C'est désormais bien net : Alexander Zverev a retrouvé son meilleur niveau sur la terre battue parisienne. Blessé gravement lors de sa demi-finale contre Rafa Nadal l'an dernier, l'Allemand a su retrouver ses capacités physiques pour revenir dans le dernier carré parisien. Costaud, il a dominé la surprise du tournoi, Tomas Martin Etcheverry, 49e joueur mondial, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Au terme d'un beau combat tout de même, Sascha a su imposer son tennis et foncer en demi-finale pour la troisième fois de suite à Roland-Garros. Preuve de sa régularité mais aussi de ses talents sur la terre battue de parisienne. Il aura une occasion en or de s'offrir une première finale à Roland. Ce sera sa sixième demie en Grand Chelem.
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SportTranscription
00:00 (speaking in foreign language)
00:03 - Sasha, congratulations.
00:17 (audience laughing)
00:20 You were at it for over three hours today.
00:24 - I was what?
00:25 - You were at it like a lion for over three hours
00:29 showing so much stamina.
00:32 And we also know that lions have really big hearts as well.
00:37 So how big is your heart?
00:39 How big has it been over the last year?
00:42 - I'm just happy you're asking me how big my heart is,
00:44 not something else.
00:45 (audience laughing)
00:47 - And how big has your heart been here
00:49 at Roland Garros to get this far?
00:51 - I don't know, the size of a human being, I guess.
00:59 No, but as I said before, I'm happy to be in the semis.
01:02 We're in the semis.
01:03 It's nothing more, nothing less.
01:06 - Hi, Sasha.
01:09 Obviously you didn't have an easy start of the season
01:11 after your big injury.
01:12 How do you explain everything seems to be clicking
01:15 right now in Paris?
01:16 - I don't know.
01:19 As I said before, it was definitely a tournament
01:22 that I marked on my calendar this year.
01:27 And I'm happy to be playing the way I'm playing
01:29 here in Paris.
01:30 I'm extremely happy with how things are going.
01:33 But as I said, the tournament's not over yet.
01:35 There's still potentially two very, very difficult
01:39 matches ahead.
01:40 And I'm looking forward to that.
01:43 - Could you break down the possible challenges
01:45 of Roone and Rude, please?
01:48 - Yeah, I mean, Rude has been there before.
01:52 He's been in final here last year,
01:53 so he knows exactly what it means and what it takes.
01:56 And Roone, I mean, he's a very young, up-and-coming guy,
02:00 who I think is playing extremely well,
02:01 especially on the clay-court surface.
02:03 You know, he made the final in Monte Carlo,
02:07 made the final of Rome, so that speaks for himself, kind of.
02:11 But yeah, I think it's gonna be an interesting one
02:12 for them tonight.
02:13 - Sasha, when you approach the semifinals of a major,
02:23 is it a different mindset that you have compared
02:26 to any of the other tournaments?
02:29 And is it gonna be different this year
02:33 because of the history of the last 12 months?
02:36 - I don't think about it anymore.
02:41 I'm going on court to win tennis matches.
02:43 I'm not thinking about what happened last year.
02:45 I have to talk about it a lot, obviously,
02:48 and that's fine, that's everybody's job.
02:50 But I'm here to win tennis matches.
02:53 I'm here to go deep in the Grand Slam.
02:55 And of course it's different.
02:58 I mean, tennis consists out of Grand Slams.
03:01 Grand Slams are tennis history.
03:03 That's what you play for.
03:05 I think the two most important things in tennis
03:09 are Grand Slams and the Olympic Games.
03:11 And when you're in a semifinal or a final of either of those,
03:16 I think that's very different
03:18 than being in a final of another tournament.
03:21 - There's been many talks about your injections.
03:24 What's the situation now?
03:26 Do you know exactly what you can or can't do
03:28 on and off the court?
03:29 - Yeah, now I can do whatever I want.
03:31 - On and off?
03:31 - Yes.
03:32 That was the ruling for this week.
03:35 And then they're gonna decide about Wimbledon again.
03:38 - When you go through such a bad injury like you did,
03:42 do you have to, to an extent,
03:45 reinvent your game in some aspects?
03:48 Or is it just going back from where you left?
03:53 - I think, well, you're not going back from where you left
03:56 because I think it is different.
03:59 I mean, I couldn't play for the first seven months
04:02 of my injury and then for the next three, four months,
04:05 I was still in pain.
04:06 So I wasn't pain-free.
04:07 I wasn't able to move the way I wanted to.
04:10 But I mean, sometimes it's also just reminding yourself
04:15 of who you were and what kind of matches you have won
04:18 in the past.
04:19 I think that is important sometimes as well.
04:22 But again, I think I'm at a stage now
04:26 where I'm not thinking about the injury so much anymore.
04:29 I'm not thinking about what happened.
04:32 I'm just happy to be back at where I was last year
04:35 and I have another chance and hopefully I can take it.
04:38 - Last year?
04:40 - Yeah.
04:41 - Since you're back on the tennis court,
04:47 what have been the key moments, the key steps
04:49 in which you felt that your tennis was back,
04:52 your confidence was back, something was back?
04:54 - Yeah, first of all, being pain-free.
04:56 It took longer than expected.
04:58 I mean, still, beginning of the season,
05:02 I mean, Australia, I was playing on one leg still.
05:06 And then I think until, actually, Indian Wells, Miami,
05:09 I was still in pain at times.
05:11 I was not able to practise normally.
05:13 I was not able to do the things that I wanted.
05:16 So regarding that, I think it was just getting through
05:19 that process and, yeah.
05:21 I mean, after that, it also takes time
05:23 to feel the confidence again in your leg,
05:25 just be sliding around the court,
05:26 being able to move the way you were.
05:28 But again, I'm talking about the injury
05:31 more than I'm thinking about it.
05:33 So it's in the past now.