TENNIS 2014 ROLAND GARROS – 27th of May 2014. R. Gasquet d. B. Tomic 6-2, 6-1, 7-5. An interview with Bernard Tomic
Q. Obviously a tough one for you. Are you happy with the third set?
BERNARD TOMIC: Yeah, it was tough match. Difficult for me to come out in this match. He’s the favorite; he’s playing at home. It’s a different feeling to me playing back home.
But he played very good. The first set, set and a half I think I played very, very bad, and it was difficult for me to get in because I wasn’t moving quite good because he was giving me different balls and pushing me out.
I really struggled with his game, especially on clay. He really gave it to me today, and I could not do anything in the first few sets.
Q. Lleyton was saying before when he had his hip surgery it took him months and months get back to full range of motion. Can you tell us how it is out there for you, how it’s affecting your play, and how long it will be until you sort of get back the level you were at?
BERNARD TOMIC: Yeah, it’s not easy. He had one done and I had two in one week. I don’t know. You need time. I felt good last week; felt a little bit strange the last few days. It’s all time and matches, I guess. Obviously I’m playing on my worst surface, clay, and it’s difficult for me to move and find my feet.
But now I have grass coming and I have the next ten days that I can use. It’s going to be important for me, and hopefully get back to the surface that I love playing the most on.
Q. Last year you couldn’t have your father by your side; this time he has been allowed to be with you at the French Open. Does that make a difference, and was that easy to have that accepted by the French Tennis Federation?
BERNARD TOMIC: It’s good to have him back. It’s been one year and it’s been difficult for me. I’m happy to have my dad back and supporting me and by my side.
You know, it was a difficult year, like I said. To get this opportunity to have him back the past few weeks is good for me. Now my biggest priority is to get back 100% with the condition I have and the surgeries that I’ve had in January.
I’m going to remain positive and hopefully get back on track soon.
Q. Expectations for the grass?
BERNARD TOMIC: Like always on grass I look forward because grass is my favorite surface. I believe I can switch it on and anything can happen on grass with me.
Hopefully I can settle with my hips. The next ten days are very important to me to build and train differently on grass, because the movement is completely different.
Now I’ve been moving a lot laterally and been moving to balls out wide really high; on grass they’re much lower. I prefer this, but I’ve got to get settled in the next ten days.
Q. How do you feel when you walk through the gates at Wimbledon? Is it a different feeling to walking in here?
BERNARD TOMIC: It is. You know, here is just I really don’t like this I mean, Paris is a beautiful city, but I really don’t like this tournament. I’ve never played well. I’m happy that I have played four or five French Opens and I’m only 21 now.
Hopefully I can change in the next seven, eight years.
Q. And what about walking into Wimbledon, what’s that feeling like?
BERNARD TOMIC: Yeah, it’s different. I don’t know. Just brings everything out of me to play any tournament on grass, especially Wimbledon. I seem to get switched on there. I maintain my focus, and that’s where it brings out the best tennis in me.
I think that’s why I’ve done fourth round and quarterfinals there the last few years.
Q. When you think back a couple of months, would you rethink what you did and try to play in Miami, that maybe it was too soon to try and come back?
BERNARD TOMIC: Absolutely. You know, I wanted to pull out of Indian Wells, which I did.
But it’s compulsory to play the Masters, one of the reasons I went there and played. I happened to be in Sarasota anyway, which is two hours away.
So that week I decided to play. I stayed at my friend’s house on the island in Miami, so I thought I would play because it was compulsory.
There was nothing I could do, because some of the ATP rules and systems are messed up. They need to change a lot of things. They expect me to have two surgeries, play in a Masters Series, and it’s compulsory.
I told them, but it was stupid of me to play this tournament, but I had no choice.
Q. It’s only compulsory if you’re fit. You just get zero points. Did someone tell you that you had to play?
BERNARD TOMIC: I felt like I just needed to come on court and give it a shot and just to it was eight weeks prior of having any matches, so I just felt like I wanted to get out there, whether it was to lose 6 1, 6 2 or 6 Love, 6 1, I knew I wasn’t going to win that match. I got out there with a mindset of using it as rehab sort of thing.
That was okay. I knew I wasn’t going to win. I was happy I got out there and just gave it a go sort of thing.