Day 7 - Guillermo Canas Interview
Sunday, May 29, 2005
Q. Your next opponent, Nicolas Kiefer, can you say something about him? Have
you ever played against him? What are your impressions?
GUILLERMO CANAS: I don't remember. I don't remember. I think for the last
two, three years I don't play against him. I think he improve a lot in clay
court. I saw him play in the tournaments before, and he play very well.
He have very good results in this tournament. He beat Andreev, tough player
in this kind of court. I think they going to be tough match for me because
he's very good player. He's very talent player. Tomorrow that I going to be,
yeah, tough match for both.
Q. How difficult is it playing against someone who has come back from two
sets down, and obviously the crowd is cheering his every point?
GUILLERMO CANAS: It's very difficult. It's very difficult to play the guy, I
don't know, is all the people support him. But I think is very difficult to
play the talent guy like Mathieu today. I think he play very well. I don't
think I play, maybe, my best tennis, how I want to play. But I think Mathieu
play very well. He have chances to win, close to win, but the tennis times is
like this.
I'm very happy to be in the second week of Roland Garros.
Q. When the crowd is obviously cheering every point, how do you manage? Do
you block it out or do you just say, "I'm going to fight even harder because
I want to prove something"?
GUILLERMO CANAS: No, I think if you play against a guy, the French guy here,
you know they going to be the crowd support him every point. But you know
before the match. You just you try to be focus in your game. Sometimes is
difficult. But the most of the time you need to think about the game, and not
about the crowd.
Q. Were the tennis gods smiling on you today?
GUILLERMO CANAS: Yeah, thanks.
Q. You had some bad luck in five?set matches before, especially when you've
been up two sets. Have you had to fight off that memory that sometimes things
have not gone well for you when you're up two sets?
GUILLERMO CANAS: Yeah. But really I think it in one moment in the match, but
I think just I try to be focus on the tennis. Because I think today the final
set, the fifth set, is the better I play.
In the beginning of the match today I didn't play very well, because I feel
so tight in the beginning, just I didn't move very well. And he start playing
very good. He didn't make easy mistakes.
For this I think I will go like in the third set he win like very easy. And
then the third set he was 5?3, and then I start to play a little better. And
after the 5?3, I start to feel much better.
But really I didn't feel my best tennis today. But I fighting a lot. I'm very
happy to win this kind of match.
Q. You were right there on the edge of defeat in the fifth set. He didn't
play two points well. At deuce, horrible overhead. Were you smiling to
yourself when that happened?
GUILLERMO CANAS: Yeah, really, is tough to happen this mistake in all the
match, to happen in this important moment. It was lucky for me.
But I think sometimes if you fighting every point and if you be like very
focus, sometime happen. This one was the match I have maybe the luck for my
side.
Q. Many Argentinian players are doing very well here again in Roland Garros.
Can you explain what the secret of the Argentinian success is?
GUILLERMO CANAS: The secret, I don't know. Just I going to explain for us is
one of the most important tournaments to play. I think everybody planning all
the clay season to be hundred percent in this tournament. I think for us is
very important. Is the tournament everybody want to win. They want to win.
But I think for this we have a very good, very successful in this tournament
here in Paris.
THE MODERATOR: Spanish questions, please.
Q. How is it possible you have 10,000 people against you, you're there on the
court, you win? What did you feel during this match?
GUILLERMO CANAS: Well, today I started a very different match. First I wasn't
playing at the same level as what I'd been playing during the previous
matches. I was feeling very tired. I hadn't really had enough time to
recover. He started playing well. I wasn't moving very well. I was very slow.
I was feeling very tense and things started getting complicated.
In the fourth set, I had an opportunity that I couldn't take. After that, it
could have gone both ways really. I realized that and I tried to fight for
every point. I tried to take any opportunity that would come my way.
I also felt that he would be able to give me opportunities. I think I was
also quite lucky. There were some good points that I played. You know, I
think sometimes you need a little bit of luck in that sort of match to win.
Q. In Davis Cup, he had success. He's a player who at important moments has
moments of doubt.
GUILLERMO CANAS: Well, any Frenchman playing in France can doubt. That's why
I wanted to be a hundred percent in the game. Apart from the two match points
?? well, I think what we can say is that we both played well. I think I tried
to seize all the opportunities to try to turn the match around.
Q. Where did you get the strength to continue running and playing the way you
did?
GUILLERMO CANAS: Well, it's nothing new. It's what I usually do. It's
perfectly normal. I think I didn't do anything out of the ordinary. I
followed the plan I had. I tried to fight till the end. I was lucky to win
the match.
Q. Yesterday Mathieu wanted to stop the match. He got very angry. Have you
ever seen somebody get so angry on the court?
GUILLERMO CANAS: He could have won that set. Obviously, he was going to try
to interrupt the match. It was late. It was 2?2. It was difficult to see. It
was getting dark. His request wasn't anything unusual. He was losing two sets
to love. It's obvious that he's going to try to postpone the match. He tried
to use that opportunity.
In any case, the match had to be interrupted in the end.
Q. You said you didn't play your best tennis either yesterday or today. What
was your plan? What strategy did you have? Sometimes you were too defensive?
GUILLERMO CANAS: Well, he's always trying to play his points. He was trying
to take my serves early. I was very tense, more tense than in other matches.
Today I'd planned to attack more.
At the beginning I couldn't do that because it was being too slow, too
erratic, and that made me feel even more tense, even more so than yesterday.
That also is what made him play better than yesterday. I wasn't playing as
well as I was playing yesterday.
Q. At some point were you afraid you were going to lose the match?
GUILLERMO CANAS: Well, not afraid, no. I think I was close to losing the
match. I knew I could lose or win, that it could go either way. Then I
started trying to take more risks, take more initiatives. I realized that I'm
capable of playing well when I really need to play well. I hope that in the
next match, it won't take such a long time for me to start playing really
well.
Q. Was there extra pressure that the five Argentines have already gotten
through?
GUILLERMO CANAS: No, not at all. You know, each of us is very happy to see
more Argentinian players. We're happy to see our fellow countrymen and
friends getting through the next rounds. It's no pressure, no.
I think, on the contrary, it provides further support to us. The pressure?
Well, yes, I did feel pressure, but it's because he was playing well. He was
playing great tennis. That's why I felt pressure.
Q. How did you feel physically?
GUILLERMO CANAS: Well, I felt well. At the end of the game, I felt that I
could continue. I could have continued playing. Yesterday it finished very
late. This morning I was feeling a bit nervous. It took me really a set and a
half to start relaxing. Obviously, I've been for a long time on the court,
three hours, but nothing unusual. It's not that I'm not feeling well. I'm
going to have time to rest.
Q. There was a very strange point when you couldn't judge whether it was
going to be in or out.
GUILLERMO CANAS: At that point in the match, I wasn't playing very well. I
could feel that all the shots were going past me and I couldn't really
control my game.
Q. Now you've made it to the quarterfinals. You'll play Kiefer. How do you
see that match?
GUILLERMO CANAS: Well, it's going to be a tough match. He's playing very
well. He's improved a lot. He's a very different player to the players I've
played so far. He is an aggressive player. Obviously, he's feeling very
confident, so it's going to be a tough match.
I think I can beat him and go on to the quarterfinals.
Q. What do you think of Guga? You've been working with him.
GUILLERMO CANAS: Yeah, he's incredible. You know, being with such a major
player like Guga, I think for our team it's been a great support, for our
tennis. He has experience. He's had some experiences outside tennis that are
very important. He's gone through situations that only a No. 1 like him can
have experienced. We really try to learn from that and try to share those
moments with him.
Q. You're going to play tomorrow. What are you going to do today? How are you
going to prepare?
GUILLERMO CANAS: Lots of massages. I'm going to eat now, because I'm
starving. I'm going to rest. Those are the things I'm going to do today
(smiling).
Q. Why didn't you sleep well? Were you nervous?
GUILLERMO CANAS: Well, no. Yesterday we left almost at quarter past 11. I got
to the hotel. I got changed to go and have dinner. It was almost a quarter
past 12. We finished dinner at half past 12 or so, quarter to 1. I went to
bed at 1 o'clock in the morning. I got up at 8 o'clock this morning. I didn't
sleep as many hours as I usually do. But I think I'll catch up today.
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