Le Rolex Paris Masters 2023 a rendu son verdict ce dimanche. Alors qu'il était déjà le joueur le plus titré à Bercy, Novak Djokovic a renforcé son record en décrochant un 7e titre dans la capitale. Après une semaine riche en rebondissements, le Serbe a dominé d'une main de maître sa neuvième finale ici. Sans concéder la moindre balle de break, il a dompté Grigor Dimitrov en 1h39 sur le score de 6-4, 6-3. Le Bulgare évoluait pourtant à un très haut niveau de jeu cette semaine. Tombeur de Lorenzo Musetti, Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Bublik, Hubert Hurkacz et Stefanos Tsitsipas, Dimitrov n'a cependant pas trouvé la clé pour battre Djokovic. Un adversaire qu'il a battu seulement une fois en treize confrontations.
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00:00 Grigor, bad luck today but a lot of positives to take out of this week.
00:03 Can you just sum up your experience in Paris?
00:06 Yeah, amazing week.
00:09 That's all I'm going to say.
00:10 It's been a great, I would say, ten days coming from Vienna
00:16 and just wanting to complete a very good week.
00:20 That was my goal.
00:22 I didn't know, obviously, I'm going to get to the final,
00:26 but I was very thrilled the way I was playing throughout the whole tournament.
00:31 A lot of good wins, a lot of positive wins.
00:34 I've done a lot of good things this week.
00:37 I need to stay positive and keep on believing that things will come out for me.
00:43 Grigor, as Nicola just said, it's been a big week.
00:49 You have to feel very proud of yourself
00:52 for what you've achieved, not just here but for the last few weeks.
00:55 So, why the tears at the end?
00:58 Was it a matter of the tension that just hit you, the emotions of the moment?
01:06 It's difficult to explain emotions.
01:07 I think you want it.
01:11 It's tough when it doesn't happen.
01:14 Only I know, in a way, without feeling sorry for myself,
01:18 what I've gone through the past months on and off the court.
01:22 In a way, those are happy tears.
01:24 I don't want to have them as something negative.
01:26 I'm human after all.
01:28 At the end of the day, I think the build-up,
01:31 not only of the last two weeks,
01:33 the last months of hard work and the big trip in China,
01:39 everything has been snowballing day after day, match after match.
01:45 So, of course, I was so close to making something
01:48 that I wanted to do for such a long time.
01:50 I don't want to have this as a goal, just to win the tournament.
01:53 But it was just more of my mental and physical way
01:57 that I was dealing with and through these past months.
02:01 So, yeah, I mean, I'm not ashamed of them.
02:07 It just happened.
02:08 I'm sad.
02:09 Of course, I'm sad that I lost.
02:10 I mean, it's never fun when you lose in a final.
02:14 And I think, for me, now I have some time to reflect and move on.
02:23 You've played Novak so many times and it doesn't get easier.
02:27 What's in his game or the way he's playing, especially against you?
02:32 Is there something specific that makes it so tough for you to play?
02:35 Is it the depth of the ball?
02:37 What could it be?
02:38 Yeah, I think today, specifically today,
02:40 his depth was amazing, I think, on the ball.
02:44 Even if he was not feeling maybe physically at his best and all that,
02:47 but he was able to put me in very uncomfortable positions
02:49 and made me work for every shot.
02:51 I also think my serve today didn't work at all.
02:54 Overall, I was a little bit flat.
02:56 That's also my summary of the match.
03:03 But, of course, Novak on the finals is probably one of the biggest achievements
03:07 you can have in our sport, to beat him.
03:10 I mean, so much respect for him.
03:12 The way he sees competing on the court is, I think,
03:17 I mean, on a completely different level.
03:19 And I've said it before, and I think also when it comes to those clutch matches,
03:23 he's always been able to maximise his game, even if it's not at his best,
03:29 but he's been able to maximise and put you in an uncomfortable situation.
03:32 So, on that end, today, I think he executed a lot of points and games
03:39 in a very good way.
03:41 Grisha, I applaud you from the bottom of my heart.
03:44 I remember us talking at the end of 2017.
03:47 Of course, it was a bit of a higher note,
03:49 but there are plenty of reasons to be very, very happy and very satisfied now.
03:53 So what can we expect from Grigor Dimitrov in 2024 and onwards,
03:57 bearing in mind these positive experiences from back then and now?
04:01 Thank you.
04:02 As you said, it's positive, of course,
04:04 two very different end of the seasons,
04:10 but, again, I think now I'm still a little bit on the adrenaline rush,
04:16 so to speak, with how everything has been going, of course.
04:19 So I think...
04:20 I don't want to say much, just because I have not thought about it too much,
04:25 but the one thing I know for sure is that I'm going to...
04:29 I just want to put myself in those positions every single time,
04:32 which means that every time I get out there to play,
04:36 I'm there to play.
04:37 And I want to make sure that I capitalise on those moments, of course.
04:42 I mean, this week, again, in quite a few matches,
04:47 things could have turned completely different for me,
04:48 but I was able to stay, I was able to be very good mentally and physically as well,
04:54 even though I was struggling with quite a few things.
04:56 So, all in all, there's a lot of positives that I can take from that,
05:01 but also, at the same time, I need to look at some of the things that I can improve,
05:08 some of the things that I can come back and maybe do better.
05:12 So I feel that there's very little details that I'm sure that if I improve a little bit,
05:18 it can make a very big change in my game.
05:22 And of course, tennis is... everyone is so competitive.
05:25 Tennis itself has already been difficult as is,
05:29 so a lot of good players, a lot of good competitors.
05:32 So how everything else will happen, we don't know.
05:35 But the one thing I want to feel is that at the end of the tournament,
05:39 whether I win or lose, I want to make sure that I've left everything I have out there.
05:44 Griego, commiserations today.
05:46 This whole week you've come here, you've been very insightful and reflective,
05:49 not just about your matches, but your recent resurgence,
05:52 those comparisons to six years ago.
05:54 What is it that gives you that clarity where you can reflect on your career
05:58 and your matches so well?
05:59 Is it something you do mentally?
06:01 I think there's so many things that come to one's mind, I think.
06:06 I mean, on a daily basis, I'm sure you have a lot of thoughts
06:09 that are coming to your head on a daily basis, right?
06:10 When you go for a walk and stuff.
06:12 So, for me, I'm just like that.
06:14 I think there's times throughout the day where, as I said,
06:17 I take some time for myself to just go for a walk and put my phone away.
06:24 There's always a period throughout the day that I always take for myself.
06:28 And I think that's also what I'm very happy with.
06:31 And it's a work, it's an internal work as well.
06:34 It's not just outside, it's not just stepping out on the centre court.
06:37 And it's a lot of work on the court.
06:40 Of course, the fitness, the nutrition, the sleep, rest and all that.
06:45 But lastly, don't ever forget yourself, because just as the tennis,
06:50 the sport, everything is so important to you,
06:52 you don't need to forget your inner world, your inner peace.
06:56 So, and I work hard on that.
07:01 Of course, there's always two sides of everything.
07:03 So, you need to make sure you feed the right wolf.