14/11/2010 12:33 CEST - Interviews

Gael Monfils, 13/11/2010

Q. Can you tell us to what extent you're happy? You achieved something you've never done before. And in Paris, on top of it.
GAËL MONFILS: I'm happy I won against Rog. He's someone I admire a lot. He's a legend of tennis, "the" legend, and beating him is a beautiful victory. I will remember that for my whole life.
And also it happened in very special conditions for me, in Paris, so it's only happiness.

Q. Is it your most beautiful victory? You beat Nadal in Doha, but it was far away. It was different.
GAËL MONFILS: It's strange what I'm gonna say, but my best victory is if ever I am able to win the French Open. That will be the greatest victory. Maybe I will never win the French Open, and I'll finish my career and then I will say that this victory was the best.
It is a beautiful victory, but it is not "the" most beautiful.

Q. Can you tell us what happened in this crazy game where you saved four, five match points? At one stage he did everything, he just had a forehand to make and he missed it.
GAËL MONFILS: Well, first thing I was stubborn serving on the right all the time. Because I wanted to do serve and volley, and I was missing every time. Maybe I was forcing it too much.
So when he had this forehand, I think if he had put it in I would have touched it. I don't think I would have been able to pass him. But I knew where he was gonna play. If you look at the image, you can see that I was trying to start running the opposite way.
But what happened to him is that he tried to hit it too early. I think if he had stepped back one step he would have made it. So I believe it's a bit of luck I had.
But he had the luck before in the game. I wasn't able to serve on the T as I wanted to do, so it was a lot of stress. But I was able to control it to manage it well.
I was thinking it was a very good experience. This is why you practice all the time. It's to experience those special moments. The crowd was great. They were behind me.
Well, you need to dare try something, and I was lucky because I was successful.

Q. Beyond the quality of your game, you were also able to keep focused from the beginning to the end. You didn't show many emotions, but inside of you how did you feel?
GAËL MONFILS: It was tough. I didn't want to show my emotions. I didn't want to show when I was happy or when I was annoyed. Sometimes I was really frustrated, but I was not able to find my rhythm.
I thought he was serving very well. It was very tough for me to read his serve, so I felt very frustrated.
At the moment, I showed something, because I was really annoyed when I got broken, so I kicked. It relaxed me.
But on those match points I was trying to control myself, otherwise it would have been too difficult.

Q. In the beginning we had the impression you were in control of the match. Did it happen to you before with Roger?
GAËL MONFILS: Yes, I started the match very well. In control, I don't know. But from my point of view, it was like yesterday. I started the match knowing what I wanted to do, and I was able to show that from the first game on.
This is what I said. I told Roger, This is how I'm gonna play. And so when you start off that way, it helps. If I had missed two or three forehands at the start I would be in a position of saying, Well, I'm just gonna have him play, and it would have been different.

Q. We can't really say your good results are only a coincidence because you repeat them, but they always happen in Paris. Is it because you can draw your energy from being in Paris and the crowd behind you?
GAËL MONFILS: Well, I just don't know. I will have to talk about it with my coach. But in the beginning of the tournament if anybody had told me I would be in the final tomorrow, I would have said, I don't believe you.
If you see my game against Benjamin Becker and today, something has changed. I don't know what. This is the annoying part of me. I am not very consistent and difficult to predict.

Q. In the third set, what went through your mind at 3‑love, 4‑1? Did you think the luck will come back again?
GAËL MONFILS: I was still believing I could make it. Until then there had been no breaks, so I thought I could make it. I said to myself, Keep going, keep going; believe in yourself.
I knew I needed to believe in my capacity to turn the match around to make him have doubts. When he broke me I didn't play a bad game; he just hit a bit earlier. I knew there would be other games where I would have maybe one or two opportunities, and this is what happened.
What really made me believe I could win and makes me think I changed is that key moment with that forehand where he gave me the breakpoint. I would have played that forehand very safely before, but there I saw there was an opportunity and I hit hard.
So this convinced me I should keep going.

Q. Many things happened this week, but are you going to go into the court tomorrow being relaxed?
GAËL MONFILS: Well, first of all, I'm always relaxed. The toughest thing for tomorrow is that I want that victory. If twice they gave me the lollipop, the third time I want it. I want to take it.
I know it's not going to be easy, because Robin really killed me last week. I think I'm going to step into the court and put pressure on him as much as I can.
I'm at home. I want that victory. It's gonna be interesting, let's say.

Q. You're the only French player having been in the final here twice in a row. You know who was before you doing that? Guy Forget. Can it help you for tomorrow?
GAËL MONFILS: Emotionally, yes. But tomorrow I'm going to play a completely different opponent, and he'll like to be aggressive against me. Robin also is an aggressive player, but tomorrow I think he's gonna be very tough.

Q. You had never beat Roger before, and now it's done; you never beat Djokovic, either. This is the only thing that you still have to do.
GAËL MONFILS: I don't like when people say I never beat Roger before. I beat Djokovic many times already. Not in the ATP Tour, but in my mind I beat him thousands of times. There's no problem with me. I did it in my mind, and I won 6‑4, 6‑2 against him.