TENNIS 2014 ROLAND GARROS – 30th of May 2014. M. Raonic d. G. Simon 4-6, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2, 7-5. An interview with Milos Raonic
Q. Congratulations. How does that feel when you’re serving twice for the match and the crowd is going absolutely crazy between your serve and the atmosphere is really, really tense?
MILOS RAONIC: Unfortunate that I was serving twice for that match (smiling). It could have not been that way.
I live and die with my serve, so I’d rather be serving for the match than anything else. I don’t think the crowd made more I think I just played two tight points and then he played well the first game, and then I feel like he sort of let me get ahead in the second one.
That’s how I was able to close out.
Q. What’s the difference now when you get into a long rally on clay than a year ago maybe or whatever, in your mind?
MILOS RAONIC: Well, the biggest difference is even in the long rallies I always feel I’m either neutral or I’m getting sort of ahead; whereas before the longer the rally went the further back I’d be and the less and less opportunity or possibility there was that I would win that point.
Whereas now I feel like I stand still pretty close to the baseline so I still have just equal an opportunity if it’s three shots in the rally or ten shots or fifteen.
But I don’t think I really go more than that.
Q. Piatti and Ljubicic are making a great job with you because you are moving better, improving all shots, improving the backhand. I’d like to know if this is comparable the matches you play versus Djokovic in Rome where in my opinion you played really a great, great match on clay.
MILOS RAONIC: So the question is just comparing the two matches?
Q. Yeah, two matches, and where you are more satisfied the way you played at the end?
MILOS RAONIC: Well, obviously here, because there is a lot of factors to take in and I was able to win. But if you ask me which match I played better in, I would say Rome.
I gave myself a possibility against a guy that went on to win the tournament, that was playing well, and that’s been at the top of tennis since I have been on tour.
So that’s a very important thing to me. I don’t think if I don’t go through what I did in Rome, maybe I don’t give myself the possibility to win today through the difficult moments.
Q. I talked today to Ricardo Piatti, and he told me that after you had Ljubicic as No. 3 in the world, he thinks you have much better potential, and he thinks your goal is to become No. 1. Do you feel that sort of pressure, or is not a pressure, is just, okay, step by step, everybody sees the same thing? Do you feel you could do it or you think, oh, it’s a dream?
MILOS RAONIC: No, I feel I could do it. I don’t think everybody says I could do it, but I believe I can.
I don’t think that’s really any type of pressure, because that’s coming from within me. I always say from the day I start till the day I stop tennis it’s always going to be playing for myself.
Q. How are you feeling physically after that match? As a five setter when it seemed like it went by awfully quickly.
MILOS RAONIC: I played five sets that wasn’t much longer than the semifinal I played in Rome. So I think also the guy who was getting ahead early in the set or who maybe midway through the set was staying ahead, so it was not like the sets were taking too much time.
