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DUBAI DUTY FREE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPSFebruary 28, 2014Philipp KohlschreiberDUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES T. BERDYCH/P. Kohlschreiber THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. You played a very fine match apart from the end of each set. What happened? PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER:  Well, what happened, obviously I think he had always a little bit more from the game. He served very strong in his service games. I didn't have too many chances. The only chance what I got I broke him, had a very good start, but then over the time I think he had more in my service games, more pressure on, and I didn't serve so well. I think I had to go over many second serves, and then, well, it's always tight against these top guys. Q. A very good week overall for you? PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER: Overall, it was a very great tournament. Also today was very great to play in front of such a nice crowd. And the surroundings, the weather, everything was great. But it takes for sure now a couple of maybe minutes, hours, to get over the loss, and then I see it that it was already a good week. Q. What are the positives you take from this week? I mean, you have been playing consistent. PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER: Well, there are many good things. I won three rounds to come to the semifinals. I had played very decent match today against a very good guy. You know, it was very close. I think maybe I should win the first set. I have to finish it. I was break up, so against these guys you only have little chances. I didn't took it. I think that's maybe what help me a little bit more. Win the first set, then I get another chance maybe in the third if he wins the second. Everything changed a little bit. He got more confidence and played better and better. Q. You have been ambitious. Now perhaps you can be a better player, a better... PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER: Every time you lose a match, you figure out what's going to happen, what you can do, what you can improve. I think a big issue all the time is my serve. I think in the beginning I served very well. He did not have too many chances in my games. But then during the match I think my quality of serve dropped a lot. Then you can see that every time he's in the rally, that's a 50/50 chance to win or lose the point, and as many balls he gets back on the serve, it gets more difficult. Q. You said yesterday that you'd have to play differently against Berdych or Tsonga. Do you feel as if that's the way you should play against power players in the future, how you played tonight? PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER: Yeah, I saw a few good things in my game today, especially in the start, which my serve helped me a lot to be aggressive, you know. At the end it's not easy to play aggressive if you serve many second serves. But in the beginning, especially I had first serve, and then the next one I tried to be more aggressive than I usually am. It worked out very well. I tried to go to the net, but, yeah, during the match, my quality and my service games dropped a little bit, and he could make the pressure, which I feel very difficult in my game style to hold the level, you know. He's playing very flat, very aggressive. He can take my topspin very early because he's a big guy. So my weapon is not working so well against him. So like I said, in the beginning was some very good points. I need to improve a little bit more against these guys. Q. For a small guy‑‑ PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER: Thank you (laughter). Q. ‑‑ how difficult is it? What's the extra work that you have to put in to sort of match the bigger guys? PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER: Well, I think he's even working harder or same way than I do, you know. He's just got different weapons. For sure I have maybe a better game at the net, but it's hard. If I'm not coming to the net, I cannot play it. He's a very big guy. He's not moving maybe as good as I am, but he doesn't have to, you know. He has very powerful strokes. He has a huge serve. I have to work with my weapons; he's working with them. Maybe his are a little bit better, but I try to improve and take the best out of the match today. Q. Do you have any specific ranking goal for this year? PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER: It's always nice to be in the top 20 for sure to be seeded in a good section in the big tournaments. That's the first step, to go back to the top 20. And for sure one of my goals is to once in my life to achieve the top 10 status. Maybe, maybe not. Q. How big an ambition is it for you to win or advance in the Davis Cup as well? Because you've got a tough tie coming up there. PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER: Yeah. We have a tough draw. First round Spain, now France. It's going to be difficult. Of course it would be a very nice step for German tennis for us as a team to improve to the semifinals, and, well, we had a very good start there. We had a great team, great spirit. So we need to take these good emotions to the next tie. And, well, you never know, the French team has an army of very god players. If they are all fit, it's going to be very, very tough. We hope maybe somebody is tired from Miami, cannot play, I don't know. But we need a little bit of luck that not everybody is playing (smiling). FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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