Granollers: “When I focused on the double, I polished the details and I saw a jump”

Date:

Marcel Granollers (Barcelona, ​​​​1986), winner of three Davis Cups, more than any player present in the final eight in Malaga, is again the mainstay of the Spanish doubles in this competition, supported by the leap in quality he has gained since then. it was launched. he focused on the pairs modality and was able to “finish the details”, such as volley or the serve-net game, where he could not devote so much time when he was also playing individual tournaments.

Despite this, Granollers told EFE that he would sign “now” for Spain to win all its matches 2-0 and not have to jump for even a minute on the court at the Martín Carpena Sports Palace in Malaga, where on Wednesday the team Captain Sergi Bruguera will make his debut against Croatia.

Q. In Davis Cup comes that rare time of year when doubles players receive as much or more attention than singles players. Do you appreciate it?

R. Especially in this format, doubles is as important as individual level. People see it, they know it’s a very important point and a lot of times it decides the playoffs. On the ATP circuit, fans want to see the tennis players they know better, and we doubles players don’t know that much. For us, that’s why the Davis Cup is so good to play.

Q. You arrive in Malaga after playing your third straight ATP finals in Turin, partnering Argentine Horacio Zeballos. Although this year you failed to win any game in the group stage, is it a good set-up for this Davis Cup?

R. Despite not achieving any success, the end of the year was marked by a good season. We played two very good first games, which we lost in the super tiebreak. In the first we lost 10-8 to the winning pairing (Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram). This is what happens in doubles, where two or three points decide the game. In Turin the conditions were quite similar to those here and they helped me to have three games before playing against Croatia. I will try to take advantage of all the good that I have released.

Q. It’s been ten years since your victory in the 2012 ATP finals, with Marc López. How have you developed as a player in this decade?

A: I have changed a lot because at that time my priority was to play individually and achieve a better level there. My training is focused on that. The individual circuit was very demanding and I didn’t have much time to prepare for the double. But I was lucky to find a teammate (Marc López) who followed me where I played and had a similar way of playing, with very good playing qualities. We got along well and we gained a lot in the years we played together. For two or three years I just focused on the double and everything changes. Now I have time to refine the detail, things that I can improve, like volleying or more daring serving and netting, which the players put together more. I have time for that evolution and, moreover, I get to the doubles less tired, so I can see that I have made a step in quality in recent years.

Q. Also mentally, not just technically, is a doubles player different from a singles player?

R. I have been playing singles for a long time and I consider that I have more individual heads than doubles. My mind is done with the individual. So it is true that I always have good results in doubles. Until I was doubling down, my way of playing was always as a ‘single player’. Now I’ve redirected a bit, but I still don’t have a double mentality. Although in the end it is tennis and, even if you have a slightly different way of playing, maybe a more aggressive mentality, tennis is tennis.

Q. To start this Davis Cup final, Spain will face Croatia in the quarterfinals, whose team includes the dangerous doubles pairing of Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic. But their defeat in the final of Turin shows that they are not invincible.

R. I saw a few of their matches and the truth is that they played very well, which was shown by the fact that they reached the final. They are two very experienced doubles players, they have been playing for a long time and they know each other very well. They spend more time on the court than our doubles, but we, whoever comes out to play, we’ve been together before. And the Davis Cup equalizes everything and the doubles matches tend to be very close. We have to take advantage of any opportunity we have.

Q. Would you rather not go out and play the deciding point?

R. If they tell me they won 2-0, I will sign it now. Hopefully we can win all the heats without going into doubles. It’s all about winning and the sooner the better. Undoubtedly, Croatia is a very difficult opponent because it is a very complete team, with two very strong individual players and the double is probably the best couple in the tournament. The conditions are in their favor as they are more used to playing on indoor fast courts. They will put us to the test and we have to be at our best to be competitive against them.

Q. You have won three Davis Cups, in 2008, 2011 and 2019…

R. Well, in 2011 I played in the quarterfinals and not anymore, but I was counted as a winner.

Q. And since you started playing Davis in 2010 you’ve partnered with a lot of players. Are you adapting to them or are they adapting to you?

R. All couples who have played Davis Cup know how to get along well with their partner. We also don’t have a weird game, that you say ‘here we can’t complement each other’. I’ve been fortunate that the teammates I’ve played with have a lot of quality. If only I didn’t play, the level they gave was also good. Lucky to have great players by your side.

Q. Who is the best doubles player you have met on the court?

A. I have to say that the ones I play with the most, Marc and Horacio, have been great teammates and great players and they have been able to get my best performance out of me. They are probably my best companions. And the best couple I’ve ever met is probably the Bryan brothers.

Q. Davis ends the season with this. Will you continue with Zeballos next time?

A. Yes, yes, we have discussed the continuation. We’ve had some very solid years, achieving very good results, and with the work we’re doing we can continue to be competitive. The goal is to continue being one of the best couples out there and we will try to do so next year.

Source: La Verdad

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Share post:

Subscribe

Popular

More like this
Related