ROLEX PARIS MASTERS

November 5, 2026

Luca Van Assche

Press Conference

L. van ASSCHE/L. Musetti

7-5, 3-6, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. Luca, congratulations on your debut for quarterfinals in Masters category. Can you share what goes through your mind?

LUCA van ASSCHE: Yeah, I'm very happy to be in the quarterfinals for the first time in my career. I hope it's not the last one, that it's the first of many.

Yeah, I'm just very happy about my performance today. Also my performance yesterday in the third round.

Yeah, it's been a great week for the moment for me.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in French.

Q. We felt you were in trouble at the beginning of the second set and at the beginning of the third, but you managed to come back. You're someone who never lets go?

LUCA van ASSCHE: Absolutely. It's a quality, I believe. I believe I've proven this over many matches. And I'm happy to feel that combative and even more when I'm faced with a player who plays my style of game, because if I don't fight over every point, he gets a lot of points.

Q. About your game style, you always have the image of a player who is solid, but we saw that you were serving at 215, 218, and Lorenzo said he was surprised by your ability to serve at very important moments. Can you tell us about the work you did to get to that?

LUCA van ASSCHE: Well, some people may consider me as someone who is just solid, but with matches and experience, you know that just putting the ball back in the court is not sufficient. I'm lucky to be able to have a strong serve, but it means working hard, and this helps.

I know my game has to be aggressive. I have to dominate the rally, and I served well today. Sometimes it's more difficult with some players than others. Lorenzo plays from the back of the court, and he serves very well. At times I was able to impose my game and I was happy.

Q. Last year you were not very well. You were over 200. Did you have a moment of panic?

LUCA van ASSCHE: Well, it was a difficult moment when you're down in the ranking, especially as I was not used to have any problems. I was in the 100s at 19 years old, and then suddenly I met with difficult losses and I wasn't used to it.

Last year was a complicated year. I was often injured, and I wasn't able to play over long run. So even I was asking myself questions, what do I want to do? If I want to play, how do I have to play to be able to perform? And I believe Olbia did me good and enabled me to regain my trust and my confidence.

Q. Sebastien Villette said that when you met, you started to work together and you told him you were looking for pleasure in your game. How was he able to put this pleasure of play back in the game?

LUCA van ASSCHE: Well, let's not delude ourselves. Pleasure is obviously very much in the victories, but we started working at the beginning of this year, before the season, and we understood each other.

He's someone who has a good vision of my game, who trusts me a lot, and obviously this helps me. It enabled me to create a good relationship and to work hard, because you don't get results if you don't work.

He supported me throughout the year. We managed to get my game to progress and learn a lot also from losses and defeats, and we're working well together.

Q. Talking about this period, when you went to 60, to 200, you said you asked yourself a lot of questions. How did you answer these questions? How did you understand and acquire what a top-level career meant and required?

LUCA van ASSCHE: For a while, I was not feeling good. I was back as a challenger, and that challenger level is very high. So I wasn't winning a lot when I got back to challenger.

Obviously you lose on the Monday. Then you wait for a week. Then you lose again the next Monday. The tournaments are not as prestigious as ATP or Grand Slams, and so I felt, is that what I want to do? Then I felt, well, that my pleasure came mainly from the results.

I was asked, What if you were top 20, would you be asking yourself the same questions? And I felt, no, it's not just being top 20. It's just playing tennis. I realized I love tennis, and I like the tour, and I want to be able to play tennis.

We worked a lot with my team and my people on that and focused not only on victory and defeat, but on the learning process itself, and this helped me a lot.

Q. Maybe this is more or less the same question, but the hard indoor court seems to be a very fast surface. Would you say it has become your favorite surface when you used to be mainly a clay player?

LUCA van ASSCHE: Well, yes. I'm not playing much on grass, but I like all surfaces, I would say. Where I feel best is clay, but my performances and my results are also good on indoor hard.

I know my game has adapted to this. It used to be complicated for my forehand, but I've worked hard on it, and I feel good and I'm glad to play here in indoor.

Q. Tomorrow you are playing Hijikata in the quarterfinals of a Masters 1000. We can feel it's a good draw for you, but I don't think you've played him before.

LUCA van ASSCHE: No, I have never played him, not even when training. He's an excellent player. If he's in the quarterfinals, he deserves being there.

He fought and beat five players to get here, including Djokovic, and he's had very nice victories over his career. He likes this surface. He plays fast and tense. He feels at ease on this surface.

It's going to be a nice match, and I will focus on recovering and being ready for tomorrow.