Johansson On Goffin's Stunning Comeback, What It's Like To Play In Tokyo
David Goffin, the 2017 Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships winner, saved three match points in his first-round match on Wednesday in Tokyo before beating Chengdu titlist Pablo Carreno Busta. The Belgian rallied from 1-6, 2-4 down to advance to the second round, in which he will play #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov.
After the match his coach, Thomas Johansson, spoke exclusively about Goffin’s comeback victory, the crowd support in Tokyo, and the Belgian’s progress throughout the 2019 season.
How interesting was that match?
Fun, good ending. But jeez, it was a tough one.
People may see that David saved three match points, but he also trailed 2-4 in the second set and was broken three time in the second. How did he turn it around?
I don’t know. This match, I would say Carreno [should have won] in two sets. But what I’m impressed with and what I liked today about David was his attitude. Even though he lost the first set 6-1 and he didn’t have a chance, he was still keeping his head high and he was fighting all the time. And then he was extremely lucky to win the second set and then after that it was pretty much over.
If I look back at my career you have maybe four, five matches like this in your whole career and you just have to enjoy them when they happen.
How much are those battles like roller-coasters?
These matches are the nicest ones to win. Pretty much you should not win when you look at the match and how everything went, but having a good attitude and fighting and like I said, keeping his head high, you have a better chance to win a match like this.
Even when David was down, the crowd was getting behind him. How cool was it to see the fans’ support of him as a former champion here?
It’s amazing. But we’ve been here for a couple of days now and David, he loves to player here in Tokyo. He’s always played really well here. When we’ve been out practising, he always has a nice crowd. The people really like him and I think they really appreciate his game.To me it’s incredible that you play in Tokyo and the crowd is actually louder than if he would play in some places in Europe.
You made two semi-finals at this event. What are your memories of competing in Tokyo?
I love this event. I think it’s a great event, there’s always a big crowd and there’s always a big crowd when you practise, which is quite rare. And it looks like the people really get into the matches. I really think they have made big improvements on the court on Centre Court, the Grandstand court is beautiful, all the outside courts are great, so they have really put in a lot of energy and effort to make this tournament better.
Were the crowds always like this in Tokyo?
I remember I practised and played with Shuzo Matsuoka. He was a little bit like Japan’s Nishikori is now. When he played, it was crazy. Even when I practised with him, it was crazy. The players, we love that. We love when there’s a big crowd and the crowd gets into a match. That is what you practise for.
Players travel to a lot of tournaments on the ATP Tour, so how nice is it when there is so much crowd support at an event away from home?
As a player, you have certain weeks that you enjoy more than other weeks and most of the time it depends on how you have done in the past. David has great memories from here. I also have great memories from here, so I have always enjoyed coming to Tokyo.
How happy are you with David’s progress throughout the year?
I’m very happy and I’m very pleased with his progress for the whole year. I think that he has put himself in a very good position now to finish the year strong. When we started to work together we got off to a little bit of a rough start. But we’ve always been working hard, we see things quite similarly. We know what path we are going to try to take to improve his game and get big results.
from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/2ouz6Gq
No comments