Berdych : "My body feels way better than 4 or 5 years ago"

Tomas Berdych à Marseille pour l'Open13 Provence (Crédit : Yohan Brandt​)

Tomas Berdych came to press on tuesday at the Open13 Provence, and gave some thoughts about how he's dealing with his schedule, the Olympic Games, the Davis Cup, the changes in his game brought by Dani Vallverdu and also how to make sure to play well in his thirties. Thought it'd be interesting to share so here it is :

SCHEDULE
"I'm getting a bit older and I think it's even more important to take care of my schedule, choosing the weeks a little bit more carefully. I don't say the preparation time at the end of the season wasn't enough, but I'd have prefered a little bit more so I chose to have two weeks after the Australian Open, just to get some more training and some more preparation.
(Asked if it's because he played too much last year at the same period even if won a lot, or if it's about the Olympics) : It's a combination of both : it's been a very good start last year but yes you're right there were times I think it was too much. But on the other hand it's a good problem to have. But I'd say it's more about the Olympic Games, to have that extra big week in the middle of the season. And also I have to play some more Davis Cup. I have to adjust.

DAVIS CUP
It's very difficult to say right now that I'm gonna play the whole season, cause it's not really easy to do so. I'm definitely gonna play the first round, see what's gonna happen, then see how many matches I'm gonna play until the Olympics, and how the season is gonna be.

HIS GAME UNDER DANI VALLVERDU
It's been a lot of details that were missing in my game, like the strategy in the matches, the approach of the matches, how you prepare for different opponents. Also trying to add some more aggresivity, bring a little bit of spice into my game. You can't really say that you're gonna change things in a 30 year old player game, but the things you wanna work on, add or do slightly differently they might be easier because of the experience you have : you know which direction you want to go.

PLAYING WELL IN YOUR 30s
(Asked if he'd see himself playing still at the same level in 5 years)
If it's exactly like you mention, that's the absolutely perfect scenario : being able to be in the Top 10 at the age of 35, that's great. There's definitely no such a thing like thinking of retiring, but of course you're gonna get to the point where you might not be able to compete with the guys at a level you'd be satisfied with. But I still think that I still have realistically two or three good years. I look at the things I've never done in the past and yes I think my body feels way better than 4 or 5 years ago. I think that's a good sign that you're able to expand the career and play for longer. So I'm just gonna keep doing the same things, looking for the details. I think now one of the very important things is taking care of the body, which is the only thing that can make you play better and younger.