TENNIS 2014 ROLAND GARROS – 1st of June 2014. N. Djokovic d. J. Tsonga 6-1, 6-4, 6-1. An interview with Novak Djokovic
Q. Actually, I have a question that I’m sorry to intervene at this moment. It doesn’t have to do with the match, but you wrote your great book, which was very moving about the war situation. I just wanted to ask you a question about something you wrote in there where you said describing the bombing during the war. You said: “Once you realize that you’re truly powerless, a certain sense of freedom takes over to truly accept your own powerlessness is incredibly liberating.” I find that pretty powerful. Could you talk about that experience, please.
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, to put it in simple words, it’s truly incredible and something I don’t wish for any human being to experience, the power of war and the power of being just helpless out there.
There is nothing that you can do, basically, if you have an air strike like we had for two and a half months. So we were just praying for that to be finished and for this agony to go away as quickly as possible, because many civilians were killed, many people lost their homes, lost, you know, many things that still even today they couldn’t recover.
But from my personal experience, as much as it was devastating, it was also very helpful in terms of my mental strength. It shaped up my personality incredibly in such way that I didn’t have much fears after that, you know, after being afraid for your own life and with your close ones. There is not many things that you can fear after that.
Q. I guess you’re pretty happy with the performance today. It was clean and smooth.
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: The performance was great from the start till the end. I came with the exact level of intensity that I was looking for before the start of the match.
Two years ago was kind of a similar situation where I started very well, won the set 6 1 and I was 4 2 up two years ago and then he managed to come back, and then we had the tough match and that ended up in five sets.
I didn’t want the similar scenario. Obviously I wanted to win that second set, because I knew that Jo is a kind of a player that feeds off the energy of the crowd, and he loves playing in Roland Garros. He started very slow. He made a lot of unforced errors. I was very solid from back of the court, and then I knew what I needed to do.
Then, you know, being 5 2 up and then losing the serve 5 4, that was a very important game that I played very well to finish the second set 6 4. It was a mental relief in the end. The match went great in every single way for me.
Q. I know you used to know Ernests Gulbis quite well since you were kids. I was wondering if you watched the match he played against Federer. If you did, do you think he’s on his way to become the top 5 player that everybody expected him to years ago? I wanted to hear your thoughts on that.
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Yeah, I think he played the French Open quarterfinals in 2008 already. He’s very talented player with a lot of power. His attitude on the court shows that he’s confident.
You know, I know him since long time. When I was 14, 15 is when he showed up in anything Niki Pilic tennis academy. So we know each other really, really well. I congratulated him on his win today, because I thought he played courageous and aggressive when he needed to, and he deserved to win.
I saw quite a bit of the match, because I was playing after them. He played really well.
Obviously more matches you win, the more you build confidence, the better your ranking will be.
But again, he’s aware, I’m sure, that, you know, not only one win can get you to where you want to be, and he wants to be at the top of the game, so he needs to be consistent with the results. But this surely can serve him as a great confidence booster.
Q. I know you know Maria Sharapova pretty well from doing the Head commercials and before that, also. What do you like most about her on court and off?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: What makes her different on and off the court?
Q. No, what makes her so good on the court and you having watched her and knowing her off court as well, I guess.
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: First of all, she’s a great champion. She’s somebody who is hard worker, committed to the game, and has been around for many years.
I even practiced with her a couple of times, so I know how committed she is to practice hard and she practices hard as she plays in official match.
You can see her concentration. That’s why she’s at the top of the women’s game for so long. She has a mindset of a champion.
The other hand, off court she’s a different person than on court. You know, I think people get maybe a wrong idea, because they see her so serious and so focused, you know, doesn’t have much of ups and downs in concentration during the match. She doesn’t show her personality as much on the official matches.
Off court she’s very intelligent. She’s a very nice girl. Yeah, I know her also for quite many years.
Q. Coming back to Jo. You had a pretty close head to head at the start of both your careers, and then you took over. Can you pick some reasons why you have figured it out so well now.
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, I think after playing so many times and different occasions and surfaces, you start figuring out the game of your opponent. The amount of matches that I have played against him, he’s one of my biggest rivals, that’s for sure.
I played the first Grand Slam final against him. We do have something special about our rivalry, about our matches.
I just feel as I won so many matches, consecutive matches against him, different surfaces, more confident coming into the matches and knowing what I need to do, I have a clear game plan in my head.
Q. I’d like to ask you if you have talked to Dusan Lajovic very much who will face Nadal next round. I know he’s young, he talked to you and all you guys to get advice. Do you have any advice for him for this match?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Yeah, of course, we talk. He is generation of my younger brother. So I know he’s very talented and he’s showing his full potential right now.
I’m really glad that Serbia has a new up and coming tennis star that obviously is performing now at his best on the Grand Slam, which is great to see.
He has made a record of his career now in Grand Slams reaching the fourth round playing against Nadal. As he said, it’s going to be a dream come true for him playing on the center court.
