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Given your superb 2024 and current world ranking (14th), you’ll start many tournaments among the contenders. Is that a difficult role to assume or do you like being in that category?
It’s all new to me. At the beginning of last year, I had a bit of a hard time with it. It felt a bit weird, and I put a lot of pressure on myself. However, it’s something you have to learn to manage, and things are much better today. I’d go so far as to say that I now love being among the favourites. I know I’m very lucky. I love what I do and am enjoying myself!
Though we’re now at the start of the hard-court season, can we look ahead to the clay tournaments? You’ve said it’s not your favourite surface, but could the milestone you’ve reached in 2024 allow you to have another breakthrough on clay in 2025?
I think there has been progress, but I don’t necessarily see it in terms of having a breakthrough or not. Two years ago, I proved to myself that I could play well on this surface. I beat some good clay-court specialists, I won two big Challenger Tour events and then I reached the quarter-finals in Monte-Carlo last year. I think it’s a surface I can play well on, but I also know that it won’t be my best one. Now I expect to get good results [on it] and also think I’m taken seriously on clay, which wasn’t the case early in my career! (laughs).
