Novak Djokovic s'était rassuré à Genève, en remportant le 100e titre de sa carrière. Pourtant, l'inquiétude régnait après Madrid et Rome et des défaites précoces, sans convaincre. La motivation a repris possession du corps du Serbe, déterminé à aller chercher un 25e Grand Chelem, à Roland-Garros. Ce mardi, il n'a pas laissé place au suspense contre Mackenzie McDonald, avec un succès 6-3, 6-3, 6-3. Pour sa prochaine sortie, il retrouvera un joueur français, Corentin Moutet ou Clément Tabur, donc un public pas totalement acquis à sa cause, ce qui ne lui fait pas spécialement peur.
« Le tennis, partout & toujours ici », sur
https://www.tennisactu.net / Tennis Actu
« Le tennis, partout & toujours ici », sur
https://www.tennisactu.net / Tennis Actu
Catégorie
🥇
SportTranscription
00:00BNP Paribas, partenaire des plus belles histoires de Roland Garros, aux côtés des ramasseurs de balles depuis plus de 50 ans.
00:30C'était un peu de temps pour trouver le rythme sur le court, avec la balle et le mouvement, les conditions étaient différentes de la Gineva, mais c'était un solide match, 3x6-3, c'est bon, il peut toujours être meilleur,
00:59mais je dois être content et satisfait avec le premier round.
01:07Hey Novak, bienvenue.
01:09Comment comparez-vous ce que vous essayez de faire maintenant, avec les jeunes jeunes, avec le challenge d'aujourd'hui de breaking en et getting à la top-levelle,
01:19et aussi de revenir de votre mal-injury, je pense qu'il y a deux ans maintenant.
01:26Je suis très curieux de ce que les trois expériences sont comme.
01:29Can you just, which injury are you referring to?
01:33The elbow.
01:35The elbow?
01:35Yeah.
01:36And you were, how were you making connections?
01:39Just sort of like trying to work your way back from that, work your way back from a rough spot here,
01:45and then trying to break through, and then originally, yeah, three different experiences.
01:49Well, yeah, I mean, that was probably the most major injury I've had in my career.
02:01I've had injuries, but that one, you know, I carried on for quite some time and played with the medications, etc.
02:08And then at one point it was just too much, so I had to take a break, but I didn't make a surgery and then decided to make a surgery and then came back after that.
02:19But with a completely different serve, so my biomechanics were very disrupted, were basically modified because of the injuries.
02:30So it was, yeah, obviously, always the confidence level that you try to seek when you're away, when you're injured, when you haven't played.
02:40It comes with matches, but for me it was even more challenging because I completely changed the motion for the serve.
02:46So I had to find that again, or find a new one, which actually, if you see the service motion I had prior to that injury and post, my service motion is quite different.
02:58So I think that's always a big challenge for a professional tennis player or a professional athlete just in general.
03:07But when you're an individual athlete, you know, if you're injured, you're injured.
03:13That's it, you can't do your job.
03:14What was the, I'm trying to think, I'm trying to connect what you asked me because I'm trying, it was an injury and then.
03:24I was coming back and then trying to sort of find your way now versus also and trying to, you know.
03:29Ah, so you're basically, what you're referring to is trying to understand how I'm mentally kind of like finding ways in different stages of my career of how to.
03:38Basically.
03:39Basically, okay.
03:40Well, thankfully, I don't have any major injury now.
03:47There's always something happening, but, you know, on a kind of more minor level, daily level, that it's manageable.
03:55I mean, that's obviously as you get, as you go older, as you get older, that's one of the things that you always have to pay extra attention to.
04:06I mean, in terms of, you know, prevention and keeping the body fit.
04:13Yeah, that's definitely more challenging nowadays than it was, you know, 15 years ago.
04:19So, when you're younger, your body recovers faster.
04:24Yeah.
04:25So, that's just something biological that you have to accept as the clock ticks.
04:31And you just have to make some adjustments with your team in terms of how you train, how you prepare.
04:37So, I spend quite a bit of time in, like, making sure that every step of the way in preparation and prevention is respected in order for me to still be able to play on this level.
04:48That's on the physical side, a mental side, of course, you know, there's this, there are always challenges, there are always, you know, doubts, but there's also motivations and goals and, you know, what inspires you, what's the purpose of you still competing, you know.
05:08Of course, I have those questions, but, you know, thankfully I have several different motivations that keep me going and, of course, history and making records and achieving great things in this sport is definitely one of them.
05:24So, I don't hide that at all, you know, I don't have, I don't mind vocalizing that.
05:29So, yeah, that's really what I feel and what I try to kind of carry into my weekly life on the court, which definitely doesn't become easier in terms of motivation.
05:51So, you have to kind of dig deeper and be also surrounded with the right people, have a good environment is also key, you know,
05:59because you're very repetitive, so I try to mix things up and do different sports, you know, keep me going and different things that just keep my mind fresh.
06:09Hi there, Novak.
06:11You had a good experience in Geneva last week, winning the tournament, you've made a good start here.
06:16You've also had some great success in the Rome tournament in the past and had good experiences there.
06:22I just wondered if you could clarify why you chose not to play Rome this time.
06:29It was a decision to play Madrid instead of Rome this year, that was not normally the case, like if I had to choose between the two, I would normally be choosing Rome.
06:40Schedule-wise it was just better, but yeah, this year I wanted to play Madrid, I haven't played it in a while.
06:47And I felt like that I, yeah, I just didn't want to play both as I played Monte Carlo quite early after, shortly after Miami, which maybe wasn't the best decision.
07:02But again, Monte Carlo is a place where I feel like at home and I always have temptation to play, you know, it's hard to skip that one.
07:10But anyway, Geneva was not in the plans, it was not in the schedule, but I was talking with my team and decided to have that because I didn't have any practically, only two matches on clay.
07:26And I'm a type of player that, you know, I'm required to play a bit more in order to find the right game for clay.
07:35You know, it doesn't come very natural to me as maybe for some other guys.
07:39I rarely started really well on clay, like if you analyze all of my seasons in my career.
07:47So it takes a little bit of time for me to, yeah, get accustomed with the surface and movement and striking the ball.
07:54So I think it was a good move to go to Geneva, to be honest, because I was also, you know, struggling a little bit with confidence level, you know, and doubting my game a bit.
08:06And so it was good that I got four matches under my belt, won a title and, you know, coming into Roland Garros, it feels different than I had, comparing to the feeling I had three weeks ago, you know.
08:19So, you know, let's see how far I can go here, but I have a good feeling for now.
08:24I know that your next opponent will be French, whoever you play.
08:33I'm curious how you might compare the way the crowds here support their players as compared to anywhere else.
08:42And have you seen that change over the years?
08:46And there have been some complaints from non-French opponents who play French players here that it's gotten worse
08:53and that the crowds treat the opponents more poorly now?
08:58And I just wanted to get your thoughts on that.
09:03Well, it's, again, it's logical to expect that let's take all four slams, you know, anywhere you go and you play the local player coming from that country where the slam is played,
09:16that they're going to have the crowd on their side.
09:18And it's nothing strange about it.
09:22It's expected.
09:23But it is true that here in France and in Paris, comparing to other slams, the people are louder and more passionate
09:33and just give more support, louder support and more energy to their player, which, you know, for some players can be annoying.
09:46And I know it's not the kind of ideal environment you want to be playing in, but you have to be ready for it.
09:53So I'm, look, I played in a lot of hostile environments in my career and it's not something I'm not, I haven't experienced before.
10:05I'm not saying that it's, I'm not saying that it's going to be hostile for me or not.
10:10I mean, I just expect if I play a French player in Roland Garros that I would expect that most of the people would cheer the French player.
10:18And it's nothing personal to me at all, but, you know, on the court, when you're there and when certain things happen that cross the line,
10:28and I do understand the players who, you know, protect their space, their integrity, and if somebody disrespects you, starts, you know, you have hecklers.
10:39I don't think they're my majority, and contrary, you know, there's always a few people here and there sometimes that would cross the line.
10:50And it happened to me quite a few times, actually, in my career.
10:53And then sometimes I would just ignore, but, you know, sometimes I would face them and that's it, you know, then we would be crossing each other, but back and forth.
11:05And it's, yeah, it's a battle out there, you know, sometimes it's not just a battle with a player.
11:14I know that in the first set, there's quite a back and forth with you and the umpire and your opponent with the umpire about the roof and the conditions and all of that.
11:23Could you just sort of clarify what those conversations were, what was going on?
11:27No, I was just asking, you know, if, if and when they are going to make a decision to close the roof, you know, and how long we will have to play.
11:38That was my first question, how long we are going to play under that rain, because it was quite pouring rain out there on the court, and it was affecting the court as well.
11:47You know, court became quite dumb and a lot of bad bounces, et cetera.
11:51And the first information I got from Chair Empire is that they decided to wait, and so I asked who is they and where are they, you know, and then he said that it's, you know, supervisors and others that are deciding to leave it open.
12:09And I said, can I just speak to them and can they come and see it, you know, because it's quite different from the office or stands and, and, and actually being on the court.
12:17So that's what, that, that, that's all basically what was to it.
12:21I, then I just asked whether there's a difference, uh, because they're anywhere going to, if they decide to close the roof, they're going to, uh, make us play.
12:32So we, we, as we were playing while the roof was closing.
12:35And so I said, you know, what difference does it make to close it now comparing to say in 15 minutes or whatever it is.
12:43So that's was McDonald was also complaining about that, you know, that, you know, when I broke his server three, two, then he asked the supervisor, why aren't you closing it now?
12:52And he said, let's wait for another game.
12:54So it was quite confusing because in the rate on the radar, apparently they were not seeing, you know, they were seeing that he's going to stop, but it didn't look like stopping.
13:01I mean, so anyway, I just, and then at one point supervisor told me, you know, but they're playing everywhere on the outside courts, uh, in the same conditions.
13:11And I said, yeah, but I mean, we are on the court with the roof.
13:13So, I mean, it's also, why do you have the roof then?
13:17I mean, what's, what's the point, you know what I mean?
13:19So, so that's, that's all basically, you know, in the end, they closed the roof, which I think most of the stadium wanted.
13:24I mean, if I understood well in French, they were singing to, to asking basically for roof to be closed.
13:31And I think it was better for everyone, for the players, for the, for the stands as well.