Jiri Vesely: Quarter-final
Jiri Vesely speaks to the media after his 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(8), 6-7(9), 6-3 defeat by Tomas Berdych
Q. What are your thoughts about this defeat today after the suspension?
JIRI VESELY: Yeah, I mean, it was a very close match definitely. Yesterday I played a very good first set, then second set I lost my serve once. The whole match yesterday was very, very close. Could finish either for him or for me. As I said, it was very, very close.
But today I didn't start well. I lost my serve. I was a little bit nervous from the beginning on. But then still I had my chances to get the lead 4 3, which I didn't use. Since then he was the better one.
Q. Did you expect it to be so close, to the level of Tomas?
JIRI VESELY: To be honest, not really. We practice sometimes together. I knew it's going to be tough for me because he plays very fast. It's not easy to get the rhythm with his speed.
But somehow on the grass, it's always a little bit different. The balls are bouncing lower, so it's not so easy to play that fast.
But yeah, I mean, it was close, but still for me it was so far to win.
Q. You are happy?
JIRI VESELY: Definitely, if someone would tell me before the tournament I would play last 16, I would take it for sure. With that last match, I'm still happy. I think there are a lot of positive things that happened in the past few weeks, past few days actually. I really can't, you know, be too sad. I just have to take the positive things out of that tournament and try to keep it for the upcoming weeks.
Q. You were No. 1 in juniors in 2011. What is the difference between the junior level and the pro level?
JIRI VESELY: Well, it's a huge difference. Of course, it's very tough to get the transition done because we can see that so many juniors are not actually doing the transition very well. They don't get through, which is very tough because you need to win so many future tournaments.
If you get that done, then you need to win a lot of challenger tournaments before you get to the ATP level. So it's a very hard and long way to go.
But there are always people that are making this step by step thing. For the juniors, it's tough. Now in the last five, ten years, it's even tougher to get through because everyone has his own physio, fitness coach. Everyone has a big team. It's really tough to beat the experienced guys, which are older and they have more energy and everything.
