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ROLAND GARROSMay 27, 2014Marinko MatosevicPARIS, FRANCE M. MATOSEVIC/D. Brown THE MODERATOR: Questions in English. Q. The celebration, did you have it long planned? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: I wasn't gonna be ‑‑ I thought about it, but I was pretty spontaneous, really. Yeah, maybe a little bit over the top, but just, yeah, huge relief. Q. Talk about that relief. 13 goes. Did you get to a point where you thought, I'm just not going to bother with the bloody Grand Slams; I'll win all my other matches. MARINKO MATOSEVIC: No, I never thought that. Maybe a lesser man would've. I'm just kidding. No, yeah, it was like ‑‑ it got pretty demoralizing at some stages. I had some tough draws. When I did have my chances, I just couldn't quite do it. Just really happy to do it today. Q. When you saw the draw, did you think that maybe it was the right time? At the Australian Open you had a much tougher draw; here it looked like it was more, I don't know, accessible for you. MARINKO MATOSEVIC: Yeah, it was definitely better to play Dustin Brown than Nishikori. He's a good player. He's had some good wins. He beat Isner this year, he beat Hewitt last year, so, yeah, he can play, definitely. Q. How sort of heavy had that burden become for you? Talk about that. MARINKO MATOSEVIC: Yeah, obviously it played on my mind. Not during the tour events, but when I came to slam I definitely thought about them. You know, you guys write about it, other players know about it, so, yeah, it was tough. Q. What did you think when he was 5‑1 up in the fourth? Were you kind of thinking, Here we go again? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: Yeah, lots of things crossed my mind, but I've been down in a few matches this year that I've come back from, like against Falla in Miami and Przysiezny in Munich. I thought I could still do it. I'm like, If he can get 5‑1 up I can do it as well. I won six games in a row, so there you go. Q. You mentioned a sort of mental toughness you had in matches this year. Do you think there is something that's clicked or something you've done differently? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: No. I'm, working with someone, someone that's worked with a few former players. I have a good team around me with Mark Woodforde. I'm now sharing Dodig's trainer also. He's like in the top two singles and doubles combined. Feel like I've got a good team around me. Yeah, just trying to keep on improving. There is a lot of guys over 30 that are doing well, so I'm just trying to improve every day. Q. Andy was saying that he enjoys being around you in the locker room. You're a lot of fun. How hard is it to keep the fun going when you felt thislike, oh, gosh, they're winning, and they must be thinking, Is he ever going to win one of these matches? Is it just something in you that motivates you? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: I got to 39 in the world, so I'm like, I got to do it. I'm better than this. With the early losses, I mean, before, you know, like once it got to five, six, then two years, eight, then twelve, three years, yeah, it's tough. I always knew I was a better player than my Grand Slam results. I'm happy I could get the win today. Q. And the fun part of you? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: The fun part? Yeah, we have a lot of fun in the locker room with all the boys. Obviously losing is never fun. Yeah, it's‑‑ I mean, yeah, it's tough when you're on 13. I tried not to think about it and I kind of let it go after the Australian Open. Just tried to forget about it. It paid off a couple months later. Q. What did Woody say to you after? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: No, he was pretty calm and just told me, you know, Focus on the next one. He was, yeah, pretty calm. Q. How do you feel about the next one? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: Yeah, I played Andy before. Learnt a lot of lessons in Queen's. He won and went on to win Wimbledon. I think that was the third round. Yeah, one of the best players in the world. I'm just looking forward to it. Q. You must feel like going into a game like that that there is a huge sort of weight lifted off your shoulders. Do you feel like you can be pretty dangerous at this point? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: Yeah. Feel like there is a huge gorilla off your shoulders. Yeah, it's just relief more than anything else really. Yeah, hopefully it can, I don't know, free me up now. Q. I know you don't like the Mad Dog nickname. I think Andy Murray said he thinks it's a good one. Have you kind of accepted it now? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: Once again, I haven't heard anything about that since left Australia. And the people that had the website‑ it wasn't my website ‑ they took it down. Yeah, so I found out who it was and, yeah, they took it down. Q. Do you think you could maybe embrace it like it's a good thing for you, or you just want to forget about that? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: I mean, you guys and people are not going to‑‑ I really don't care anymore. It started off I thought it was a joke in Sydney. And then the way I reacted to it, then like obviously fed you guys and fed the crowd or whatever and then it got worse. It is what it is now. Can't change it now. Q. I think it's a great nickname. Why don't you like it? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: Ah, because it's ‑‑ it's not that I don't like it. In Sydney I thought it was a joke. It was from this website, and I didn't know about it until it blew up in the media, and then ‑‑ I've just never heard of it before. Dolgopolov is the dog, yeah, so I never heard of it before.  It was just a bit of a shock. Q. Do you have nickname? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: No, not really. Like Davis Cup stuff, but not really. Like Marinks. Q. What would you like then? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: Just my name. I mean, I don't know. (Laughter.)  I mean, it's not‑‑ yeah, it's fine. Yeah. Q. Isn't it just fun and people can identify with you maybe because of that on the court? People get behind you more. MARINKO MATOSEVIC: No, it was like ‑‑ I don't really care now, but at the time when it happened in Sydney, it was just like ‑‑ I don't know, because like I went quarters in Brisbane, quarters and Sydney, and then like I responded badly in the press conference I think in Sydney, and then it just blew up. I really don't care now. I can't change anything now. Q. Copyright it now, surely. MARINKO MATOSEVIC: No, it's all right. Q. Andy said you and he joke around a bit. Have you known him for a long time? MARINKO MATOSEVIC: Have I known him for a long time? Obviously I know who he is. But, I mean, in the locker room kind of started like speaking when he was with Ivan. I like Ivan Lendl's sense of humor, so I kind of started speaking to him when he start working with Ivan. And like obviously Tony Roche being with Ivan, and then we shared some fun times in the locker room since then. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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