game was good and my serve was not working. It was all coming in cycles. A few weeks ago it all came together as a unit and that's what I'm trying to keep it. Q. Can you talk about the decision to have your game on Court No. 5? FILIP PELIWO: Well, obviously I was disappointed that I wouldn't get stadium court. But I was just happy that I got the opportunity to play at this tournament and play a match against a guy ranked that high. I think Dimitrov is playing there. So I don't have a big say in that. I'm happy. As long as I play, hopefully get the win. It worked out today. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Q. Do you feel like it helped you in any way to play in a smaller court? FILIP PELIWO: I guess it probably loosened me up a bit, though I was really nervous. Maybe I would have been more nervous on a big court. I just tried to focus on the match. I didn't pay attention to that too much. I guess maybe it did help to be in a more familiar setting, a smaller court, since I was playing challengers and futures. So it wasn't such a big jump coming from futures going to a big stadium. Q. Your plans for the rest of the year change now that your ranking has come up? FILIP PELIWO: Yeah, we're definitely going to adjust. I'm not sure what we're going to do. We'll see. I don't have an answer for what the plans are going to be. But definitely going to put into account my ranking jump and all that. Q. You got a shot at the quallies at the US Open? FILIP PELIWO: The list is out already. I didn't get in. Didn't get the wild card either, which I didn't expect. I won't be playing that. Q. Maybe a few words about your next match. How much do you know about Istomin? FILIP PELIWO: Not too much to be honest. I haven't seen him play on TV that much. It's my first time at a tournament like this. I'll have to do my research, ask my coach what he knows, ask some other people around, as well. We'll see. I know he's a pretty big guy. I would think he plays pretty aggressive. But we'll figure that out eventually. Q. Do you expect to be looser or tighter? FILIP PELIWO: I think looser. I think getting through this match really helps with that. We won't know until I get out obviously. But I think that just gave me a taste of what it's like and also showed me that I can't play tight or I'm going to lose (smiling). Definitely going to try to go out and swing for the ball, play more aggressive, play my game. I was playing really, really nervous, just tense. Until I got through the second set, I think I didn't play the way I wanted to. If I want to win the next one, I definitely have to loosen up. Q. What was the biggest adjustment from junior to pro? FILIP PELIWO: I think just the fact that I was able to get through a lot of matches last year in the juniors even when I wasn't playing well just on the fact that they would tighten up and I could get through a few points just hitting the ball in. Now in the pros, that doesn't happen much. You have to go out and play I don't think unbelievable to win some of those matches, but you have to play smarter, solid, build your points more. You can't go for winners on every ball, pile up the mistakes, make up for it on a couple of shots. These guys, they make you play. You're not going to have as many of those free points. Definitely it's just the consistency, playing solid week in, week out, day in, day out, even throughout the match having to be more level, so... Q. Can you say exactly what happened on the match point? Was it a backhand or forehand? FILIP PELIWO: Basically I went to the net after a rally, hit a pretty lame volley, that's for sure. Kind of popped it up. He hit a forehand. I kind of moved to the right expecting it down the line. I guess he changed his mind a bit and hit it right towards my direction. I just threw my hands up like that. Q. Just reflex? FILIP PELIWO: Just reflex. It was a backhand. I hit a backhand volley, popped it up. It was right at the net. I kind of laughed it off. I didn't really know what I'd done. I still don't know what I did. I threw my hands up, as I said. Got lucky with that. Q. You did the splits at least twice today. FILIP PELIWO: You'll see a few of those in every match I play. Whenever I'm stretched, I do it. Q. Looked like you had trouble getting up from one of them today. FILIP PELIWO: Don't really have any strength getting up with them. Sometimes during the point I have to fall over, get myself up again. It's not painful or anything. Q. How much time do you spend now on strength work? FILIP PELIWO: I put a lot of work on strength this year, especially during the time I was injured. Probably put on about 10 pounds. I lost it again, but I kept the strength. Yeah, definitely put in a lot of work with that. My strength has improved a lot. Definitely feeling like it's a lot easier to keep up with these guys 'cause of it. I don't have to go out and go for winners or anything else. Feel like it's going the right way, that's for sure. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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