Pavic: Playing to my strengths helped me

The Croat has been slugging out in the heat of the city and had to play three matches on the bounce during the ongoing Chennai Open.

Ante Pavic in action against Nicolas Almagra at Chennai Open.

While Ante Pavic’s efforts to knock out Nicolas Almagro came as a shock to the onlookers, it was just reward for the hard work the Croat has put in through the week. And one man who has played a small but significant role in that win has been Somdev Devvarman.

The Croat has been slugging out in the heat of the city and had to play three matches on the bounce. When asked if the extra effort he put in helped him, Pavic said, “Sure it did help. I am good friend with Somdev and know his physical trainer too. They told they were going to be practising from December 25 and so I came on December 27, a week before my qualifying matches.”

Speaking about his tactics of attacking the net, Pavic said, “I am trying to practise that way. I am aware of my strengths which is to serve big and move forward. I know Nicolas plays well from behind and knew I had to risk and play short points. As soon as I was doing that everything went in my favour.”

The Croatian, ranked 449 in the world, said he had to fight hard not to think about the match in the third set and said, “at 6-5, 15-40 with two match points I did feel bit tight but somehow managed to get it together in the tie-break.”