Tennis - Roland-Garros 2024 - Alex De Minaur : "I'm a clay specialist now (Laughter)"
Alex De Minaur en quarts de Roland-Garros et ce, pour la première fois de sa carrière ! On ne l’attendait pas si fort, du moins, pas à Roland-Garros. Auteur d’un match complet, Alex De Minaur a profité d’un Daniil Medvedev très décevant ce lundi pour obtenir son billet pour les quarts de finale (4-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 en 2h50).
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00:00 [Music]
00:03 First time quarter-finalist here in Paris, beating Daniel.
00:06 How happy are you with this victory?
00:08 Yeah, I'm pretty happy, not going to lie.
00:12 It was a great match today.
00:16 Yeah, fought till the end, managed to beat a quality opponent.
00:22 And in a Grand Slam fourth round,
00:25 which is kind of the goals that I had been setting for myself
00:29 to go deep at these events.
00:31 And yeah, I'm very proud of myself.
00:34 Next question here.
00:36 Alex, you played Daniel in New York
00:38 and had that really grinding affair.
00:40 And then Andre in Australia,
00:42 where you went in the fifth set, it was such a...
00:45 How did you rebound from that?
00:47 And do you think those experiences helped you today
00:49 when you dropped that first set?
00:52 Yeah, 100%.
00:53 I think so much, in my opinion, of Grand Slam tennis
00:58 is just experience.
01:01 Because ultimately you can put in all the work in the world,
01:05 and I believe I'm one to do so,
01:09 but how you conserve energy,
01:12 how you use your energy in these long, gruelling five-set matches,
01:17 there's a lot to learn from.
01:19 And as you play more, the body gets used to it more.
01:22 And it's not just the fact that you play a gruelling match
01:27 and you can be there for however long it takes.
01:31 It's about how you bounce back for the next round.
01:34 And that's probably what my body has now started to get used to.
01:39 And so mentally I was very calm.
01:42 I knew that there was a good chance that we could even go into a fifth set.
01:46 So I was ready for anything today.
01:51 Craig?
01:52 Alex, what was that last game like?
01:56 You're normally a pretty calm individual.
01:59 You don't show much.
02:01 But internally, what were you going through?
02:04 Was your stomach churning, heart thumping,
02:07 especially when he'd served the first fault and then eventually the double fault?
02:11 Yeah.
02:13 Look, it doesn't matter what match, what round, what stage you are,
02:19 what court you're on,
02:22 if you've got a chance to break,
02:25 you definitely do your best to try and break.
02:28 Because it kind of gives you that chance to,
02:32 hey, you don't have to serve it out, right?
02:35 But again, I was in the mindset where I knew I was a breakup.
02:43 And say he held at 5-3 and say serving for it I got broken,
02:50 we're still on equal terms, right?
02:52 No harm, no foul.
02:54 So it's kind of that sort of mindset that I just was in a very calm state of mind throughout the whole match.
03:01 And I knew, again, I was two sets to one up, right?
03:05 Two sets to one up, I break.
03:07 So, you know, I'm still in front.
03:10 You know, no need to stress out.
03:13 But, of course, it felt great that I didn't have to serve it out.
03:18 Alex, considering that it's the surface and that it's your first win over a top five player in a Grand Slam,
03:27 is this the biggest win do you think you've had?
03:29 Yeah, it's pretty extraordinary if you ask me.
03:32 You know, I always thought that for me to play well on the clay I needed hot, lively conditions.
03:42 But, you know, this week, this whole tournament has proven otherwise, right?
03:46 It's been a complete shock to the system, to everything I ever believed in.
03:53 And now the toughest thing is dealing with my team, because obviously they've got bragging rights.
04:00 And, you know, they give me a lot of slack for me complaining all these years of my level on the clays.
04:07 But now it looks like it's one of my best slam results.
04:12 So it looks like I've converted myself into a clay specialist.
04:16 Yeah, the previous Australian to the quarterfinals was 20 years ago, was Leighton Hewitt.
04:23 I'm just wondering, did you watch any of Ronan Garros in 2004?
04:28 I think you would have been five.
04:29 Were you even watching tennis? Do you have any recollection of...?
04:32 Probably not that year.
04:35 I do have more recollection of, you know, the years after that.
04:40 I remember a brutal match that he had against Gilles Simon here.
04:46 But, yeah, it's great. It's amazing.
04:50 It's a great position to be in.
04:53 Again, I think it's not just myself.
04:59 I think it's just the whole country is showing what we can do.
05:05 And the strength of the nation is extremely exciting.
05:11 I think for even everyone back at home, just to see all the numbers we got in the top hundred.
05:17 And we keep on pushing out there.
05:19 I mean, just to show what the Australian chemistry is.
05:24 You know, I've got Thanasi Kokounakis watching me today, you know, supporting me.
05:30 It's great to see, honestly.
05:33 It's an unbelievable feeling to just know that you've got the support of your teammates
05:40 and ultimately your mates on tour.
05:43 So it feels great.
05:45 Alex, talking of support, you had the little boy back from the previous round.
05:50 So you obviously made sure that was happening.
05:53 How did you do that and will you be doing it again for the next one?
05:56 100 percent. I mean, he's managed a miracle.
06:00 He's with me for-- I might have to get him on tour week in and week out.
06:08 No, we found him, obviously, through the beautiful world of social media.
06:14 We ended up finding him, obviously.
06:17 We got him to the match.
06:20 He came with his whole crew, with his mates and his coach.
06:24 And, yeah, it was great to see him out there.
06:28 Again, even on that big court, I could hear him after every single point.
06:34 And it's a distinctive voice, so it's great to see.
06:38 He'll be around.
06:41 I think he'll be chilling with me tomorrow in my practice day.
06:47 And, of course, he'll be there for the very next match.
06:50 Hey, Alex, well done.
06:56 When you won, you turned to your box and screamed.
07:01 But then you screamed some words, it looked like,
07:03 and I was sort of curious what you were saying and why you were saying that.
07:07 Well, I screamed, "I love the clay. I love it here. I can't get enough."
07:14 So that's what I screamed.
07:17 Yeah, exactly, because I'm a clay specialist now.
07:25 You did a pretty great interview in French afterwards.
07:28 Where did you learn French and do you like to speak French?
07:33 I learnt French at school a very long time ago.
07:38 So probably from when I was, I don't know, maybe eight till 12,
07:44 I learnt French at school.
07:49 And I've got it in the back of my bag.
07:55 I can use it.
07:57 I need to use it a little bit more now.
07:59 But it is a lot easier to just have a normal conversation
08:03 instead of trying to explain tennis.
08:07 I found it very difficult,
08:09 especially when I got asked to explain the match tactically.
08:13 And, yeah, I don't have that sort of vocabulary in my disposal.
08:18 So, yeah, it was good to show that I do have a bit of French in me
08:25 and I hope they appreciated it.
08:27 Thank you.
08:29 Thank you.
08:30 [MUSIC PLAYING]
08:33 (upbeat music)