“The world doesn't realize how hard it is to climb the rankings”

Filip Jianu is the best-ranked Romanian player in the ATP hierarchy, on the 246th place. Last year, he managed, on the clay in Bucharest, his first victory in an ATP tournament, then lost in three sets to Damir Dzumhur. The fates were not exactly friendly to Jianu this year, he met the Bosnian in the first round.

It was the fourth meeting between the two, again a close one, in which Filip Jianu was defeated after two hours and forty-one minutes, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (4). Loudly encouraged by the audience present at the “Simona Halep” National Tennis Center, the Romanian came back from 0-2 in the second set and pushed the match into the decider. A match in which he had to endure physical problems and outbursts from the opponent, caused by an argument with the chair referee, but also many short ones.

After the fight on the field, Filip Jianu came to the press conference, visibly affected by what happened on the field. “It's not easy to handle defeats like that, I don't get chances like this every week, it's a shame. I'm disappointed, of course, very close, I could have won a little more, because it was a long match. I fired, I was very close, it's difficult to manage, but we move forward, we have nothing to do”, said the Romanian.

He then continued: “Unfortunately, yes, I fell with him this year too, somehow he always gives me a headache. Now it was a lot tighter, I felt I progressed, I played better, I felt I was a bit over at one point. But he's an experienced player, he's always in the top 100. He's hard to play with, he always has solutions. When it comes to these close scores, you need a lot of luck, because it's one point, two, three that make the difference and it can go either way”.

His statement was reinforced by Dzumhur's: “When you get to the tiebreak of the third set, sometimes maybe you have a little bit more luck than your opponent, maybe at certain times you played a better shot.”

The audience was a factor that delighted both of them. “I usually like to play in this kind of atmosphere, to give them energy so that they give me back. I liked the atmosphere a lot, of course, playing at home, you get energy when you're tired or when you're down, and the encouragement lifts you up and makes you not give up,” said Filip Jianu.

“Filip should be very happy and proud to have this crowd on his side, obviously. It's not easy to play like that, but if you think too much about it, it will become even harder. So sometimes in a match, you know you have to focus more on your game and not on what's happening around the pitch” – Damir Dzumhur

Filip Jianu and the desire to climb the rankings

His opponent paid him a compliment, saying about the Romanian that he deserves to be higher in the ranking. “I am of the same opinion. When I play with players like them or maybe even better, I manage to make tight scores. I still win occasionally, but people don't realize how hard it is to climb the rankings. It's tough, it's a very tough circuit, you have to win a lot in the smaller tournaments, where people think the players are weak, but me, playing there, playing here, of course with the wild card, I see what the situation is. Tennis has changed and the generation now is different than it was five to ten years ago when a 500 ATP player was easy to beat. Now, as I feel, playing with them, it seems to me that in the first 600-700 they all play well. Anyone can beat Dzumhur on any given day, as proof I was close too,” emphasized Filip, who climbed as high as 210th ATP.

I said it last year too that it deserves a better ranking. Certainly. Maybe he has extra motivation playing in a tournament at home, in front of his own supporters, that's for sure, but I think if he played at this level all year round, he'd probably get an even better ranking.” – Damir Dzumhur

He added: “Without consistent opportunities like this, no wild cards or support, it's a lot harder to climb up the rankings, but I'm hoping that slowly, slowly, a series of good challenger tournaments with good results will come along and they'll push you up the rankings.”

Filip Jianu is going through a more difficult period

The Romanian also explained why he called the physiotherapist during the game. “I had some small pains in my leg, they appeared during the match. It's a little more difficult period for me. I'm not exactly in my best shape, neither physically nor mentally, but I tried to push through the pain as much as I could. I called the doctor, the audience helped me a little, he helped me too, I was close. It's a shame,” said Jianu.

He avoided going into details about the more difficult part he is going through: “Certain things are not related to me. Simply, a series of lost matches with close scores. Certain incidents on the personal side. All of them are felt on the court. Because tennis is a sport in which you have to come fully focused every day. In training you have to be focused 4-5 hours a day. And if you are not, just a little, it is felt.“

Compared to last year I felt better physically. Last year it was much harder for me to breathe. This year was ok, apart from the medical problem, but that's about the muscles, it has nothing to do with fitness. We had no problems, we fought from equal to equal. We were both physically at the same level and the difference was two or three shots – Filip Jianu

The Romanian also identified how he changed compared to last year. “I played better, I have more power, I improved my shots, fitness and experience. I handled situations a little better. I wasn't so tense anymore, but unfortunately I fell hard in the first round against a player who always finds solutions against me. I tend to think that if I had played in a higher phase of the tournament, maybe I would have gone into the match better, a little more relaxed and maybe things would have gone differently,” he concluded Jianu.

The schedule for Wednesday, March 31, at the Țiriac Open

• Central Ground

• Doubles, round 1

• 11:00 a.m. N. Sriram Balaji, Neil Oberleitner (Ind/Aut) – Alexandru Jecan, Bogdan Pavel (Roma/Roma, WC)

• Simple, round 2

• Not before 13:00 Elmer Moller (Dan) – Mariano Navone (Arg, 7)

• Followed by Nuno Borges (Por, 4) – Damir Dzumhur (Bos)

• Not before 17:00 Gabriel Diallo (Can, 1) – Alex Molcan (Svk, q)

• Land 1

• Doubles, round 1

• 11:00 Cleeve Harper, David Stevenson (Can/M.Br) – Constantin Frantzen, Robin Haase (Ger, Ola/4)

• Simple, round 2

• Followed by Alexander Shevchenko (Kaz) – Botic van de Zandschulp (Ola, 8)

• Doubles, round 1

• Followed by Sadio Doumbia, Fabien Reboul (Fra/Fra, 1) – Anirudh Chandrasekar, Takeru Yuzuki (Ind/Jap)

• Followed by Yuki Bhambri, Michael Venus (Ind/N.Zel) – Fabian Maroszan, Alexander Shevchenko (Ung/Kaz)

• Land 2

• Doubles, round 1

• 11:00 a.m. Jakob Schnaitter, Mark Wallner (Ger/Ger) – Sander Gille, Sem Verbeek (Bel/Ola)

• Followed by Adam Pavlasek, Patrik Rikl (Czech/Czech) – Ray Ho, Hendrik Jebens (Tep/Ger)

• Followed by Gonzalo Escobar, Marcus Willis (Ecu/M.Br) – Alexander Erler, Lucas Miedler (Aut/Aut, 2)