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BNP PARIBAS MASTERSOctober 28, 2013Jo-Wilfried TsongaPARIS, FRANCE THE MODERATOR: Questions in French, please. Q. Just to get this out of the way, can you tell us whether or not he's going to coach you? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Well, the rumors are right. That's all. Q. Can you make more comments about that? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Well, it's been a while that we were in contact with Thierry and Nicolas. So we set up a project for me, and I'm extremely happy to start a new adventure with both of them. Q. Can you explain how this new group is going to work? Are they going to be with you at different parts of the year? How is it going to go? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Yes, they will be with me quite often, either one or the other. It's an advantage for me that there are two of them, because I have different points of view of what I'm doing. Sometimes there will be both of them with me in a tournament and sometimes I'll be alone with one of them. For practice, it's going to be the same. Q. How did you decide this? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: It's been a while that I was trying to find a new way of working, and it is with them that I feel it's going to be the best. I get along very well and Thierry and Nicolas, too. It's been many years now that I have known Thierry. When I started on the tour, he was one of my first opponents in the futures tournaments. I met Nicolas pretty soon after that. Q. What do you like in one and the other? What can one do for and what can the other one do for you? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Well, I don't think I need to make a list of their qualities. Everybody knows they have many. Q. Maybe Ascione might seem surprising to the general public. What you can say about him? He's a young coach. Is it a kind of bet you're making? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Well, when you start working with a coach it is always a bet. It's gambling a bit. So before winning your first title as a player or as a coach, you did nothing. Nicolas and Thierry did things before, at least in my view, because I know Thierry worked very well with all the players he coached in the past years. So even if he doesn't have a lot of experience, he helped them improve. I'm thinking about Nicolas Mahut and Kristina Mladenovic and other players are maybe not well‑known by the general public, but they improved a lot with him. And Nicolas has a bit less experience as far as coaching is concerned, but he has experience with the Fed Cup. This is a plus. So I think he has experience as a player a lot more than as a coach. He won the Davis Cup. He played the fifth match of a tie. He has a very good career in singles. His game is aggressive, like mine. Q. So both of them were coaching Nicolas Mahut. What's going to happen to Nicolas Mahut now? Are you going to share or are they only for you? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Well, cohabitating, no. Well, there are two of them, so when one will be with me the other will be with Nicolas Mahut. And when we'll be both in the same tournament, we'll get organized so everything goes well. So when it will be the two of us in the same tournament, there will be the two of them too, here. Q. About this tournament, how are you approaching the tournament? Maybe you prepared differently because of your knee problems. How do you approach the tournament? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Well, I will try to do my best and give it everything, but I have no certainties. Nothing seems easy. When I come here I always want to play well. I'll see what happens in the first round. We'll see what happens. I just want to take things match by match, and we'll see what happens. Q. You're still having a diet without gluten? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: No, no diet anymore. Q. (No microphone.) JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Well, it was a lot of constraints and I didn't see any specific results. Just not eating gluten I thought would help me either healthier. When you eat without gluten you eat more healthy food. That is the only influence. But gluten itself has no affect. Q. Do you believe Thierry and Nicolas can give you something more than your previous coach, Rasheed? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: We'll see. For the time being, it's just the beginning of our relationship. I hope it's going to develop. I'll tell you more in a couple of months. Q. We know you like fishing, but are you a hunter, too? Right now you are in a hunting position for this race for the Masters. JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: No, I'm not a hunter. I'm rather a no‑kill person. Right now I really wan to be qualified, so I'm going to go on the court and do whatever I can. As I say every time, we'll see what happens, and we'll only know what happens in the end. Q. In round of 16 you might to have play Richard. Did you talk about the draw? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Yes, I saw Richard and we talked about it. Maybe not specifically about that, but we talked together. Between us, it's not a war. It's sports. Things happen on the court, but then outside of the court we have no problems. We are just competitors on the court. For us, it's just the continuation of what we've been doing day after day. It's not the first time I'll be playing Richard, so it's nothing special. Q. A few weeks ago you were talking about a more ambitious structure. Do you have a physical trainer? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: I think I'll give you more information a bit later. But there will be other things that will be organized, yes. Q. Jo, this has nothing to do what with what we've been talking about, but what do you think about this Cilic thing? What do you think about the anti‑doping test and everything? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: What do I think of that? Well, not much. Q. You are not wondering about the way these tests are carried out? JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Yes, but at this stage we don't even know what's true, what's not true. It is quite a delicate subject. Personally, I just don't know who I have to believe anymore. Everybody is lying, even the institutions. I don't know if it's true, but this is the feeling I have. Those who are testing us I feel are not always saying the truth. So with all these things, we don't even know where the truth lies. It's difficult to have an opinion or a judgment on this. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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