“Like Arthur Fils, you took advantage of Thanasi Kokkinakis’ withdrawal due to a knee injury to qualify for the third round of Wimbledon (2-6, 7-5, 5-2, ab.). How did you experience this incident?
He hurts himself on the point, at 4-2 in the second set. I serve, he returns, I fix him, finally I go against the foot, he slips and he hurts his knee. It’s unpleasant to win like this. I especially hope that he won’t be out for too long.
You have announced a medium-term goal: to enter directly into the main draw of the Australian Open next January. You are getting closer to that, aren’t you?
That’s the goal. It’s still a long way off. We have to stay healthy. The level of play has been good for months. It started last year, I qualified for Roland Garros, I was in the last round of the Wimbledon qualifiers. Then, finally, I stopped for almost six months, except in Rennes where I hurt myself again. Overall, it’s good. We have to continue like this. In terms of accounting, I’m maybe 200 points short of being in the top 100. I have five or six months left to get them.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me, we’re going to do the tests and get treatment to give ourselves a chance of being as good as possible and especially on the pitch on Saturday.”
You were already injured in the thigh and you called the trainer after the first set for abdominal pain. Is it starting to pull everywhere?
There were some pains that came during the qualifiers. I had a quadriceps injury. I had a back pain that we managed to get over, but I was compensating a lot. I called the physiotherapist because yesterday (Wednesday), I felt a stitch in my abs on a serve. My whole team was telling me: “Retire, stop” at 6-2. I told myself: “If you get broken, you stop”. Because I was afraid of making it worse. I had the feeling that if I forced it once, it would tear everything out.
I called the physiotherapist, he put two bandages on me. I told him to put the thing that holds the most. From then on, I changed my way of being on the court. I told myself to try to spend between 80 and 100% of first serves at 160-180 km/h max, without forcing. But especially no second serves where you have to go back and look. I relaxed, I seized the opportunities as soon as I could on his serve by being very aggressive on the return. From the back, I could play. It worked. I really took the upper hand from the end of the second and in the third, I was the one dominating.
So, with a break…
(He cuts in) I don’t know if I would have given up, it’s easier to say it afterwards. In any case, I was told to give up so as not to jeopardize the summer. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, we’re going to do the tests and the treatment to give ourselves a chance to be as good as possible and especially on the field on Saturday (in the third round against Alex de Minaur)
Does this constant fear of injury cause a certain mental wear and tear?
Now, I’m used to it. It’s also a bit normal, I was almost unable to train after Roland because I hurt my knee. For ten days, I didn’t play. When I started again, I stopped all the time because I was in pain. I was infiltrated, I didn’t play for another week. No competition for a month, not much happens in training, I can’t put on the weights I want, I can’t get my body used to putting in intensity again… With a change of surface on top of that, a very physically demanding surface, it’s normal that there are little glitches. For the moment, it’s holding up. We managed the thigh well. It’s up to the medical staff to do their job, that’s what they’re there for. No, I’m joking (smiles).
