TENNIS AUSTRALIAN OPEN – 24th of January 2015. F.Lopez d. J.Janowicz 7-6, 6-4, 7-6. An interview with Feliciano Lopez
Q. You had three tough rollercoaster rounds. How is your body feeling?
FELICIANO LOPEZ: I’m feeling good, no? I think, yeah, is true I have couple of tough matches. Today was also a tough one, but it was straight sets, which is really good for my fitness condition. I feel good. I feel ready to play the rest of the week.
Q. Your next match against Raonic, you beat him in Canada the last time, but you have an even head-to-head. How are you approaching it?
FELICIANO LOPEZ: Tough match. Milos is one of the greatest players in the game right now. I think is going to be very close. He’s probably the great server right now in the game. Is going to be a tight match. Those matches were two, three points that will come by the end. I think it’s going to be difficult to return his serve. Is good that I beat him last time, but doesn’t mean anything because he beat me a couple times before. But I think it’s a great chance for me after being almost out of the tournament to be in the fourth round. I have to be very pleased for that.
Q. When something like this happens, that you got a little bit lucky, does it give you extra motivation to take advantage of this kind of chance you got?
FELICIANO LOPEZ: It gives you the chance. It gives you the chance. It gives you the opportunity to play today because I was already out, no? With Mannarino and Kudla in the first round. Today when I was out there playing, I thought I have to be pleased for that opportunity, so try your best. I think today finally I play some of my best tennis. Losing with Kudla or Mannarino I wouldn’t have the chance, so I feel very pleased.
Q. Rafa and Tomic both made comments yesterday about how some guys, their game is based on serve and nothing else. Do you think this is the future of tennis? Do you think it’s a good thing?
FELICIANO LOPEZ: It’s a very long debate, I think. We can go into a huge discussion on that. I think, yeah, you see the average of the players, is between 185 and 180. Everybody became stronger now in the game. Everybody serves huge. Everybody hits the ball with a lot of power. The racquets are so powerful right now. Some courts are fast, like here, for example. So, yeah, this is the way that the game is going. But on the other way there’s other places where the courts are very slow and you can do many things. You can mix it up and you can play from the baseline as well. You see Wimbledon, for example, all the players play from the baseline. It is obvious if the game continues this way, it will be tough to see so many rallies at Wimbledon because, as you said, everybody is so tall, powerful, everybody serves really big. But, you know, we’ll see. We’ll see. I think some of the young guys, they are very strong, but there are some others that they play with talent as well. I think we have to wait a couple years more to make the final call.
