Gilles Simon, post-loss to Berdych in Rotterdam

Interviews by Franck Ramella from the 15 February 2015 print edition of  l’Équipe.

“Tomas served hard, he hit bullets.  I just couldn’t do anything against him.  He was flawless in all areas, and his returns really impressed me.  He even hit shots he doesn’t know how to hit, especially cross-court chips.  Sometimes it felt like I was playing four people… When it’s going badly against that kind of player it can go quickly—something like against Roger.  I can bother him, but I also remember getting taken 1 and 2.

“I’d say I’m playing well right now.  Everything’s fine physically.  But I’d put Montpellier and Rotterdam on the same level.  There and here, I lost the two big matches against Janowicz and Berdych.  I didn’t manage to raise my level.  I was missing something when the other guy gave me something tough. And I’m normally pretty good at that.”

Jan de Witt’s perspective: “A very disappointing match.  A very bad quality of play against a very good Berdych.  The worst thing was the high number of unforced errors before Gilles sort of started panicking a bit.  But against Murray, he played well tactically.  He played quicker without missing very much.  Andy could even change his game plan three times during the match and Gilles found a solution each time.  That was good, and it will still be a good week.”

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