"Gio" est déjà en feu ! Après ses 36 aces contre Nick Kyrgios au premier tour de l'ATP 250 de Brisbane, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard n'en a eu besoin que de 20 pour enchaîner contre Frances Tiafoe (6-4, 7-6(4)). Un adversaire qu'il avait d'ailleurs déjà dominé lors du dernier Rolex Paris Masters. Le Français a sauvé deux balles de break en début de seconde manche. Sinon, il a été impérial pour rejoindre Jakub Mensik, bourreau de Dusan Lajovic, en quarts. Le géant, 31e mondial à seulement 21 ans, semble déjà dans de très bonnes dispositions. Il pourrait affronter Novak Djokovic en demi-finale, ce qui ne l'effraie pas tant que ça...
Photo : @brisbanetennis @ATP
Photo : @brisbanetennis @ATP
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SportTranscription
00:00Not to be disrespectful to anyone, but when you look at the draw, do you look at a Novak
00:07in the semis and that possibility of a match-up as well?
00:10What do you think of that, if that does happen?
00:12I mean, if I can play Novak in the final, it's always better.
00:19I saw I wasn't in each draw until the semis, so I was like, whew, OK.
00:26But yeah, I think it's going to be a good match if I'm playing against him, but now
00:31I'm not very focused on if, because if doesn't exist.
00:37And I will do my best to beat Mensek, and of course Novak has to win two matches.
00:46So I mean, this match-up is only in some dream, but not in mine, because yeah, I mean, I'm
00:55not yet in the semis, so I will do my best in the quarters.
01:00But is that your mentality now?
01:01I mean, a lot of people would look at having Novak in a tournament in their draw at all
01:06and might be scared or something, whereas it sounds like you're relishing, you're like,
01:10I wish I could have played him sooner almost.
01:12Is that the mindset for you now?
01:14You feel like you can beat anyone with your game?
01:16Yeah, I mean, on a lucky day, everyone can beat anyone.
01:21So I don't have like this mentality to be scared or not scared, I'm just focused on
01:29what I can do.
01:31If I'm doing good, of course I will be dangerous, if I'm doing bad, everybody can beat me.
01:37So of course Novak is one of the best players in the world, he was the best for a couple
01:43of years.
01:44And yeah, I mean, it's always impressive to see him in the locker room or see him around,
01:50and if one day I can play against him, yeah, I have to put this part on the side and be
01:59focused on the game, because overall it's just a tennis match.
02:04Last year you came to Australia ranked outside the top 300, now you'll get to go to Melbourne
02:08in a few weeks as a seed as well.
02:11What's changed, obviously the ranking and everything, but what's changed for you preparing
02:16for the Australian Open this year compared to last?
02:22I mean, only my game and my mentality, but I think a lot of things are better now, of
02:32course, but I have the same mentality to try to win some matches, try to do my best, try
02:41to play the best level I can.
02:44It's going to be tough, there is some pressure, I don't know, I will be excited to win some
02:49matches, because every Grand Slam is very exciting to play.
02:53But yeah, I will be focused on me, not on the other thing, and compared to last year,
03:00I still wanted to qualify, to get the main draw ticket, but I failed.
03:08Now I'm a seeded, so I will try to get my first round, and then the second round, and
03:13the third round, if I'm in the third round, but let's see what happens.
03:18How did you develop your serve technique, and with what coach, who kind of helped you
03:23perfect it?
03:24I mean, I trained not to win on the serve when I was young, I did some serve sessions,
03:35but it was not, most of the time, the main focus.
03:40We tried to add some more things to my game, because I was tall, so the movement was complicated
03:50when I was young.
03:52I was skinny, I didn't have this ability with my leg, and some of my coaches did some technique
04:04lessons with me, technique sessions on my serve.
04:08And I was 15, 16 years old, I did a lot of serves, a lot of basket, a lot of serve during
04:20the training, and we knew that it was going to be a good weapon in the future, and we
04:28tried to add some new things, to get some advice from some people who can work on the
04:35technique, and now I think it's working, but I think I can do better, of course, I can
04:46put some speed on the second serve, to be more consistent, to get some new targets when
04:53I hit the ball.
04:55I think for the moment I can be very happy and proud of myself for what I did when I
04:58was young.
04:59At what point during that development did you realize you could hit your second serve
05:03so hard as well, because we've seen a lot of great serves over the years, but no one
05:07really does it the way you're doing it, the speeds.
05:11It was, I would say it's brand new, I did a lot of work on that during 2023 with my
05:22actual coach, and it was one of the goals for me to be better on the second serve, because
05:29I was hitting the ball on the 170, but I wasn't missing at all.
05:34So he said, can you push it a bit more, 10 kilometers, 15, 20, and push to see your limit.
05:40So now I think sometimes my limit is 200, sometimes it's 190, I don't know, it's how
05:48am I feeling on the court.
05:52But maybe in two, three years it can be 220, or it can be my maximum, I don't know, we
05:59will see.
06:00But yeah, I think it's still a shot to improve.