“It looked very difficult at the end on the court, did you feel anything?
No, it was my foot (gauche). That’s all. My foot hurt again and that’s it.
Are you injured?
No, I’m not hurt. I am a player who lives with an injury (he suffers from Muller-Weiss syndrome in his left foot). That’s all. It’s not new. It is something that is there. My daily life is difficult, honestly. Halfway through the second set, it started and then it wasn’t playable for me. Well done for Dennis (Shapovalov). I don’t want to take anything away from him. He probably deserves after the way he lost to me in Australia or here last year. Today (Thursday), it is for him. Good game.
Does this current pain worry you for the future?
Today (Thursday), it was crazy. I would like to talk to you about something else or talk to you about tennis. What will happen in the next few days, I don’t know. Today, as you can imagine and even though I have a lot of experience, it’s really tough. I started the season well, then I injured a rib. To be honest, since I came back, my foot hurts. It’s difficult for me to train properly for several days in a row. You have to move well to be able to play at the highest level, which I am not able to do.
“I have a goal in a week and a few days (Roland-Garros). I’m going to keep dreaming about that.”
Yet in terms of the game, this Thursday, did you feel that you were on the right track at the start of the match?
The most negative thing today (Thursday) and the hardest part was that I started to feel that I was playing better. I started the match playing much better. I’m sad because I was starting to feel positive things. But when this kind of thing happens… The positive disappears, doesn’t it? It’s time to accept the situation and fight. I can’t tell you more now. I don’t know if I should rest, I don’t know if I should train. But I have a goal in a week and a few days (Roland-Garros). I will continue to dream of this.
How are you going to prepare for it?
The first thing I have to achieve is not to hurt while training. Today (Thursday), it was not possible to play for me. But maybe in two days things will be better. It is true that during Roland-Garros, I will have my doctors with me. It can help. But I don’t know, I’m just sad. It’s a tournament that I really like so being eliminated, I don’t like it. On days like this, you just have to accept and carry on, even if sometimes it’s not easy. »
