Philipp Kohlschreiber – Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Two matches away from 400 wins. How special is that?

PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER: Thanks. I didn’t know, actually. Yeah, it’s good (smiling). Hopefully I can achieve — well, there is my own record or my best mark I’m here in this tournament would be great. Means I’m being in the semifinal. But on the other side, well, I think I have hopefully a few more years to play on the tour. So I’m pretty confident that I gonna make 400-plus, hopefully.

Q. Talk a little bit about the match today.

PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER: Great start. Hitting the ball quite good. Then it start to slow down a little bit. A lot of serving on the other side. Not too much rhythm. Very comfortable I would say until 4-3 in the second set. Winning very comfortable in my own service games.

Yeah, he had a very good game there. It’s always a little pressure, you know, like you had the break point previous game, maybe start to think a little bit. He had nothing to lose anymore, you know, more risky. Hit some good returns. And, yeah, finally it’s a tight set, you know.

Q. You’re one of the few guys who have a lovely sense of humor.

PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER: That’s normal for German (smiling).

Q. So is it anything that you sort of work on, or…

PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER: Not really. Actually, I try to be always the guy who try to make other people smile, you know. Sometimes I do few things too much, you know, like — I don’t know, trying to be funny. Not sometimes it’s funny.

But, well, I don’t know. I’m a happy person. It’s a very good environment. Many players on tour, you know, after not even the last ten years, even more on tour, same faces, you have some friendships. People you see almost every week. So it’s a good connection.

I always try to be — I could be more funny on court, I have to be honest. Outside, I think I’m very open and, yeah, funny guy.

Q. Has it sort of landed you in any sort of embarrassing situation?

PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER: No. Hopefully for the others. Then it’s, for me, it’s funny.

Q. You talked about friendship on the tour. On the women’s side we have —

PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER: A lot?

Q. — Bouchard and Sharapova saying they’re not playing to make friends.

PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER: I mean, it’s not about making friends, but if you spend so many years together, you have your practice partners over the years, people speaking the same language, like Gilles, so you talk, you practice, like I mention, and play cards. It comes together.

I mean, it’s not maybe — for me, friendship is, of course — there are friendships and friendships. You have very close friends. I would say that’s gonna be tough to have somebody on tour. But you have a lot of people with a great relationship and kind of good friendship.

Q. Does that make it hard? Because I assume most of your close friends are at home, but you’re not there that much.

PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER: That’s true, but, I mean, the really good friends understand your work, and if you come back, it’s like nothing happened. You know, like you just talk a little bit about your journey. They talk about their jobs or other stuff. Then everything is good.

It’s about a great friendship that you don’t have to spend and, you know, text them and ask every day. It’s a great connection. Everybody knows how stressed tennis can be sometimes, you know, winning matches, losing. They know about the situation, and it’s great to come home and settle down.

Q. Are you a prankster?

PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER: Prankster? Translate, please?

Q. Joker? Pull tricks on people?

PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER: No, not like this. No.

Q. A free day tomorrow. Do you have any plans?

PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER: Oh, a lot of practice, I have to say. Of course few things were really good today, but I would say in the second set I dropped a little bit intensity, so I gonna work on this.

It’s great, you know, see my opponents. Hopefully it’s a lovely day tomorrow, sunny, so you can schedule very good. Maybe Roger is winning tonight. I don’t know. It’s gonna be tough.

No, it’s not done yet, let’s say. But if he’s winning, maybe we play together tomorrow. We don’t know. Few things to do.