Le Djoker a encore fait des misères à sa victime préférée jeudi. 20-0. C'est le bilan de Novak Djokovic face à Gaël Monfils désormais. Jamais, dans l'histoire du tennis, un joueur n'a autant perdu contre le même adversaire sans même gagner une seule fois. A l'ATP 250 de Brisbane, à l'occasion du deuxième tour, le Serbe a dicté sa loi 6-3, 6-3. Autoritaire, il a dû faire face à un Monfils courageux et loin d'être ridicule mais pas assez fort pour perturber ce Djokovic-là. Le début de saison du numéro 7 mondial est parfait. Prochaine étape : Reilly Opelka vendredi en quarts avant peut-être... Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard en demies.
Photo / Video : @TennisAustralia
Photo / Video : @TennisAustralia
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00:00I know that, congratulations. 20 zip is pretty impressive. It's probably quite difficult to say what it comes down to, but what is it about Gael's game that seems to work for you?
00:19Because, you know, on paper he's got everything. He's got athleticism, he's got dynamism, but he just can't break you down.
00:27I guess, I mean, his game suits me well, and to some extent the more you win against someone, the happier you are to play him.
00:41Yeah, I mean, we had some really tough battles. He had a couple of matches where he was one point away. I think in Dubai a few years ago he had a couple of match points and should have won that match.
00:52It just happens, you know. I guess when you're on a bad roll, it's also affecting you mentally.
01:02But, you know, I think he deserves a great credit for playing it still at such a high level at this age.
01:09He's so athletic and a super guy, a super nice guy that is loved by millions of people. With a reason, you know. He's a great entertainer, great charisma, and just the best dancer we have on the tour, that's for sure.
01:27He's been around, he's been a top ten player and played a lot of late stages of Grand Slams, so he loves the big stage, the big stadium.
01:40It was a special match in a way, you know, playing a 37-year-old versus a 38-year-old on the tour in the first tournament of God knows what season of ours that we have in our career.
01:54I mean, I enjoyed it. I think it was a good quality match. I think he had just a couple of loose games for a second set that allowed me to break his serve, but it was, I think, tighter than maybe the score indicates.
02:10You were also very clinical. I mean, what, three break points and you took all three of them. That must be very pleasing at this stage of the season, just being so on it, I guess.
02:22Right. Of course, I mean, you want to make a statement to yourself and to others that you are able to convert, particularly break points.
02:33When they're presented, I know that I have a good reputation with my return, so I mean, that's great, but you still have to make shots.
02:45You still have to put pressure on the opponents, and I think my return was really awesome today. I was very happy about it.
02:52So, you know, whenever I could get my racket on the ball, I made him play, and that definitely put a lot of pressure on his serve, which I think was really good today, and he had a high percentage of first serves in.
03:08Going into quarters now versus Opelka, you know, one of the best servers in the game. Great guy. Again, someone that, you know, struggled with injuries in the last few years, but just awfully frustrating to play against.
03:24Like Isner in his best days, you know, these guys like, you know, Becci Péricard as well, another youngster, big guy, huge server.
03:33You know, sometimes it's just, you're kind of more walking in the return games than you're actually playing, you know, and you have to get used to that.
03:42But, you know, when the opportunities are presented in the tiebreak or maybe before, you know, you try to put that pressure on your server, you know.
03:53That's what I've been able to do most of the times in my career, and I think, you know, the performance tonight gives me a great deal of confidence coming into tomorrow.
04:04Congrats, Novak. I saw a video of you at the F1 a few weeks ago getting what seemed like a very in-depth tutorial from George Russell.
04:13It made me curious about how much, like, you're interested in data and how much you use it when scouting opponents, when evaluating your game, and how much is too much when, obviously, you're someone who problem solves very well and plays on instant.
04:27Your second question is straight to the point. I think that's great, and it's very relative, you know, how much is too much. It really depends individually on the person.
04:37We're part of the individual sport, so, you know, each of us is a little bit different, and we all try to, I guess, prepare in a way for the match that suits us best.
04:51Some players like to receive as less information as possible and kind of more follow their instinct, automatically just feel the opponent on the court, I guess, and some other players love to, you know, go into the details.
05:10I'm more in the second group, you know, I really like data and video analysis, particularly, you know, I'm quite a visual type of guy, you know, I like to get a sense of patterns of play of my next opponent.
05:24So I put, throughout my career, a lot of time and resources into that, along with my other team members, and it was super impressive to witness and experience the Formula One with George Russell, who was very nice to give me a tour and took me to their technical room to meet the data and tech team.
05:51I think it's about maybe, could be maybe 15 people that is working there on the computers, each person for a specific technical element, and it was just, I mean, I felt like in Disneyland a little bit, you know, because, you know, I believe that, you know, there's a lot of beneficial things that you can get out of the data.
06:21And then, of course, then how do you transfer it or translate that to the court is a key, right? Because everyone can see data, read data, but then, you know, how do you get that on the court to actually work for you efficiently?
06:36So then once I'm in the tournament, I like to keep things conceptually to remind myself of what I need to do and what my next opponent is doing well or maybe not that well.
06:48But then keep it more simple than comparing to the weeks prior to the tournament, where I really go and try to deconstruct, you know, my game, the game of the other players and really look for the nuances that can help me get better.
07:08Yeah, yeah, go ahead.
07:10Was that something that you've always been interested in or is that something that you've kind of grown to be?
07:15I have always been very interested in that. My first serious tennis coach and my tennis mother, as I like to call her, she passed away in 2012, but she taught me all the fundamentals of the right approach and the mindset to tennis since a very young age, I think eight or nine years old when I was a really young boy.
07:38She was taking me to her house after training sessions and between training session, tennis sessions in school, and I would be learning about the importance of listening to classical music, video analysis, all these different things that at that time I didn't really understand much.
07:55But then I was following because, you know, of course I had to and, you know, I had tremendous respect for her. And then I learned later why that is giving me an incredible foundation.
08:07So I was always very analytical, which I think also allowed me to endure so long at the top level, you know, because I'm always looking to improve my game.
08:19Because I know that everyone, not everyone, but most of the top guys who have aspirations to be the best, they're doing that, right? So they have big teams of people. And so I, you know, never held back on investing in my team, investing in the technology that can help me be better.
08:42Novak, a bit of a light-hearted one. Hopefully you can confirm or deny for us that social media loves a theory and there's been a lot of talk around the Pikachu backpack that you rolled in on Saturday.
08:54We'll see, we'll see.
08:55Is there anything to it? I mean, obviously number 25 is Pikachu. Does it mean anything?
09:00Yeah, all I can say is that my kids, particularly my son, loves Pikachu. Yeah, so subtle subliminal messaging.
09:10So was it their bag or yours?
09:12It's his bag. It's his bag, but I was carrying it on my bag going out from the airport.
09:18Very good. Had you seen what was being discussed?
09:21I have seen, yeah. It makes me laugh. I love it.
09:25Very good. And I just wanted to ask one more around the prize money for tennis players, a bit more of a serious one.
09:31Nick Kyrgios has been active around it. He doesn't think tennis players are paid enough.
09:35In comparison to other sports, the stats are out there that it's a lower percentage that players in tennis get compared to athletes in other major sports.
09:43Does that need to change? What's your view on that, I guess, particularly from a PTPA viewpoint?
09:48Well, I'm just going to state the fact. It's not my opinion. The fact is that that's true, what he's saying.
09:57You know, the pie split between the governing bodies in all American sports, major American sports like NFL, NBA, baseball, NHL, is 50%, maybe more, some less, but around 50% in ours is way lower than that.
10:20It is true, but obviously it's a quite different sport because international is played globally.
10:30We are under different rules and regulations of different countries and legislations and taxes, etc., etc.
10:39Obviously, each tournament is independently governing their own prize money splits.
10:46Then you have ATP and WTA, and then you have, obviously, Grand Slams that are separate entities.
10:51They can do whatever they like, so it's quite fragmented from that point of view.
10:55It's not easy to gather everybody in the same room and say, okay, let's agree on a certain percentage because the revenue share is quite different.
11:03Grand Slam and a 250 event, for example, which is quite different from the major American sports where it's all under USA law and legislation.
11:16It's different. You have a player union there, and they can obviously, under their regulations and laws, negotiate the terms.
11:28It's quite different with us. It's actually one of the reasons why PTPA was formed, to represent better players' rights and voices.
11:40I don't think that's been done to the level that is satisfactory with ATP and WTA over the years.
11:50I've been president of player council for quite a few years, and I've been in the council almost 10 years, so I know exactly how the system works.
11:58In the end of the day, unfortunately, players don't really make a decision on the big topics.
12:11Even though when you look at the system, you'd say you have in the governing body of ATP on the board three player representatives, board representatives, three tournament board representatives,
12:25and then now you have CEO and president, but for most of the years you had the president that had the deciding vote.
12:32You would think that whatever player council decides, that the player board representatives would go on and vote for that, but that hasn't been the case always.
12:46So we have a problem there, and then we have a problem in the very structure of the ATP.
12:55It's that as players, we only have the 50% of that organization.
13:02Not always, but a lot of the times there was conflict of interest between tournaments and players, because we want a different thing.
13:11We are part of the same system, and we can't go without each other, but we're also oftentimes in conflictual situations.
13:20We want more money, they want to give us maybe not as much money.
13:24If we talk about the prize money, but then there are so many different layers to the prize money that you have to look into, and it's not that simple.
13:35But in essence what Nick was talking about is true.
13:39If you see it from a general overview of just the pure percentage that players are getting from the revenue share, it's way lower than most of the other global sports, American sports particularly.
13:55Just one last question please.
13:59You mentioned out there how important, I think you said it was the first time your family had been with you down under.
14:05In a way, can that be like a secret weapon for you in a way behind the scenes to get you playing your best tennis?
14:12How does that impact what you might achieve in this next month?
14:19As I mentioned on the court, it's the first time that my family comes with me and my children and my wife.
14:24I was actually a little bit surprised as well.
14:28My wife said that she wanted to take the kids on the road and come to Australia.
14:34I wasn't expecting that because I know it's a long trip and school and everything.
14:39It's just many challenges that you have to face as a parent.
14:47I'm doing my own thing here.
14:49Mostly, if I have a match day, I'm spending time getting ready for that match.
14:55She has to take care of the kids and she's here supporting me and trying to give me that love and energy along with kids that I need to play my best tennis.
15:08So far, it's working very well.
15:12I'm feeling great on the court.
15:13I'm playing great.
15:14It allows me to, first of all, not feel the guilt that I'm so far away for such a long time.
15:24I've been feeling that, I must admit.
15:26When I would travel to Australia in the previous years, I would be away for four or five weeks.
15:32Every time you have to separate with your kids and your wife, there's a lot of tears involved.
15:41It's not easy.
15:43Then you start to question yourself, why do I have to do it over and over again?
15:47This makes it so much easier for me, obviously, knowing that going back home now, they're going to be there waiting for me.
15:54I'm more motivated.
15:55I'm also more calm, more serene.
15:58I spend great quality time with them.
16:00It allows me also to not think about tennis 24-7, to have time where I can just release the tension and be really involved in their time.
16:17It's a great balance so far.
16:20Kids have been enjoying the tennis tournament.
16:23They know a few players they like to watch.
16:29It's been great.
16:31Thank you very much, everyone.