Z. BERGS/A. Rinderknech
6-3, 7-6
Team Belgium - 2
Team France - 0
THE MODERATOR: We'll start with questions.
Q. What's going wrong in these two matches? What could have been better for you in this tie against Belgium?
CAPTAIN PAUL-HENRI MATHIEU: What went wrong? We just lost the two singles.
No, I mean, I think they were better than us. We knew it's going to be a close match. We could see in both match, I mean, anything can happen either way.
In the first match, we were close to winning in two sets, then finally lost in three. Arthur was close to losing easy. I mean, easy, in two sets. He almost turned the match away.
Yeah, I mean, that the way it is in this format. So we just have to look forward now, to be better next year.
Q. Arthur, did anything surprise you about Zizou today? Where do you think that match was won and lost?
ARTHUR RINDERKNECH: No, nothing specific really surprise me from him. He came in and he came on the court with confidence. He played the way he used to play. I was expecting it.
I didn't do as good of a job as he did. He served well almost the entire match. There is just a few points here and there where I had the chance on his serve. Returned quite well. The courts were pretty fast. Serve and return is pretty important.
I didn't play too good the first service game in each set, so I got broken. It took me time to find a way. I kind of found a way. At the end it slipped away in the second set from my hands.
I could have turn it around, as the captain said. In the first match we lost in three. Were close to finishing in two. Zizou was close to finishing in two. I was about to switch it around, go to a third set. Nobody knows what would happen.
That's how it is. It's a quick format. I'm sad for the three guys that didn't play tonight in our team.
Q. What did the captain say to Moutet after the match that he lost because of that crazy shot that everyone saw?
CAPTAIN PAUL-HENRI MATHIEU: I didn't see him yet because we play a match after Moutet. Arthur was on court, so I was on the bench. We came straightaway here, so...
Q. Not going to say anything?
CAPTAIN PAUL-HENRI MATHIEU: I didn't see him yet.
Q. I ask you.
CAPTAIN PAUL-HENRI MATHIEU: I didn't see him yet. I didn't see Moutet yet.
Q. What are you going to tell him after?
CAPTAIN PAUL-HENRI MATHIEU: I won't tell you. If I want to say something to the players, I'm going to say something to the players, not to the media.
Q. What was your reaction in the moment?
CAPTAIN PAUL-HENRI MATHIEU: No reaction. I mean, we lose. Lost one point. The main thing, just to try to win the match. You have to adapt to every guy when sometimes it's tough to understand.
Everybody reacts differently. Yeah, no reaction. I was just, of course, thinking just to turn it around maybe a bit. Yeah, just try to help him to win the match afterwards.
Q. In the second set, he had the advantage, you brought it back on level terms, then he got ahead once again. At the third stage when he got ahead, what do you think was the reason? What do you feel? Was it a case of you maybe dipping a little bit, him lifting even more?
ARTHUR RINDERKNECH: I tried everything. I gave it all I had tonight. If I say that I played a good match, I would be lying. If I say that I played a bad match, probably true. You can win with a bad match, doesn't matter. Especially when you play for a team, for a country, you don't really care about how you play.
For a long time maybe I was not ready to find everything I had deep down in my heart. At some point I found it. Especially I had to match his intensity 'cause he was putting a lot of intensity. He came on the court with confidence. They were up 1-0 also. Maybe a little bit easier for him to come in the court.
He was putting a lot of intensity. I wasn't capable. I wasn't matching his intensity for a long time. At some point I just tried everything. It was really close. For a point here and there, it goes away. I had two set points on his serve. One of them touched the top of the net. The other one he made a really good shot after a great return.
Just also a lot of credits to him and a lot of credits to the whole Belgium team because they did great. I knew it was going to be a tough one. I knew they were really close. You need to team, so congrats to them.
Q. How do you reflect on this Davis Cup season as a whole? It had been a little while since France made it to the Final 8. What lessons will you learn for next time?
CAPTAIN PAUL-HENRI MATHIEU: Yeah, when we start the competition, of course the goal was to qualify for the Final 8. Then when we qualified, the goal was to try to win the trophy because I think it's a very open format.
We just have to be better next year. We're going to try to qualify again for the Final 8. We know it's not going to be easy. You have to win two ties, home or away. There are some great teams.
But we going to try to put ourself in this position, just to make it better next year.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports