“These are the moments we play tennis for”

Alex Molcan writes one of the beautiful stories at the Țiriac Open. The Slovakian, formerly 38 ATP, came from the qualifiers, played two matches in one day on Tuesday and knocked out the main favorite at the Țiriac Open on Wednesday.

Already used to the capricious weather and the clay in Bucharest, Molcan had no problems with Gabriel Diallo, the Canadian in the first clay tournament of the season and the first match at the Țiriac Open. The Canadian was named the main favorite and had the first free lap. Molcan came to Bucharest after playing a challenger tournament in Croatia, in Zadar, where he reached the quarter-finals.

On Wednesday, he defeated Gabriel Diallo in one hour and 27 minutes, 6-2, 6-2. “I'm very satisfied, of course. I knew it would be a difficult match. Gabriel is undoubtedly a very good player, but I knew that this is his first tournament on clay. I just wanted to focus on my game, because I knew that he might struggle, being his first appearance on clay after a long time. I think I managed my game quite well.

I wasn't very dangerous with some winning shots, but I just tried to focus on what I had to do. It worked really well for me today, so I'm very happy that I was able to win.” Molcan said at the press conference, which he attended immediately after the victory over the Canadian.

Alex Molcan: “The conditions are different from the usual ones, it's quite cold”

The Slovak also detailed about Tuesday, when, due to the weather, he had to play two matches on clay at the “Simona Halep” Tennis Center. In the final round of qualifying, he defeated Jay Clarke 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (4) in a match that started on Monday and was interrupted at 4-1 in the first set due to rain, then advanced to the first round of the main draw by Matteo Arnaldi 6-3, 6-1.

“It was a very hard day for me. The first match lasted over three hours, and then, in two hours, another match followed, which was a little faster. But yesterday I had great difficulties in terms of my physical ability, I'm glad I survived. I woke up quite tired on Wednesday, but I warmed up well before the game. I took some electrolytes and everything I could and focused on the game.” he explained.

Was it an advantage that he already had matches played at the Țiriac Open? “Yes, of course, but the conditions are different than usual, it's quite cold here. So, yes, it probably helped that I played the matches. It didn't help me the length of these matches, so I have to take that into account. But yes, I think I had an advantage because, as I said, the conditions are different and I built my confidence, even though I didn't play very well in the first two qualifying rounds, but it helped me mentally that I won difficult matches, in difficult situations. That pushed me to victory. I played better yesterday, against Arnaldi, and I think also against Diallo,” stressed Molcan.

Alex Molcan and the motivation to continue despite the injuries: “We love the game, we love the competition”

A former Top 40 player, the Slovak has no ATP tournament wins, but has played in three finals, all on clay, and most of the ITF tournaments he has won have been played on this surface. “I think clay is my favorite surface, I have the best results, but I also like hard,” said Alex.

Alex Molcan's career is marked by injuries, he suffered knee and wrist operations. Every time he climbed the rankings, another problem would arise. Now he is once again looking for the form that will take him where he was before.

“I had some good seasons three, four, five years ago. Then I had to deal with injuries. I had surgeries and things weren't going well for me. So I went through a lot of hardships. I never thought about giving up tennis because of injuries. But it was pretty hard for me to keep training and doing everything I needed to do because I knew something was going to come up. And it did. And it was surgery again,” he said. he revealed.

Then he continued: “I was quite upset about it, but last year, let's say I came back, I lost almost all the points. And I started at $15,000 tournaments, so I basically went from zero to this place in just one year, which I think is good. So, again, I started to believe in myself, because last year I also had good results in the Challenger. It's good for me that I managed to beat even the best players, let's say. So I think that helps me this season“.

What kept him motivated during the times he was injured and going through these operations? “It's about tennis. Once you start at five and play for 20 years, you don't really have anything else to do. We don't really care about school. I mean, of course, we finished school, but we don't focus on other things outside of tennis, which is quite complicated. I think about it all the time. What would I do without tennis. Because you have to be smart once you stop, so…” Molcan pointed out.

He continued: “We love the game, we love the competition. Of course, there's a big, financial motivation. I mean, we don't play for money. Once you're on center court in a tournament like this and you have a lot of spectators, you're playing against the best players, that's something that money can't buy, of course. So I think that's the motivation. And also the Davis Cup and representing your country I think is the best feeling. I think those are the moments that we play”.

Alex Molcan about the collaboration with Novak Djokovic's former coach

In order to reach as high as possible in the circuit, Alex hired Marian Vajda, the former coach of Novak Djokovic, in 2022, a collaboration that ended in 2023. it was a very good experience, but it was not easy. I had a lot of respect for the coach, which is normal. You have to respect your coach. But it was a little bit different because, considering what he did with Djokovic, I don't want to say that I compared myself to Djokovic, but because I had the same coach as Djokovic, you always hear: “Are you going to be like Djokovic?”, those kind of moments. It gets into your head, it's a lot of pressure. I was a little tense,” explained the player from Slovakia.

He continued: “Inside, I was afraid to say anything to him because I had a lot of respect for him. I mean, in a good way, but it hurt because I was afraid of his reaction, because of course he's someone who has achieved, I think, everything as a coach. Yeah, I struggled with it a lot, but other than that it's been really good. We get along well. I mean, we're friends. When I see him, we always talk about everything, so it's been a good experience for me. Pretty tough, but I was always asking him about the things he was doing with Novak, it was a good experience.”

Alex Molcan, who has not reached the quarterfinals in an ATP tournament since 2023, will meet Mariano Navone (25 years old, 60th ATP) at the Țiriac Open on Friday in this phase.

The schedule for Thursday, April 2, at the Țiriac Open

• Central Ground

• Doubles, round 1

• 11:00 a.m. Nuno Borges, Victor Cornea (Por/Roma) – Ștefan Haita, Rareș Teodor Pieleanu (Roma, Roma)

• Simple, round 2

• Not before 13:00 Stefano Sakellaridis (Heavy, calf) – Fabian Marozsan (Ung, 3)

• Simple, round 2

• Followed by Daniel Merida (Spa, qualifications)- Adrian Manarino (Fra, 2)

• Simple, round 2

• Not before 17:00 Sebastian Baez (Arg, 5) – Tituuan Drouguet (Fra)

• Land 1

• Doubles, quarterfinals

• 11:00 a.m. Adam Pavlasek, Patrik Rikl (Czech, Czech) – Constantin Frantzen, Robin Hasse (Ger, Ola, 4)

• Simple, round 2

• Followed by Daniel Altmaier (Ger) – Dino Prizmic (Cro)

• Land 2

• Doubles, quarterfinals

• 11:00 Siriam Balaji/ Neil Oberleitner (Ind, Aut) – Alexander Erier, Lucas Miedler (Aut, Aut, 2)