00:00BNP Paribas, partenaire des plus belles histoires de Roland Garros, aux côtés des ramasseurs de balles depuis plus de 50 ans.
00:30Even when you're taking products that you know are safe, it's just so scary every time you go into a test because any little thing could happen and set it off and cause contamination or something like that.
00:48So even though you know there's a 99.99% chance every time you do your test that everything should be fine, it's still that small chance that it takes very little for it to just have a catastrophic effect on you.
01:09So I'd say it is always very stressful, but yeah, I mean I'm always making sure to take stuff that's always marked NSF approved and not take stuff that's not, I guess.
01:22No, no. I'd say it's, like I said, from the beginning it's always been so stressful.
01:45It's like it's every time, because we get, like I said, we get tested so much, it's, you know, you always have to be on it and it's always been scary for me even since I first started getting tested that like any little thing could, that you have no control over and you have maybe no idea how it got in, it's going to ruin your, not only, you know, your, can ruin your career but also your, you know, potential reputation.
02:09Yeah, so from what I understand the rule is, you know, with our whereabouts you give them the hour window and if, you know, you have to be there in that hour and if you're not there then you'll get a strike.
02:38But if they find a way to make contact with you, whether it's on the phone or some other way outside of your window, then you have to make yourself available, which to be honest is very annoying because if they call you while I'm driving to practice or something and I answer the call, then they have to come to the practice room training and meet me and do it.
02:59And so, yeah, I mean, it's, it's sometimes inconvenient.
03:02I've, I've had, I've had them in, you know, one time I got off a flight in, I think I got to Shanghai, so definitely not in my window at all, but they caught me in the lobby.
03:13I was so jet lagged and, but, and I couldn't pee and so the guy was basically just in my room and I was like taking naps for 10 minutes at a time because I was so jet lagged and so tired and I just kept waking myself up every 10 minutes to like see if I could pee because I couldn't, I, I, sitting there waiting to pee.
03:28Yeah, I just, I couldn't keep my eyes open.
03:29I couldn't even stay awake.
03:31Yeah, I was just, I was just sitting there, there's nothing I could do.
03:43I mean, I've sat, I've sat in, you know, I think, I think all of pretty much all of the top 10 players on the men's and women's side are all together on this that, you know, we want to, you know, just push for a,
03:58a better just share of the revenue.
04:00I think the revenue percentages is, is, uh, is off.
04:06It's obviously, it's not about the outright number that we're getting paid because of slams.
04:09It's obviously our biggest payday.
04:10It's obviously the, the most, the most we're getting paid, but, uh, you know, in terms of, in terms of the players making the, the tournament happen and the percentage of revenue coming back to the players is, is very low for tennis and extremely low when compared to other sports.
04:27So I think, uh, I wouldn't say I'm like leading the charge or anything, but I've, you know, I've been involved, like everyone else has been.
04:35No, I was in Geneva.
04:36I was in Geneva.
04:40I think it's good.
04:58I think it's good.
04:59I think that, I mean, the thing is, it's also the U.S. also uses one of their wild cards, uh, as well at the U.S. Open for an American that performs the best in the, uh, the tournament.
05:07So I'm not sure how the other countries distribute their, I know how we do it with all our wild cards is, is who earns the most points in the, in the lead-in, which I think, I think is a great, uh, system that we do.
05:20How often would you say you take the court either with some form of injury or given the pain, uh, and is it ever for you, is there ever that debate of like, do you really need to go out there or do I need to?
05:43Um, I definitely never feel like, I don't feel like going out there.
05:49Um, I, I always, I always want to go out and play, but yeah, I mean, that's something I've struggled with a lot this year.
05:56Um, of just playing when I probably shouldn't be playing.
06:00I think for Dallas and Delray, I definitely shouldn't have been playing, um, and then in Acapulco, I was there practicing, and then in the practices, it just became super apparent, like, I'm gonna get killed if I play.
06:16Like, I just, I'm too injured to actually even, like, put up a decent, like, match.
06:21Um, so that's, that's when I kind of stopped it, and then kind of same thing after Miami, I re-aggravated my injury after Miami, and I was like, if I go on clay right now, which is gonna be even tougher to play through with my injury, then, you know, it's gonna be a big problem.
06:38So, you know, I took, took two more, two more weeks, two more weeks off there, so I'd say I play through injury, like, a lot over the years.
06:47Um, I normally don't pull out, but I've never really had a lot of injuries that last more than, like, you know, a short time, so maybe I play through it one week, and then the next week, it's fine.
06:59I can, and I'm good, and, uh, but, yeah, this year, this year's been, it's been difficult, for sure, kind of finding the balance between playing and not playing.
07:07When you do sort of push yourself to play, you know, maybe you shouldn't, why is that? Is that because of a sponsorship, commitment?
07:17No, no. I just, I, it's as simple as I'm really stubborn, and I, I like competing. I, I tell myself that I believe that I can, I can still go out and win,
07:28and, and there's been so many times where I've felt injured, and as soon as I start playing, I feel better, I feel less injured, you know, um, so, yeah, it's just, it's just me being stubborn, and I, I love to, I love, I love to compete, and I, I believe, I'm delusional, and I believe that I can, that I can still win.
07:49Yeah, it was, yeah, yeah, it was.
07:51Oblique.
07:52Yeah, I just had my first hit here.
08:04Yeah, I hit, I hit here, but we played, we played with them last week, but it's a bit, it's a bit different conditions last week, because there's altitude, but.
08:13Yeah, they're just, they're, they're super dead, they don't go anywhere, um, they feel good to hit with, that's what I've always said, you feel like you can't miss, but,
08:20the ball goes nowhere, there's no reward for, like, hitting a good shot, unless you're, one of the few guys that can just generate insane amounts of pace off of, off of a dead ball, um, it's,
08:32it's just unfortunate, we played the entire clay court season with, one ball, and then switch for the, the biggest one.
08:40Uh, I don't feel like I've technically, like, really changed anything, I think, back in, like, 20, end of 2021, I started, kind of, finding some, some rhythm on my forehead, and I think that, uh, is the main reason why I improved a lot, and it became much better.
09:08Obviously, like, movement on the court as well, uh, you know, a couple years back, I started returning a little bit further back, um, not so close up all the time, I think that helped me a lot too, but, uh, I'd say, I'd say that's about, that's about it, I think I've just become a, just, all-around better player, but there hasn't been anything of my game that's, like, really changed, like, a lot.
09:28Last one, anyone?
09:31Do you have, has it been especially frustrating, dealing with this injury, while you're ranked so high, um, and, you know, in the world, you can't win a great draw, and things like that, and it happens to be that, probably, maybe your most unhealthy year in the fall.
09:53Yeah.
09:54It's my most unhealthy year ever, for sure, yeah, it's the, it's the least I've ever, it's the least tennis I've ever played, because I guess what you guys don't see is, like, in between the tournaments, I'm not playing tennis at all.
10:05Like, I'm, just, just now, since Madrid is, Madrid is, to now is basically the only time I've been able to actually, like, practice when I haven't been in tournament, since, you know, since, uh, basically before Dallas, any time I haven't actually been at the tournament, I haven't, I've been taking the time off, so, uh, you know, tournament-wise, not very healthy, but, you know, tennis-wise, the least, the least amount of tennis I've ever played, for sure.
10:32Um, but, I'd say it's not, it's not necessarily frustrating because of the ranking, it's just frustrating because, like, I, um, I feel like I've lost a lot of really close matches this year already, that if I was just a little bit sharper, a little bit better, I, I could have gotten myself out of, so, uh, I think that's just, that's been the big thing, I just need to, you know, get through some of these tight matches.
