00:00BNP Paribas, partenaire des plus belles histoires de Roland Garros, aux côtés des ramasseurs de balles depuis plus de 50 ans.
00:30I hope I can finish strong here in Paris with a good result. I've had three good years here in a row, so I'll try to make it a fourth good year in a row. That would be great.
00:48Casper, the weather forecast is 50-50, could be heavy, could be sunny.
00:57How are you going to prepare yourself and adjust your tactics for either or?
01:03Yeah, I mean the guys who take care of the courts there are doing an incredible job, so whether it's raining or dry, you feel a little bit different.
01:16But if you play on the big court, the court will stay quite dry all the time, that's my feeling.
01:23Because either with a roof or that they cover the court when it rains, they keep it in a good shape all the time.
01:31And the ball will fly a bit slower through the air when it's cold, so you can adjust with maybe string tension.
01:38You can go down a bit when it's colder and tighten it up when it's warmer.
01:41But I've been able to play good tennis here in cold and warm conditions, and I honestly prefer to play in 20 degrees than 30 plus.
01:53I mean, when it gets too hot, it's kind of tough out there.
01:55Last year was some of the coldest I've experienced here in May, June.
02:03We played that year in October once when it also got really cold.
02:07But I'm hoping that the sun will come out a little bit more, because so far it's been pretty cold.
02:12I'm sort of curious what the process was like after that crazy match with Yannick in Rome, in terms of you getting back on the practice court,
02:31probably playing with someone who was playing a little more of a normal level than what he was putting on there.
02:36And so what was that like? But also in sort of a larger picture, given that Yannick is where you would like to be,
02:45and you've come pretty close to it, are there things that you think about that you can do with your game
02:52to maybe get closer in that matchup, given that he's going to be around for a while, probably?
02:58Yeah, definitely. After Rome, I took a few days off. I went home.
03:02We had quite good weather, so I stayed a lot outside. I played some golf and then started practicing.
03:08And yeah, I didn't play someone of Yannick's level in practice for a couple of days, so it was nice to win some more points in practice.
03:15But we practiced yesterday and he was up 4-0 in the first set, like after again, like 15 minutes.
03:22So I was thinking, you know, there's something going on here. But after that I got some games back.
03:27But I think that you don't look at him as a clay court player because he's had great success on other surfaces.
03:38And he doesn't play that higher, heavier topspin ball, but that doesn't mean you can't play well on clay.
03:45I mean, I think if you move well and are able to hit strong shots from defense as well on clay, it's kind of hard because you, I felt when I played him, like if I tried to open the court, he was there and he just kind of ripped it back.
04:00If I tried to play heavier and higher, he would take it on the rise and, you know, wouldn't miss much.
04:05And whether you're playing super heavy or not on clay, I think the most kind of frustrating thing for an opponent is if you show that you can hit either heavy or strong shots all the time without too much errors.
04:19And then as an opponent, you get that feeling that I can't, you know, I can't outplay or I can't hit winners on this guy if you move well.
04:28So that was a little bit, I never really had the chance to set up that many points because it just felt like it came firing from both sides from him.
04:36But I think that I can realize myself that I, that I can maybe also flatten out the shots a bit more every now and then on clay.
04:45And not always wait for the ball to come down that I can maybe step in a little bit more and take more balls on the rise and go for a little bit more.
04:53Because what he showed me there was that this is definitely possible even though it's a higher bounce and slower on clay.
05:02Hey Casper, I'm kind of a tennis nerd question, but in your opinion, how much of an advantage is it for you to be able to have the comfort level that you have in movement on the clay,
05:12being able to slide into and out of your shots? And do you feel that that really makes you more efficient in terms of a mover and what you can defend and what you can attack out there?
05:20Yeah, I think, I think if you look at the modern game, I think almost every player now are able to slide on the right foot, the left foot, open stands, close stands.
05:33And it just seems like it gets better and better to me.
05:36To me, when I grew up watching tennis, not that many were able to do that, especially on hard court.
05:46And when I look at players like Yannick or Carlos, Novak, those who do it more often, it kind of seems like it doesn't matter whether they play on clay or hard court,
05:56because they're able to slide on both surfaces. So for me, I don't slide that much on hard court. I haven't really ever been able to feel comfortable doing that.
06:06Sometimes you kind of have to, but to do it on both legs, open, close stands, whatever, it's really, really impressive.
06:12So it becomes more natural for me on clay. And I think majority of right handed players struggle a bit more to slide on the left leg, like it's kind of opposite.
06:24But, you know, the best players in the world, they were able to do both. I mean, if you look at Rafa on the surface or Novak,
06:31when you thought you had them on the run on the back end, they would, you know, open up their stands and, you know, put their feet down and slide and kind of just rip a passing.
06:41So that's, that's for me, one of the tougher points to lose as a player, because you feel like you've done everything right.
06:48And you maybe come in on the right shot down to their back end, and then they come up with this shot that is like, ridiculously good and impressive.
06:54So if you're able to do that, you can win and you can, you can kind of stick it to the opponent saying that, you know,
07:04even though you thought you had me, I'm going to pass you on my, not my strongest leg, open stands winner.
07:11So I think that's, that's something that I see most Europeans who grew up on clay are able to do more and more.
07:19I'm not sure if you know anything about him, but you're from a similar part of the world.
07:24So I thought I'd ask if you've seen or played ever with Elmer Moeller. No.
07:30I saw this compilation of this back end of his that he just was, was crazy. Yeah. That's the only thing I saw.
07:36And he's a bit younger than me. So, but yeah, I ask your question. Sorry.
07:42What did you think of the back end when you watched that video?
07:44Yeah. I mean, it looks, it looks, it looks kind of different than most other back ends, but he just plays it with so much confidence.
07:56Kind of like Benoit, you know, he would go around and rip like back and inside out.
08:01That's like a shot that I would never do. I mean, it's so funny how some players hit shots.
08:07And I guess we look at each other when I look at, when I looked at that video, I was thinking, wow, I wish I had that back end.
08:17You know, I think I'd be even as a, you know, a better player. But then at the same time, when he watches me or Alcaraz, or I don't know who he likes to watch.
08:27But if he looks at a guy with a huge forehand, he probably thinks, oh, I wish I had that forehand because then I would be complete.
08:32You know, it's like we look at each other and we have to realize that there are some limitations every now and then on what you feel comfortable doing.
08:39But yeah, that was a really, really, really aggressive and good back end.
08:44I want to see it live and I hope I can play him once.
08:47Last two hours.
08:50Hi, Casper.
08:52Hi.
08:53How often during the course of a season would you say that you go out on court for a match without any kind of injury or pain?
09:04And I don't know if you saw what Caroline Garcia posted a couple weeks ago on social, but about that idea of the need to play through pain
09:13and the sort of glorification of or honor in playing despite injury or pain and whether that's a difficult thing to deal with as a professional athlete.
09:26Yeah, it definitely is.
09:27I think tennis players are not the only one to do it, but I think that is not, well, tennis is obviously individual sport.
09:38And if you feel some pain and of course it comes to a limit of what how much you can kind of take.
09:47But as a team sport athlete, it's easier to sit out a few matches and let your other teammates kind of play for you.
09:54But tennis, you can't do that or you can always, you know, pull out or give walk over.
09:59But then you lose points, you lose prize money, you lose earnings, you lose the kind of fear of losing out on a chance.
10:08It's very big because tennis is really about, you know, keeping your ranking all the time and doing good results.
10:14So I've definitely learned to kind of accept and live with that, that you have to push through pain.
10:22I've never experienced like a very bad injury for a long time, luckily.
10:30But definitely, I would say more than half of my matches that I play, there's something going on that you guys don't know about.
10:37Whether if that's, you know, just a small blister under your foot or maybe a little soreness in a stomach, rib.
10:47I mean back, knee, whatever. It keeps, I think I've been through my whole body.
10:52Every part of my body has felt some kind of pain already in my career.
10:55So it's not unusual and sometimes you get like really tired of it.
11:02And I think that's why players have been asking a little more lately about having a little longer off season for the body to just kind of really calm down and settle and get rid of all the inflammations here and there.
11:14Because if you do well and you finish the year at the year in finals, you pretty much only have five to six, seven weeks before you're kind of obligated to show up in Australia again.
11:25And sometimes that's not enough, but it's really part of the job to manage.
11:30When you grow up as a kid thinking, I want to be a professional player, you don't realize how much pain you will have in your career and it comes to a point where you just feel like you've had enough, I guess.
11:45Just a little more on that subject and given what you went through here a year ago when you won the first set in that semifinal and then got so unwell.
11:57I just wonder, is that maybe one of the most disappointing moments of your career to be struck down by bad luck like that?
12:06Yeah, it was. It was really tough. I got some parasites from either water or something I ate or it could have come from different sources.
12:18So it's hard to track down, but it stuck. It was in my body for two to four weeks.
12:23So that was kind of, I guess, day one where I really felt bad. I was that much. So it's part of this job and career, I guess.
12:35But like I said, I've been very fortunate. I've never had like a really long break or injury where I had to come back from a several month injury.
12:43So I consider myself quite lucky and fortunate in that way. But yeah, not ideal that it happened.
12:50And it was, I was really fortunate because I had a walk over in the quarters against Novak.
12:57So I had like four days to prepare between the fourth round and semis. So I was coming out feeling great.
13:03And then suddenly towards the end of the second, first set, I just, the stomach started causing issues and just felt really tired.
13:10But I'm trying not to eat any risky stuff this week and to have it happen again. But yeah.
13:20It's, it's tough like, yeah, some other sports you kind of envy because whether you're injured, sick, you can kind of let your teammates play for you.
13:29Or you can sit out a match and then come back. But in tennis, it doesn't work like that.
13:32So it would be nice if that could happen any other day than that day yesterday. Last year, sorry.
