On the course of the game
“A difficult game. I will not watch in tears. My feeling is that he played well. I don’t think I played badly, but he played well. The problem is that it’s still the same and if he continues to play this way my opinion is that at the end of the year he will be in the top 30. The last time I said something like that for someone, he didn’t. Kudos to him for playing like that today. I hope he continues to play like this, otherwise I will be disappointed, I will say to myself: why did he succeed today and not in two days? »
On the somewhat tense exchange with the public
“No, it was fine. The only thing, when I asked the referee to check the mark, it was very close in my opinion; I was discussing with her where did she see the ball inside. I was booed for some reason, I told them “shut up!”, because I was talking with another person but not with the crowd, so they should shut up then. Otherwise, everything went well in my opinion. »
His season on clay
“Every time this season ends I’m satisfied, whether it’s once in the quarter-finals, in the first round, in the fourth round, I’m happy. Today, with the wind and the dry court, my mouth was full of clay, from the third game. I don’t know if people like to have clay on their socks, you can throw them in the sack after the clay court season. Me, I don’t like that. I love that this season is over. I’ll be able to rest well, that’s one of the advantages. Much relaxation in the days to come. Happy to move on to the next challenge although obviously I would have liked to stay longer in Paris even if it is clay.”
On the looming grass season and the British public’s welcome to the Russians
“You can’t control everything. If people decide to be mean or difficult, it will be like that. If they are nice, so much the better. It is not for us to decide. Of course, I will be happy if I can go to the UK to play Wimbledon. Before I will play in Halle and it’s a tournament that I love. I haven’t been able to play well so far. It’s not easy to play on grass. Can’t say I love grass, but it’s still better than clay. Last year I played 2 finals, I will try to do even better this year at Wimbledon than in previous years.
