[Fat Camel]

He made it!! 6-3 6-3!
So happy right now! Saved all the break-points! (6)

[soulage]

What a poor serve stat in second set 37%. I don't know how he manage to hold all the match but he did it. First Atp win since Metz and first MS win since Paris 10

One day off before Raonic And coverage starts only satuday so no streaming friday

Fats post on facebook Arno is more than happy il a kiffé and feels good physically.

[Kezzi]

Yay! I'm so happy for him!

[Marine]

Originally Posted by soulage

Fats post on facebook Arno is more than happy il a kiffé .

Tu m'étonnes !

After so many poor challengers, he's in one of the most attractive tournaments of the year !
It's a dream !
(and he has dream draw !)

[Via]

wow he marches on! looks easy too!! this guy is seriously making a comeback!!! lol

[soulage]

Few words in l'equipe today he's so happy. He's playing a level he didn't play since a long time. he worked a lot on his forehand he trains a lot make a lot of treatment as there 95% it's his last year he did everything in a square way. He wants to play in an agressiv way since this pep with forget in USO when he was lost. He's not worried about his future he's poud about what he did

[Fat Camel]

6-7 2-6
Arnaud fought hard! Raonic was serving for the set, but Clement broke him to love! Then was very competitive tie-break, Arnaud saved sp on Raonic's serve, but unfortunately that wasn't enough.

In the second set Raonic started serving better, and maybe Arnaud got a bit tired after this amazing week. He's back! Hope not for one tournament, like it happened with him before.

Reminded me a bit match vs Isner in Newport.

[Via]

it has been a good week.

please post any news of his clay plans

[soulage]

I'm surprised he lost a close tie-break Well good week thats what he said on his facebook He's flying to Le Gosier now let' see the draw but if he can keep this level why not

[Filo V.]

Qualifier in the first round of Le Gosier. But unfortunately he'll likely have to play his nemesis ERV in R2 Hopefully his confidence from Miami can change the history from their previous matches

The draw isn't too bad, what's most important is Arno feels good in his tennis again. If his body continues holding up, then he should continue winning matches.

[Fat Camel]

Raonic withdrew from Murray's match, why couldn't he do it earlier?

[soulage]

Originally Posted by Fat Camel

Raonic withdrew from Murray's match, why couldn't he do it earlier?

It's not fun for Raonic who was surely excited to play Murray

Interview in the local press I think you can use google translate. Arno sounds motivated

Arnaud Clément, 153e mondial. « Je recherche la notion de plaisir »


Le Français avait connu un premier Orange Open Guadeloupe mitigé. En 2012, pour cette deuxième édition qui commence demain, à Bas-du-Fort, il revient pour s'éclater. Et gagner!

Dans quel état d'esprit revenez-vous au Gosier ?
INTERVIEW. Je suis content. C'était prévu depuis longtemps. Je voulais revenir. J'ai plus de confiance que l'an dernier. Ce n'était pas ça en simple donc j'espère que je jouerai plus de matches cette semaine. Il y a du beau monde dans le tableau donc le tirage au sort sera important.
Vous parlez de confiance. Votre bon Masters 1000 de Miami entre-t-il en compte ?
Oui, je suis content de mon tournoi. Je perds au deuxième tour contre le Canadien Milos Raonic mais je ne fais pas un mauvais match. Et les trois précédents étaient bons. Que ce soit contre Andreev, que je n'avais jamais battu, et Capdeville en qualifications. Ou Sela au premier tour. Je suis donc très heureux de mon niveau.
Comment vous sentez-vous depuis votre finale en double ici l'an dernier ?
Ce n'était pas très bon sur terre battue. Et bien meilleur en septembre. J'ai atteint la finale de deux Challengers. Mais je n'ai pas été au niveau d'aujourd'hui depuis un bon moment. Malheureusement, ça ne garantit rien car il y d'autres joueurs qui sont là.
Vous faites votre dernière année...
(Il coupe) Je n'ai jamais annoncé ma retraite. Rien n'est définitif, même si c'est très probable que j'arrête à la fin de l'année.
Est-ce aussi motivant de jouer un Challenger ?
Je fais davantage ces tournois que des Masters 1000 depuis un an. Si je fais un bon match, où que ce soit, je suis content. D'ailleurs, je préfère venir faire un bon tournoi en France que faire Miami, même si c'est toujours plaisant de jouer ce type de compétition.
C'est-à-dire ?
Je suis toujours super bien accueilli en France. Les Challengers sont bien organisés. J'évite d'ailleurs d'en faire à l'étranger. Je recherche la notion de plaisir. Je veux profiter au maximum.
On parle de vous pour prendre la tête de l'équipe de France de Coupe Davis.
C'est beaucoup trop tôt. On est au mois de mars et les gars disputent leur quart de finale contre les États-Unis dans deux semaines. Que la presse parle de moi, ça ne me fait ni chaud ni froid. Ce sont les joueurs qui vont se concerter pour décider. Eux sont légitimes. Et si je sors, je serai très heureux.

[Fat Camel]

Yes, i know, no bitterness from me to Raonic.

[Marine]

Thanks soulage.
One thing is sure, Arnaud doesn't share seb's love for Miami ! He won't never go living there ! lol
But personly, I'm not sure to agree with him. Ok, I'm not a player, I can't compare, but it doesn't seem very fun to play challengers. It must be most interesting to play a big tournament, against good players.
But it's good like that, if he didn't like playing little tournaments, he would have stoped for a while !
He's happy to play everywhere in france.

[Kezzi]

I can't compare as a player, but I can compare as a visitor and I do believe him when he thinks challengers are fun.
The atmosphere is very relaxed and the matches are mostly competitive from the start. Not like the big tournaments where you can sort of predict the outcome in first rounds (apart from the surprises of course).
For me challengers are always fun, I've never had a bad time there. Only remark I can make is that there's not enough "off-court entertainment", but I also feel that way over Bercy and Marseille, so that has nothing to do with big tournaments.
I think players like Arnaud can genuinely like to play challengers because of the atmosphere. And the visitors are usually more behaved, cause people come for the tennis. Not like in Rotterdam where everyone wants to see Fed and they think Stakhovsky is either Soderling or Kohlschreiber and someone even asked me if they were supposed to know Gilles Simon based on his achievements the year after DC final.
I can imagine that it's not fun if you are early in your career you want to get out of challengers asap, but in Arnaud's position and knowing how much he loves to play I can definitely imagine that he likes challengers.