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BNP PARIBAS MASTERSOctober 29, 2012Julien BenneteauPARIS, FRANCE J. BENNETEAU/V. Troicki THE MODERATOR: Questions in French, please. Q. You're almost finishing the year on your best ranking ever. Is that a special motivation for the end of the year? JULIEN BENNETEAU: No. I think that, [] in order to reach my best ranking doesn't depend on this particular tournament. Even if I had lost today I would have reached my best ranking anyway. After Kuala Lumpur I couldn't play the tournament, so I came here because I wanted to keep my motivation up and to get extra points, because it's the not same to be top 32 and top 36 in the beginning of next year. But I know it will all depend on a few points. I'm not trying to make any specific calculations. I don't want to be bogged down in those calculations, otherwise it might cause me some problems. I just know that if I play well I can make it. If not, I will just know I had the opportunity of doing it during the season. But I know that for my ranking this year, only 15 tournaments will be taken into account. So reaching that ranking with a few tournaments is a very good thing. With everything that happened with my injuries and everything, I think it's a pretty good result. Q. In the beginning of the year you were coming close to top 50 and now you're top 30. Do you believe that during tournaments your opponents will be ready for you, or do you believe the public has expectations? JULIEN BENNETEAU: No. About the public, I don't believe there are too many expectations. I haven't played in France for a long time, and I was very happy today. It is a real pleasure to play in that stadium. After the Basel tournament I came here, and I had a few balls on Friday or Saturday, and my first reaction was to say how beautiful that stadium is and that court is. I'm very happy to be here at the end of the year. It is a real bonus for me. So I don't feel any extra pressure from the public or that any of my opponents are ready for me []. Well, it's a good sign. It means I'm playing better, so it's good for me. I have been playing on the tour for a number of years now. I'm not a young player anymore. When a younger player comes in, everybody is discovering him. After a few years, the other players know him and try to ‑‑and they know how to play him. As far as I'm concerned, I'm no longer a young player that nobody knows. So I don't feel my opponents are expecting me in a special way or anything. Q. Do you feel also special motivation in playing another French player here? Maybe against Tsonga the crowd will not be on your side. JULIEN BENNETEAU: When you're in a second round in the Masters of Bercy, you are always highly motivated. You know that you are going to play a player among the top 15 or top 10, so we know that we'll have a very tough match immediately. So whatever the opponent, the motivation is there. Now, against Jo it's going to be a bit more delicate because he's a very good player on this surface. He's qualified for the London Masters. This proves the quality of his game. But I have nothing to lose in that match, so whatever happens it's going to be good for me. I know I have the weapons to be able to beat him in similar courts. In Marseilles in particular I had opportunities. So I think both of us will need to forget about the environment and think only about the game on the court. Anyway, all the ingredients are there for having a good match. I have a good opponent and also many friends and family will be there watching, so this is the kind of match you want to play. Playing it in the end of the season is even better for both of us. Well, that motivates me more than anything else. Q. It's the last tournament of the year and it is in France. Does this mean you're just doing your best and think you will be on holidays next week? JULIEN BENNETEAU: Well, yes, it's right. It's fabulous, because it's in France and in Bercy, so you just give it all it takes and do whatever you can and do the maximum effort. You know after you'll have some rest. If you come at that stage having another tournament to play, it can only be wonderful, because it's going to be the Masters of London or doubles. Otherwise it's holidays, so the state of mind is indeed to do everything you have and put everything you have into it and do your best. I'm not certain whether it's going to change something in my game. Maybe little things out of the courts, like in practice you feel more relaxed and maybe it's going to have an influence on your game. We don't know. Q. Talking about Jo, you say, Oh, he's qualified for the Masters; but if you beat him tomorrow and if he doesn't reach the final, I believe you can deprive him from that London Masters. JULIEN BENNETEAU: Well, it's good for him he's going to have more time to rest before the next season. But Tipsarevic needs to reach the final against Almagro. I don't think anyone would bet on this, even handball players. (Laughter.) This is the only case when Jo would be eliminated. If the final here is Tipsarevic against Almagro, then Jo will not be able to go to the Masters, but I'm sure he's gonna qualify. Q. You played a great match in Wimbledon this year against Federer. What did Federer tell you after that match? How did you feel after that match? Did you talk about the match together? How did he talk to you? JULIEN BENNETEAU: We didn't talk about the match together, but when we shook hands he told me, What a pity, but not just like that. He meant that I would have deserved to win. So I said, Thank you and good luck to you. But after that we didn't talk about it. We saw each over in the locker rooms late in the evening, and both of us we were with the members of our teams. I felt they had some respect for me. They knew I was very disappointed. They said very nice things to me. I know our coaches talked to each other, but it was a very good match. Q. There will be a lot of curiosity about your next match; for the first time Jo will not be alone. Can this change the result of the match? Because when you have a new [] wife you want to do well. JULIEN BENNETEAU: This is maybe what he's going to feel, but personally I'm not going to take this into account at all. I'm not going to use that to prepare my match or anything. I'm just going to try to be dangerous and to be a threat for him. I don't know if his coach is going to tell him this or that or that he will want to obey entirely what the coach said, but it's just his problem with his new coach. They have to do their thing. But I will have to take care of myself and I will have to set up a strategy and a game plan. I think I know more or less how I'm going to play. I'm going to use past experiences against him when I was able to beat him. I'll try not to do the errors I made, especially in Wimbledon when I lost to him because I made mistakes and he was dictating the game in that Wimbledon match. He's going to do his thing, and I'm not going to worry about him. Q. Another word about Roger. After a very tiring season, he preferred to withdraw. Do you understand this? Because the organizers here were counting on him. Maybe if the season is that long players are going to get fed up. JULIEN BENNETEAU: I understand his decision, yes. But from the tournament point of view, it is bad for the tournament. There are two bad things, first that Federer has to play Basel because it's his home tournament before, and second, it's the end of the season. Roger had a goal to become No. 1 again but not to finish off the year No. 1. He reached his goals this year. He already won five or six times the Masters, and he wants to win another title to have the total record of this tournament. And also, he wanted to win this tournament but he won it last year, so we knew that there were little chances of having Roger in this tournament. It's unfortunate for this tournament. I also understand his decision. I think we should do something to have this tournament earlier in the season or else have a gap of two weeks between this tournament and the Masters. Q. You said that other players get to know players on the second year they are on the tour. What do you think about Raonic? It's his second year on the tour this year. JULIEN BENNETEAU: We already saw the first year that his serve was big. Now, when we used to play Milos we were concentrating on his serve and we were forgetting about the rest. Now we know that he has a very big forehand and he moves very well. We know also that his game plan is inspired by the Spanish way of playing because his coach is Spanish. So, yeah, there are things that we understood later on because in the beginning we were just thinking about his serve. I saw new things in his baseline game. I don't know if the other players saw it, but I think that player is extremely good. I played him twice indoors this year: in Bercy and twice in the following month. I know he's extremely dangerous on that type of surface. I believe in the future he's going to be very well ranked. Q. Are there things you can use against him? JULIEN BENNETEAU: When you are able to return his serve, yes. A key is to be able to read his serve because he mixes it up a lot so it's difficult to read it. Now, once the rally starts of course you can do things. Q. I wanted to have your feeling on this very good year of yours with a lot of emotions. What do you remember about this particular season? Wimbledon? The Olympic Games? What are the best memories of this year? JULIEN BENNETEAU: Oh, well, the Olympic Games, of course. I will remember that this year many things happened, and many positive things: two new finals on the tour, the Olympic Games medal, and also a lot of consistency in Grand Slam tournaments. Also, I was able to reach my best ranking. I think I can use all this for the future. I know I have to be more careful because I had some injuries. Of course, it was a bit unlucky, but I have to be careful because I wanted to come back on the tour too quickly and I had some pains here and there. So during the winter I have to prepare well to start off the next season very well and to make sure I will not be injured. So I shouldn't overplay. I should have a very good program and schedule so that I can improve my ranking further. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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