“Monte-Carlo is the only Masters 1000 where you have never won a match. How are you approaching this 2024 edition?
I’m very happy to be back in this tournament that I watched a lot when I was a child. Rafa has won it so many times. Many Spanish players have shone here, which explains why it is a very popular tournament for us. I’ve only played it once and, indeed, it didn’t go well (entry defeat against Sebastian Korda in 2022), so I hope to have a good run this time.
Was the hard-land transition after Miami smooth?
I took a few days to breathe after my defeat in Miami (in the quarter-finals, against Grigor Dimitrov). Fortunately, it never takes me too long to feel comfortable on a surface. I have confidence in being able to have a good tournament.
“Playing the doubles at the Olympics with Rafa would be a dream”
On clay, do you think that a new duel with Jannik Sinner would change the outlook?
Jannik beat me the last time we played on clay, but he’s fantastic on all surfaces anyway. He adapts his game very well. Every time we face each other, the surface doesn’t matter. We play great tennis against each other all the time and, frankly, I don’t know if the clay would favor me or not against him.
Rafael Nadal’s comeback is slow to materialize, he had to give up this tournament. Despite these difficulties, do you still have in the back of your mind the idea of playing the doubles in the next Olympics with him?
Of course I always think about it, it would be a dream. I hope to play doubles at the Olympics with Rafa, but that’s in four months and from now on anything can happen. That would be great. The fact that he is not present this week does not fundamentally change things in my opinion because he has not been on the circuit for a while. But as a tennis fan, I really regret that he doesn’t line up here.”
