Australian Open: “I managed to disconnect my brain”, behind the scenes of Mannarino’s victory over Shelton

Adrian Mannarino, who emerged victorious in a third match in five sets in as many rounds at the Australian Open, at the expense of the American Ben Shelton (16th) on Friday, felt “good in the canes” despite the dozen hours spent on the courts of Melbourne.

Newcomer in the top 20 (19th) at 35 years old and French No.1, he will challenge world No.1 Novak Djokovic in the round of 16.

“I really had the impression that it could still continue, I felt good in Cannes,” he said. “During the exchanges, I felt pretty good. I was moving well. Obviously I tensed up a little towards the end of the match, but generally speaking, I felt good.”

“It was really hard physically. At some point, I managed to turn off my brain and stop thinking about the pain. I was just trying to run, to bring back one more ball,” he adds.

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“Having my back against the wall while losing the third set relaxed me a little,” Mannarino rewinds. In my head, I said to myself, You missed the kibble. I told myself that I had missed the opportunity, for me I had more or less lost the match, at that moment it seemed too far from winning the last two sets.

“Frankly, in the end, what prevailed was the desire not to lose,” he admits. When you lose a point, all the people screaming, it hurts. I thought that if I lost this match, it was going to be terrible. I just wanted to avoid that. So, it was more relief than joy at the end, it was surprising.”

After fifteen sets and almost twelve hours of matches in five days, how does he envisage Saturday, on the eve of his round of 16?

“When you play so much, almost five hours of tennis, I think there is no need to play a lot the next day. If I do a quarter of an hour, just to reassure myself, and above all to keep some energy for the next day, I think it's the best thing to do,” Mannarino considers.

As for the prospect of facing Djokovic for a place in the quarter-finals, we won't know what he thinks: Mannarino's policy is to only discover the identity of his opponents at the last moment. No questions were therefore allowed on the subject.