Fabrice Santoro interviewed in l'Équipe by @SophieDorgan on Federer, bad Berdych and dirty Coria.



Who is the best player you ever faced?



-- Federer without a doubt. He makes even the toughest things look easy. That's the most impressive thing. His best quality is his freshness. It's abnormal to me. It's not normal to be like he is, laughing in the dressing room like a 15-year-old kid. It's inexplicable. He lives the profession. Some like the tennis, others the travelling, the competition, the training, the interviews, signing autographs. He lives for all that 100%. It's like he was measured for a suit and they created a sport for that guy.



The coach who had the most influence on you?



-- My father. I asked him to coach him at a point (when he was 25) where I knew he could say yes because he'd retired. He would never have accepted before that. He always refused to take any money from me, and he needed the money, sure, but he would never have quit his job to live of the proceeds from his son. He understood from the start that my main force was that I was different. A lot of good coaches told me that I needed to hit harder, but my father told me: "You're going to do in the pros what you did as a kid." The day I started doing that, my career took off. At the end of my career, I'd gone back to my base. In the middle of it, I lost myself.



Your biggest regret?



-- Not playing against Safin in the Davis Cup final 2002 (7-2 head-to-head for Santoro, but he only played the doubles. Paul-Henri Mathieu was preferred for the singles). I'd dreamed of it but it's not my character to impose myself. Perhaps it's a fault. I couldn't say I was certain to beat him, but I dreamed of playing him.



What upset you the most on a court?



-- Against Berdych at Wimbledon in 2006. It was the biggest injustice I'd ever endured on a court. I played on of the best grass matches of my career, I had two match points and he calls the physio saying he was injured. The match was interrupted for almost a quarter of an hour (loss 6-4, 6-7, 2-6, 7-6, 6-4). When he was asked how his knee was, he said it was nothing, it was just to break my rhythm. That's the only time in my career that I didn't shake a player's hand. I didn't say hello to him for three-four years. Now, we've become friends.



The dirtiest player?



-- Coria. He was a dirty sort. With hawkeye, he would have won fewer matches. He was a cheater and a trickster. He had no problems circling a the wrong mark on clay. He tried to confuse. There was some sort of justice in the Roland final (in 2004, loss to Gaudio after having been up 2-0). It would have pissed me off that someone like him would win a Slam. Weird guy.



The biggest party guy?



-- Safin. At the Moscow tournament, he wasn't affected by jet lag. He knew he'd be playing every evening at 8 PM, so he could go to bed at 5 AM and get up at 2-3 PM. He went out every night. You could also call him the nicest person. He's really a sweet guy.



What you've never dared to say?



-- I would have loved to coach Gaël Monfils. He's a guy who has no limits apart from those he imposes on himself. Rightly or wrongly, I have the feeling I could have helped him. Today at almost thirty, he has a structure that suits him, and I hope he keeps it to the end. That's why I'm saying it now.



The present-day player who's most like you?



-- Even if we don't have exactly the same game, it might be Gilles (Simon) in the way he thinks and sets up a match. He's always looking to hit the right shot, he makes the most of his potential. He's someone who thinks on court and who'll ask himself three questions before going down the line.



The player who's been forgotten you'd most like to see again?



-- Rios. He had a bad temper but I loved watching him play. I recently watched a long bit of his Miami final when he became world number one and crushed Agassi (7-5, 6-3, 6-4 in 1998). It was pure genius. The first time he played Roland Garros (1994), he was eighteen. He lost in three to Sampras, who was number one (7-6, 7-6, 6-4). I congratulated him after the match and he answered: "I though the world number one would play a lot better than that. I'm not impressed at all. One day I'll be world number one." There's saying it and doing it. He said it and did it.

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