ROLEX MONTE-CARLO MASTERS

April 13, 2025

Romain Arneodo

Manuel Guinard

Press Conference

ARNEODO-GUINARD/Cash-Glasspool

1-6, 7-6, 10-8

THE MODERATOR: Questions in French.

Q. Romain, congratulations. Two years ago you had a match point with Sam for the final, and now you were able to win it. What does it mean for you to win your own tournament at home?

ROMAIN ARNEODO: It's exactly what I told Manu. I was here two years ago, and it was bad, because the closer we were to win, the closer we were to a big disappointment. This is what happened two years ago.

But we thought also that if we didn't try, we would never win it, either. So I just can't believe it now. At the end, things were not going so well. I was afraid we would lose again and I would be sad for a very long time.

So now what I feel is feeling calm again, feeling good, because I have been thinking about this for two years now. This defeat we had was across my throat.

And now that I won it, I have the impression that my tennis career is complete. I can win other matches, of course, but now I can leave for retirement without remorse. I have no more pressure. So I'm not going to say it's the end of my career, good-bye, but it's an exceptional feeling of fulfillment.

And also, you must know that I come to the club every day, I practice here, I have my coffee, and I can see the wall where the names of the winners are, and every day I see Krawietz and Putz who beat us last time on marble. And now I will see my name on this marble. And really it might seem stupid, but really it's important for me because I'm in love with this club.

When I'll come and have my coffee every morning, I will see my name on marble. Now I'm part of this club. I'm very proud of it.

Q. Congratulations to both of you. A question to Manuel. We saw you totally involved in that match with the crowd behind you. How did you experience this match?

MANUEL GUINARD: In the beginning, we just survived barely. It's the word. And then we decided to take it point by point. We know in doubles things can turn around very quickly.

At 6-1, we looked at each, and we said, Starting from now, it's a new match. We need to go and get it with our attitude. And we did this together.

I think the story is beautiful, because we were favorite in not a single match we played here. We were able to pull out from very complicated situations, and we were able to win three super-tiebreakers over our matches. This is thanks to our attitude, and during this final, also the crowd helped us a lot.

Well, we did what we needed to do also, but they really helped us.

Q. How important is it for you and for Monaco tennis to win this final? Is it special?

ROMAIN ARNEODO: Well, tennis in Monaco is important, thanks to Elizabeth-Ann de Massy, and we had the inauguration of Court No. 2 bearing her name now. She was the president of our Federation. It's one of the biggest federations in Monaco. We are a small country, and tennis is the one of the biggest sports in the country. The tournament helps the Federation.

So we have Charles Leclerc with Formula 1, and we have the tournament with Rolex. So it helps a lot to win this tournament, as a child of tennis, also, because I was born here, and I always came to the club since the very beginning, and I came to watch the tournament all these years. So for me it's a great fulfillment for my whole life.

Q. With this victory, Romain, you are No. 43. Manuel becomes No. 36. Can you explain how this week will change everything for you in the next month?

ROMAIN ARNEODO: Well, with the final we have played, things had changed already. We had improved our ranking a lot, and we were able to play all the ATP tournaments. This is what happened in 2023. We played only on the ATP Tour.

Now I'm 40 or something, and he's 30-something. It's great. But what is important to me is winning this tournament with all the emotions with it. I can't say I don't care about the ranking, but if you have to choose between the ranking and winning this tournament, I would choose to win this tournament.

Of course this will mean many changes for the future, but for the time being, I just want to celebrate.

Q. Manuel, to be fair, so you're becoming No. 3 in France in doubles. I don't know if you knew that.

MANUEL GUINARD: No, I didn't know.

Q. You played singles also this season, but now that you have this good ranking in doubles, what are you going to do?

MANUEL GUINARD: I don't have the answer to this question. Where I'm standing today, I won a Masters 1000. I won Monte-Carlo, and that's it for the time being. I don't know what the future will be.

For the time being, I'm enjoying the moment, and later we'll see. I'll take some time to think about all this because it's important.

Being top 35 or 36, it means I can try for other things. But for the time being, I'm not thinking about it too much. I proved myself this week and during the past two years that I was able to play well in doubles. I already had important goals in doubles before and especially for this winter and for the next two years, so this is going to open doors for me, and I really hope I will be able to achieve those goals.

Q. Last question for Romain. You were saying that you were going to have your name on the marble, but there is also a tattoo issue. Can you tell us about this?

ROMAIN ARNEODO: Yes, it was the first day of the tournament. I was watching Ugo play, with Melanie and the club staff, and we saw one guy who had a tattoo on his calf with the MCCC logo.

So I said to Melanie, If I win the tournament, I'm going to have a tattoo of the Monte-Carlo Country Club. It's very exceptional for me to be able to win this tournament, and I don't have any tattoos at all, and I said if I have a tattoo once, it's going to be this one.

So I'm going to do it now, and I might send you some photos. It all started with this joke with Geoffrey, and he didn't even win the tournament, but he has this tattoo. So I don't know if I have to thank him, but he opened the door to this joke. But the tattoo is beautiful.