At Wimbledon,
This loss hurts. There was a big fight from start to finish. It is played a few centimeters on a lot of strikes. There was the mindset. I made every effort. I tried to go forward as much as possible and I made mistakes from time to time. A few centimeters away, you could have said that I had made an extraordinary match and that I had played like a great player. In the end, I lost and I made bad choices from time to time. It didn’t turn out much. It’s still a match where it’s played for nothing and it doesn’t work in my favor. Afterwards, I prefer the way I played today than the way I played at Roland-Garros (defeat in the 2nd round).
I break in the last set but at 3-2, I started thinking too much and telling myself that I had done the hardest part. It’s frustrating and it’s sad because this game I really tried to look for it.
It has never worked for me in the past (two matches and two defeats). We will say that I have never been so close to winning against her. She made her match. It does not give points.
We were allowed to go to the locker room and talk to the coach. It was unexpected. I thought the game was going to be postponed until tomorrow. We almost started on 4. We started on 18 and ended on 1… It’s different to play indoors. The court was slower. That’s a shame. But we are told that we had to finish on the 1. Between finishing this evening and coming back tomorrow when rain was announced, I think it was still better to finish today.
Sport is a reflection of life. You make the effort, you work hard but it doesn’t pay off right away. You have to be patient. It’s like that. The balls that I miss at the end, I see them on a loop. We are used to it but we don’t get used to it. Tennis makes me experience my most beautiful emotions and my worst emotions. It’s a relationship of love and hate all the time. There are times when we love each other more than others. It is with this attitude that it will pay off. Last year, I managed to do great things. This year it’s not working in my favor but it will one day or another.
Statements taken at a press conference