Comme lors de son entrée en lice mardi, la numéro 2 mondiale Coco Gauff n'a pas été inquiétée par la qualifiée tchèque Tereza Valentova (18 ans et 172e mondiale) ce jeudi au deuxième tour de Roland-Garros (6-2, 6-4). L'Américaine affrontera la Tchèque Marie Bouzkova (47e) pour une place en huitièmes de finale.
« 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.
00:17Yeah, whenever you're playing someone young, honestly, I wasn't really aware of her age until today, when I just, like, randomly looked, and I saw she won juniors last year, so I was like, okay, yeah, she's definitely young, but, yeah, whenever you're playing someone young, you know they're probably going to be free and relaxed, and I felt like that's what she was today, and, yeah, overall, I'm happy with how I played, and it's tough to kind of manage that, but, you know, through to the next round.
00:45Questions, please?
00:47Hey, Coco.
00:51Hi.
00:52Well done.
00:53So you get all kinds of questions about improving this and improving that.
00:56How do you balance the focus on, especially in the middle of a tournament, on what you're doing well against things that you'd like to do better in order to sort of keep your head in the right spot and not thinking about less good stuff versus really good stuff?
01:15Yeah, I think, I mean, I am someone to look at sometimes more negative things than positive, so, yeah, I feel like it's just taking it a match-by-match basis and figuring out what I can do better with each match.
01:28And, yeah, I mean, once I'm in tournament, I just feel like I have to trust the work I did before, and obviously, you know, you have the day-offs in between, but, you know, there's not too much you can improve in one day, but you just try to make those little steps and hope they perform in the match.
01:43Coco, well done today.
01:46Just wondered how different the court played with the sun finally coming out compared to, like, your first round match and the extent to which that affects how you prepare or how you play within the match.
01:58Yeah, it was definitely a little bit more livelier today, and I felt better on the court today.
02:03How I change, I mean, I went up, changed the tension a little bit just because I figured it would be a little warmer and quicker today.
02:12And, yeah, with how I play, I think, I don't know, I felt like my first match felt so slow and it was so windy, so I was just trying to just, that was one of those things where I just felt like just trying to manage it point by point.
02:23And then today I felt like I could build a little bit more and go for my shots a little bit more.
02:28And I did that today and playing against her, I was, you know, I had a game plan and I kind of just stuck to it the whole match.
02:34And maybe necessarily, I felt like today isn't always the way I like to play, but that was what was required for today, to be honest.
02:47Hi, Coco.
02:47Hi.
02:48Some players talk about making scheduling requests.
02:54They want to play at night or they don't, or can I get tomorrow off if they're coming to a tournament?
03:00I'm curious how often you make those requests, how often you get what you ask for, and has that changed over the course of your career?
03:11Yeah, I didn't, honestly, I'm not a player that requests a lot, to be honest.
03:16Like, here, I could have put in requests on what day I wanted to play, and I didn't care, so let's just let the fate decide.
03:24Yeah, and usually I kind of mainly do requests, mainly if I'm playing doubles, and I'll request maybe to play earlier,
03:31just so that if I have doubles, then if I'm not playing third on singles and fifth on doubles and I'm there late,
03:38I'd rather play first or second than doubles, but most times not really unless I did well in a tournament and then I'm playing the next week or really two days later,
03:48I'll ask if I can play like the latest possible day for first rounds, but I guess over my career, like for sure, yeah, if you're ranked a little bit higher,
03:58they'll hear more of your input for sure, and I think, to be honest, it's rightfully deserved.
04:05I feel like if you do well on tour and you win so many tournaments, you should have maybe a little bit more priority when it comes to that,
04:13but when I was younger, I got protected because I wasn't allowed to play a second night match because of the age rule,
04:19so that was kind of my only request then, and it wasn't really a request, it was more so a rule, so yeah, other than that, I hadn't really, I'm not a person that requests a lot.
04:31Hey, Coco, watching practices, it's all, like the changeover between players is always pretty seamless, like at the hour, you know,
04:39a player will come off and then the next player will come on. I'm curious, has there ever been a time, maybe not at the top level,
04:44but ITFs or juniors, when you were waiting for your practice, but the player just wouldn't come off?
04:48Has that ever happened before?
04:50It's happened on tour now, more so than dreams.
04:53Really?
04:54Yeah, you definitely get some people that you know will push their time, like two, three minutes, four minutes past.
05:00For me, I'm pretty, I'm not pretty, like, on the bar with that, like me, if I'm on the court, I always, like, I'll ask the coach, my time,
05:07I don't like to be that player that goes over their time, I'm going to stop, right, literally, maybe even a minute before,
05:13just especially if they have to clean the court, but there are some people that go over and you're kind of standing
05:18and then you start making your way further and further on the court.
05:21To me, it's, I don't mind as much, but it's just, like, acknowledged, like, sometimes, you know,
05:26if someone's to be like, sorry, like, I have a match and I just want to hit a few more serves, I'm like, okay, cool.
05:30But the worst is, like, when the players, the player, like, just keeps going like they're not in the wrong,
05:36and I'm like, and then they don't say sorry after, and I'm like, okay, noted.
05:39So, yeah, there are some people that do go over their time, but, you know, I just try to inch my way out there
05:44and be like, okay, like, it's time to get off the court, but, yeah, they're, usually most people are pretty respectful
05:50when it comes to that, because we all know that it's sometimes hard to get practice,
05:54so every minute is kind of worth it.
05:56So, sorry, when you're inching over, like, do you stare at them directly and kind of make your presence felt, or?
06:02Um, yeah, kind of.
06:06I don't stare at the player, I'll just, like, kind of inch my way on the court,
06:09because I won't do it until it's, like, three minutes, and if they look like they're wrapping up, then I'm chill,
06:13but some people just will keep going unless you, like, say something, so, yeah.
06:19But usually my coach will start making his way, like, on the court, but, yeah, I'm not that person.
06:24I'll finish, like, at my time.
06:30No.
06:30Oh, you guys already know that.
06:32Let's start a whole thing, so, yeah, you should already know the answer to that.
06:37Hello, Coco.
06:37Hi.
06:38Congrats.
06:38Thanks.
06:39Two days ago, Ons Jeber made some comments about the scheduling women's matches in the evening.
06:45How do you feel about that?
06:47Do you support Ons?
06:48Your thoughts on it?
06:50Does it bother you as a woman, as a professional athlete?
06:54Yeah.
06:54Yeah, I talked about this a few days ago, and to be honest, I don't really have all the facts of the situation.
07:00I do think that women's matches are worthy of a night spot, and, yeah, I think, to be honest, I, like, if there was going to be two spots, I don't think that a woman should play after the men at 815.
07:14I just think that's unfair, because you could go on at 11, really, and that's if the match really goes fast.
07:20But there, I think there is opportunity to put a match earlier at, like, 7 or, like, normal Grand Slam, or not normal Grand Slam, but most tournaments do do the two nights a lot.
07:31So, yeah, I think it's just, if they are going to put one match at 815, I mean, there are, for sure, could be opportunity to put a woman there, and if they're going to put two slots in the first match, starting at 815, I don't think that a women's match should be played after a men's match.
07:47I just don't think that people should be going on at 11 or 12, to be honest.
07:51But, yeah, I definitely do agree with Ons when you feel like what's best for the fans, but I feel like we produce some high-quality tennis, and we have some great stars on the women's side who can, that fans, I'm sure, would love to see.
08:06And from my experience playing at U.S. Open, night match at 7 p.m., with Novak following me, people were, and he's the greatest player of all time, people were almost just as excited to see me play as him.
08:18And, yeah, and same in other places that I've played, like Australia, night match, people were excited to see, too.
08:24So, I definitely think that there's opportunity to improve that in the future with this tournament.
08:29Are you aware, when you're playing, especially a younger player, how heavily they're breathing during your match?
08:37I mean, just, like, they're kind of gassed, given your style of play and getting extra balls back in ways, are you able, have you noticed that?
08:46Yeah, it's not something I notice in match, to be honest, but I do notice, like, if I'm breathing a little bit heavier, I know they're breathing more heavier, regardless of age.
08:56It's just the player thing.
08:58I'm really confident in my fitness, to be honest, and so, yeah, but it's not something I look over and see, to be honest.
09:05If she was doing that today, I definitely didn't notice.
09:08Yes, today, your return games were very good, but not your served games.
09:12How do you explain that?
09:13Got to serve better and keep returning well.
09:17I don't know what else to say.
09:21I have a few last questions on the other side.
09:23You can come and give me so you can see.
09:27Oh, yeah, yeah, I can see.
09:28The other day, I think you were answering a question about Serena, and you seem to be implying that, well, you said the players really are the only ones who know about the tour, and we seem to be implying that there's some really tough sides to it.
09:44And obviously, you've had a spectacular run, but could you take a moment and just talk about what are the downsides, what are the challenges in playing the tour, traveling?
09:55Yeah, I think just sometimes the solitude of it, and I am someone who enjoys to be alone, but you're alone a lot on tour, and for me, it was harder, especially when I was younger, just because there wasn't anyone.
10:10I went from juniors, where everyone being my age, finding a way to relate to someone, doing something with friends, and then going to tour, and everyone being like 10 years, obviously, it's not the case so much now, but 10 years older, and, you know, it's not like you can just be like, hey, what are you doing tonight?
10:25And with someone, like, most people aren't going to want to go to dinner with someone that young, so, yeah, that was the harder part for me with that transition, just basically having friends on tour to not having any friends and trying to work through that.
10:40But I think that's why I travel, tried to travel a lot with my parents, and even then, it's tough, because I don't think anyone wants to spend as much time with their, like, parents all the time that I had to do when I was younger, but now I definitely try to make more friends on tour, and, like, with Robin and Alex, just playing doubles, too, to just help build those friendships.
11:01So, I think whenever I do see younger players on tour, necessarily, they don't, we don't have to be friends, because they might not want to, but I definitely just try to reach that hand now, or say hello, or just make the vibe better, because I know that for the few players that did do it to me when I was coming up, I appreciate it a lot.
11:18Thank you, everyone.
11:19Thanks.
11:19Thanks.