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BNP PARIBAS MASTERSNovember 2, 2012Jo-Wilfried TsongaPARIS, FRANCE D. FERRER/J. Tsonga THE MODERATOR: Questions in French, please. Q. That match is similar to the first two matches. You were not able to play your best tennis. Against Ferrer, of course, you couldn't make it. JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Yes, that's the way to put it. He was far better than I was today. He was more consistent. But it's not with my game that I lost. It's because of my returns. I was not able to be aggressive on my returns, and when you don't, against a player like him, you have no chances. Even if you are serving well, there is always one moment when he starts returning well and you lose your serve. When you are under pressure and you know you're not able to break him, you end up losing your serve. You feel a lot of pressure. So what was really bad in my game today was these returns. I was not being aggressive, and of course it had an impact on the whole game. Q. From outside, we also had the feeling you were lacking stamina. Of course we see you are eager to do well, but maybe you didn't have enough energy? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: No, I feel okay. Q. Physically are you feeling all right? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Yes, I am. Q. The previous years you had big wins against top players. This year was a bit more difficult. Do you have an explanation? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Do I have an explanation? Not really. Not really. Well, for one, I didn't play them very often. No, I have no explanation. Q. You don't seem worried. JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Well, yes, there is one explanation: I was not as good as they were. It's just that. Q. Before the Masters, playing the players you were not able to beat during the year, is it worrying? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: It's more or less the same as last year. Q. Do you believe that you would have been able to go to the end of this tournament playing well and play well also in London the week after? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: It would have been possible, yes. If I had been able to keep playing in this tournament, I would have built up my confidence. Of course I would have been tired, but I would have been more confident. I think this would have been positive for the following week. Today I lost in the quarterfinal, and, well, I won't have much time, anyway, because I will be in London tomorrow and Monday I will be on the court, I guess. So if I had played a bit more here, it wouldn't have changed things much. Q. You're talking about your return. Is that something you worked on with Roger? Also, did you talk about body language with him? Because we saw you frustrated very often. Are you also going to work on that? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Ask Novak and Andy what they think about that. And Rafa, too. It's the way I am. About body language, the only thing I have to work on is when it's positive. But expressing positive things is not a problem. I think body language is not really a problem. It's not that. The problem is more with my game. When sometimes I have too much of a choice I have the feeling, for example, that I have a lot of choice when I return. I can go forward, I can stay behind the line, I can do many things. So when I have to choose one shot, I'm hesitating. I'm thinking, am I going to hit a forehand or a backhand? Am I going to go forward? Am I going to step back? On important points, I don't know what decision to make. At the last minute I decide to change, and in the end I miss. This is something I'm going to try to improve with Roger, and there are also many other things I could work on. Q. About your returns, we don't really realize how difficult his serve is to return. What about his serve? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Well, it's difficult to return. You might believe it's not a very powerful serve, but it's very difficult to play. It's like Gilles Simon. He doesn't hit hard, but you can't use the speed of the ball. And Ferrer is the same. His serve has a lot of spin. But at the same time, the ball is not going fast, so it's difficult. You can't slow down your movement. You need to hit it. Of course, David is ‑‑his serve is difficult to return. Otherwise he wouldn't be as good. Q. All these players going to London so quickly, of course this is an exceptional situation this year, but it's a bit tough. JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Well, yes, it's clearly an exceptional situation. We all know it is complicated for everyone. And even more for players like Novak or Rafa or Roger. Most of the time they go to the end of the tournaments, and of course for them it's difficult. When they know they are qualified and one of them is sure to be top No. 1, I mean, it's difficult. Q. Even for you it is complicated. JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: No, not for me, because I dream of winning the Masters and I also dream as much of winning here. The two tournaments are important for me. I know I will not win a Grand Slam every year and earn 4,000 points. So every point is good to take. Everything is good for me if I want to have a chance to win a Grand Slam one day. You need to be top 8 if you want to have a chance to win a Grand Slam. Otherwise you'll play one of the top 4 players too soon. Q. You believe you have too much of a choice when you have to choose a shot, but would you like to go backwards and have more, like you were in the beginning? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: It's true that when you're thoughtless, you don't ask questions and you just go for it. And part of the players who have a lot of possibilities in their games, I always have various choices. I can mix it up. I can do different things. I think if David comes out of what he usually does, he doesn't know how to play. Whereas I either can play defensively or on the contrary I can go up to the net. I can challenge those players from the baseline. I did that already. I can serve hard, I can serve slowly with an angle, without an angle. I can do serve and volley. I can go up to the net on the second shot or not at all. So I have many choices, and most of the time it is, in fact, negative because I'm hesitating and I sometimes make the bad choice. Q. So what you're saying is that you need a coach who tells you before you go and play, This is how you have to play today? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: No, but instead of saying, Today I'm going to play this, what I should do is, This is how I'm going to play whoever the player so that I could really have a solid game I can rely on. The top players play their way, not as they are asked to play. Rafa is going to play the same way. He's not going to play serve and volley suddenly. Djokovic is always going to stay on the baseline without moving. Q. So you feel you are improvising or adapting too much to the other player? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Yes, I think so. The fact that I have several possibilities prevented me from really choosing one solid style of game that would be mine and only mine and that would bother my opponents. Q. Would you like to be in the shoes of Janowicz today? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Oh, it's cool. I was in his shoes. That's great. Q. So you understand what he's feeling? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Yes, I can imagine. I really wish him good luck for the beginning of next year, because it's great but it's often only a beginning and then keep it going. It's sometimes much more difficult, more than we might think. THE MODERATOR: Questions in English. Q. Was David just too good today, or what was the sort of story with you? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Yeah, I think he was just too good. I didn't bring my best tennis on court today. I didn't return well, and, you know, if you never engage the rallies, it's tough to challenge your opponent. So today was difficult because of my level but also because of his level. He didn't miss a lot of things. He played well, so he deserve it. Q. What about the week? Are you happy with the week you have had here, building up to London? Obviously you qualified for London, so that's a success. But the week you have had, are you happy? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Yeah, I'm quite happy. It's a good thing for me to be there, to be part of this event. I mean, I will play against really good players, I will have a chance to beat them, so, you know, I will try to take it and we'll see what happen. Q. What are your memories from that tournament, from the Tour Finals? What do you think when you qualify for it? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Of course, nice memories. I mean, player final, the ATP Final for me was desperate‑‑ was desperate? So it was good moment. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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