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DAVIS CUP FINAL: BELGIUM VS GREAT BRITAINNovember 24, 2015Johan Van HerckKimmer CoppejansRuben BemelmansSteve DarcisDavid GoffinGhent, Belgium THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon and welcome to Ghent. Questions for the team, please. Q. Johan, I think you have been practicing on clay last week, before the British players, they were playing at the World Tour Finals or on clay in South America. Do you think it gives them an advantage to be playing in competitive matches? CAPTAIN VAN HERCK: I think it's the end of the year. I think everybody play a lot of matches. So I don't think playing these last matches at the end of the year will give them an advantage. I think a good preparation on clay is also important. I don't think it gives them an advantage. I think everybody here at the table and at the table with the British, they play a lot of matches. So I don't think that will make any difference. Q. How important do you think this match is for Belgium as a nation, not just in terms of tennis? There are feelings of anxiety in Belgium. CAPTAIN VAN HERCK: For us it's a huge event. I think it's a big event. I think for Belgium it's important in sports in general, not only in tennis. I think it's a really good team effort. I think in Belgium everybody appreciates that. We try to go one further. But I think the whole country will be behind us and we'll try to keep the trophy here. Q. Steve, could you give us an update? You suffered an injury in Sweden about a month ago. How much have you been able to play since? STEVE DARCIS: No, I feel really good now. I could end the year very early so I could rest very good. I've been practicing on clay since three weeks now. So, yeah, I have to say I feel really good. Q. David, the last time we saw you was at Bercy when you took a bit of a pounding from Andy. How easy was it to put that result out of your mind and go forward? What have you been doing since then? DAVID GOFFIN: Yeah, after Paris I just took some days off, and then the schedule was easy for us. After Paris, after the season for us, it was just easy. Like I said, I took some days off, then I played on clay court. So, yeah, we played all the week, all last week, all together. We practiced really good here in Belgium. It was pretty easy to go forward after Bercy. But it's always a good thing to practice all together. The spirit of the team is always good. So after Bercy and after the season end, it was easy to find the motivation to play on clay all together. Q. Did you think much about the Murray match or have you forgotten it? DAVID GOFFIN: No, I think the day I played Andy in Bercy, it was just a day off for me. I didn't play really well. But Andy was really aggressive. He played an unbelievable match there. The conditions here, it's a complete different match, another surface. I just have to forget this match and to think about the matches of this weekend. Q. Johan, how different have the preparations been with the worries over security? Did you ever fear that this would not happen? CAPTAIN VAN HERCK: No, I never thought it would not happen. I think we as a team have a lot of confidence in the organization. I know they put in a lot of work even before that. I know when they had to put the work in for the security, there's no reason and we have no doubts that we will be safe here. But, yeah, it's there. The difficulties are there. We try to focus on the sportive side. We cannot do anything about security. We have to see if we can get ready as a team. We have to be ready to get a good result in the team. So we try to focus on the job and we will be ready on Friday. Q. Beyond sport, how important is it that this event goes on as normal this weekend and you put on a good show? CAPTAIN VAN HERCK: I think is very important. Not only just for the security, I think it's important for us as a team. As I told before, we represent well our country. I think it's one of the main goals we had with this team, to have a good attitude, to have a good representation of our team, to put the crowd behind us. It's always been extremely important for us to be an exemplary team, if I can say like this. That's what we're going to do this weekend also. If we win or lose, there will be no excuses for us. We will be there with a good attitude and we will be ready. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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