By Giulio Gasparin
Winning the ATP Challenger of Cordenons was not only a boost of points for a ranking that had seen him falling out of the top 100, but for Filip Krajinovic was the goal of the summer: winning a title to reboost his confidence ahead of the last slam of the season. The 24 year old Serb needed a few tough battles to lift up the trophy, including coming back from a set and a break down in the final against Adrian Ungur, but the tiredness is a rightful price to pay for a much needed successful rum.
Well this was quite a tough battle today, but you managed to turn it around. What was the key?
It was very tough, actually, yesterday I played a very hard match against Lorenzi and I spent a lot in that long match and I couldn’t recover that much, so I felt I did not have much energy in the first set. Even in the second set I did not play my best game, but what I did was fighting and fighting and that would give me the confidence to come back.
You decided to play on clay this week, but you have the US Open coming up.
Yes, I decided with my team that I should stick to clay after Wimbledon to try to…my goal was to win a tournament and I did it, so now I can go to the US Open with a lot of confidence and I expect to do well there.
What will be your goals from now till the end of the season?
Of course it would be nice to be back in the top 100, but my goal is to finish at least in the top 80 as the last year I finished 90. I am close to that, so if I keep playing well like I am doing, I will do it.
What does it mean to you to have the world number one, Novak Djokovic, being part of the same Davis Cup team?
It means a lot to me, because he is the guy who is helping all of us a lot and sometimes I play doubles with him and when I need it, he is always there for a talk: when I need a good tactic or advice, I always call him and he always answers, so that’s a great pleasure for us to have him and to be next to him.
Is there anything technically that you need to improve?
Of course, I need to be spot on physically and this shows especially on my serve, as there are days I have big problems. But then there are many more things that need some improvements if I want to get better.
Have you ever thought that your shoulder injury in 2011 could have ended your career?
It was a tough moment for me, as I was one of the best juniors in the world and it was not easy at all to recover, but I felt that I could comeback and I know I have a game that could bring me far, so that gave me confidence to believe I could make it and people around me believed in me too, which was very important.
Can I give you only one bad news? Djokovic lost the final to Federer…
What was the score?
7-6 6-3…
(Smiling) Sh*t!
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