TENNIS 2014 ROLAND GARROS – 31st of May 2014. D. Lajovic d. J. Sock 6-4, 7-5, 6-3. An interview with Dusan Lajovic
Q. Can I have your feelings to be fourth round here at Roland Garros? And maybe against the biggest one on the clay.
DUSAN LAJOVIC: Yeah. Well, it’s my first Roland Garros main draw appearance and first time in the fourth round, so I can’t be more happy than this.
Maybe to play Rafa on Chatrier is one of the biggest dreams and biggest challenges. So for sure it’s not gonna be easy.
Q. Tell us about the serve and volley on break point, two handed half volley.
DUSAN LAJOVIC: Yeah, I don’t know how I pulled out that one (smiling). I mean, I wanted to surprise him, and I just rushed to the net and then I realized, Oh, I cannot hit the volley, I’m too late.
Then I didn’t really think. I just wanted to have balance, and I took it with the two hands, so I played it like unbelievable.
I had a bit of luck, but it was a good, I think, thing to do on the set point.
Q. If you play against Rafa, will you ask Novak some tips to beat him?
DUSAN LAJOVIC: Yeah, I will try to ask everybody some tips against Rafa, yeah (smiling).
You need to have a lot of tips and confidence to beat him, but I hope to enjoy the match if he wins and to give my best.
Q. This is the first time you have won back to back matches on the tour in your career. What’s the explanation for this? Because you’re obviously a better player than that.
DUSAN LAJOVIC: Yeah. I think I won once I played maybe quarters of ATP, long time ago, but never a tournament like this big. I don’t know how it came up.
I just was going round by round, and I was feeling fit to play long matches and to grind for my victories. And it feels good to win matches in a row, especially in a slam.
I mean, that’s the dream.
Q. Can you speak about your relationship with Novak, if you have one, and whether you spoke with him or not this week?
DUSAN LAJOVIC: Yeah, I have a relationship with all the Serbian players. I think it’s a close one, because we all feel like not part of a team, but also playing for Serbia in Davis Cup brings us closer. And we all have good relations between each other.
As I’m the youngest, they always give me a lot of advices, and look up to me and show me the way.
Q. Can you tell us how important is the Davis Cup final in your maturation this season?
DUSAN LAJOVIC: Yes, since the Davis Cup final I start playing much better and playing much more matches on the tour this year. So I think maybe there I had the experience that I needed to play on this big tournaments well and to feel that I can compete with these guys.
So it had a lot to do with Davis Cup finals. It helped me. At the beginning I didn’t know how it will help me, but now I feel like what happened there and what I know and where I got the experience.
