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NITTO ATP FINALS

November 15, 2017

David Goffin

London, England, United Kingdom

G. DIMITROV/D. Goffin

6-0, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You've had that taping on your knee. Are you feeling 100%? Are you going to carry on here?
DAVID GOFFIN: I have a tape on my knee since, yeah, the US Open. I continue to wear the tape for my knee. But, yeah, I'm almost 100% physically, yeah. I'm feeling okay.

It was not the problem today. It was just a tough, tough match against Grigor who played really well. Yeah, it's life.

Q. How was Grigor better?
DAVID GOFFIN: Yeah, he was better today. We started the match really well from both sides. We had a lot of good rallies. It was a great intensity from the start.

But he played well. He was a little bit more aggressive. He came to the net from the beginning, from the first point.

Yeah, it was not easy for me to lose my serve from the start. It was tough for my confidence after that when it was 0-4.

In the second, I had some opportunities to come back, to break back, but he was really solid. He served well. He was really solid until the end of the match.

Q. You talked on Monday about having the best win in your life. How do you place this defeat?
DAVID GOFFIN: It's just a loss, a defeat. I have to now prepare the next one, to be ready for the next one. As a tennis player, normally you lose almost every week. Like I said, it's just another loss. The most important is to think about the next match.

Q. What do you expect from the match against Dominic, who you know so well?
DAVID GOFFIN: Yeah, I know him really well. I practice really often with Dominic. Yeah, I have already an idea with the tactics against him because I played so many times against him. We played a lot of good matches against each other.

It's not going to be easy, but I'm going to watch his match first tonight.

Q. Why is your return game not working?
DAVID GOFFIN: Like I said, I was returning well from the start, but it didn't paid off. After that, it was tough, like I said, for my confidence. He served well, good second serve. He didn't miss any serve. He had a lot of first serves. Sometimes he can struggling with his second serve. But he was really solid from this part of the game.

Yeah, that's why maybe I didn't return as always.

Q. You were struggling a lot behind your second serve today. Can you say what he did especially well against you or what you failed to do better?
DAVID GOFFIN: Yeah, because first of all I didn't make a lot of free points with my serve, so he put me a lot of pressure on the second serve. Even if I put some first serve, he was returning really well, even on the backhand side with a good slice return.

Yeah, even when I missed a first serve, I knew I was under pressure. I felt it. I knew that, yeah, it was not easy all the time to play a good second serve because was aggressive. Sometimes he took his forehand when I put the second serve on his backhand. It was not easy. I was under pressure all the time.

Q. You played Grigor many times in your career. How would you describe the evolution of his game in the past recent months compared to five years ago?
DAVID GOFFIN: Yeah, I played Grigor so many times. I always had some tough match against him. Sometimes I didn't find the solutions, like today. Sometimes I found some solutions, like this year in Rotterdam.

But, yeah, you know, today was just a match like this against Grigor. I have to focus on the next one. I'm sure if I have to play against Grigor another time, it will be a better match.

Q. You mentioned obviously it was the biggest win of your career against Rafa. You mentioned a couple times your confidence was knocked. Did you feel the effect of that win left you a little bit flat today?
DAVID GOFFIN: Yeah, it could be. When you play against Rafa, you have to play two hours and, yeah, 40, 45 minutes. You waste a lot of energy on the court. You finish really late after treatment. It's not easy to have a good recovery after a match like that.

Yeah, it's not a reason. I was feeling great. Physically I'm feeling 100%. Yeah, I don't think it's because it was a long match against Rafa. It's just that, yeah, Grigor played well and it was not easy for me today.

Q. You have one more match left, possibly three matches left here. At what stage does it become a distraction - maybe it's not - but with the Davis Cup Final coming up so quickly?
DAVID GOFFIN: Yeah, I'm just going to be focused on the next one, on the next match. This event is really important. It's one of the biggest events of the year. I'm going to focus on the next match. If there is another one, I will be focused on the next one. Then we will see.

The Davis Cup, I'm not thinking about the Davis Cup for the moment. I know it's just after this event. We will see. I'm just focused on this event first, then we see after.

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