PARIS – As a teenager, Czech Tomas Machac made a drastic decision: without Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Neymar playing together at Barcelona, watching football no longer made sense. A few years later, at the age of just 23, he won the Olympic gold medal with his girlfriend (sure?) Katerina Siniakova. So Machac sat down in Paris to talk about many subjects, including those “very short shorts” that are one of his trademarks and the reason for a special condition to Joma, the Spanish brand that dresses him, before signing a contract.
“I don’t like my shorts to be long,” says Machac during an interview with CLAY at Roland Garros, the scene of an unexpected success, because his career has only just begun, but he has already achieved what for the vast majority of sportsmen – but not tennis players – is the ultimate: an Olympic gold medal.
Most of the interview was done during Roland Garros in June, with an update at the close of the Olympics.
– You could say that there is an ongoing competition between you and Holger Rune about the very short shorts. Was it something that your clothes provider decided? Do you want to wear it this way? Is it a trend that you approach it as a young guy? What’s the story behind it?
– I don’t like long shorts. That’s the whole story!
– But you like basketball.
– I like basketball. I like basketball, but I don’t like long shorts. And it was starting to get worse and worse because I had it short, but it wasn’t enough. So I tried to make it even shorter, shorter, and this is how it ends.
– So you kind of fabricated your own shorts.
– Yeah. And they tried to give me special shorts.
– And when you talked to Joma, what did you say?
– I told them that I have a big, big thing to have short shorts. Yeah. And after we found the solution, but it was not like I needed, it’s mandatory, but they know from the beginning that I like the short shorts.
– How would you describe your game, your style, the way you play tennis?
– I try to play aggressive, try to go into the net to finish the point, I think I’m serving good and especially returning well, but I think I find my game this year, that I play really solid, but I lost a few matches against the best ones, so I think the process is going well.
-We saw you this year hitting a backhand slice and then a passing shot with your left arm. Is this normal? Do you try this in practice or what?
– I think it’s not normal, but I’m trying to play it sometimes in practice because I like to play left-handed or one-handed backhand, trying to enjoy myself on the court. When you try to win the point, you try everything, so I have to play left.
– What’s your goal? What do you want to do in tennis?
– To play as much as possible, just to enjoy it. I think I don’t try to think about the results or ranking, I’m just trying to play my game, enjoy myself on the court and the results will come.
– Not number one, nothing of that?
– No, I’m not that guy that from the beginning of the career is saying to himself, I want to be first. I never did that, I never do that, but if I am close, of course, I would like to be first, but for now, I’m trying to be humble and go as much as possible.
– You play with such an immense power, sometimes kind of healthy crazy. I mean, very confident. Why do you play this way?
– You mean like aggressive tennis?
– Aggressive tennis, but also with a lot of confidence, doing things that some more conservative people wouldn’t do.
– Like I think I have a good season from the beginning of the year. So confidence is on the table for sure. And I showed it myself that I beat Novak (Djokovic) in Geneva. I beat (Frances) Tiafoe in Australia. So I had lots of good matches on my side also. I can show myself that I can play with the best ones for sure. And this is my game, trying to sometimes change the game to play drop shot, to play lob, to play slice, to go to the serve and volley sometimes different. So that’s my game.
– But currently you feel so much confidence that you can risk more.
– I would not say risk. It’s not like a risk. I think it’s… This is part of the game. If I play backhand down the line or forehand and I go into the net, this is part of my game. It’s not like a risk, but…
– Did you have any model players when you were growing up? Either Czech or international ones, someone you admire?
– Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, of course. But I’m not like I have one idol. But for now I would say the… The guy who I’m admiring is Novak for sure. Because he’s doing amazing things.
– Any Czech player you admired while growing up?
– No, not really.
– Any passion besides sports? Anything you could have been besides a tennis player?
– I like to enjoy the time with the family for sure. Because you… You’re travelling a lot and you are not often at home. So this is the first thing or the only thing that I’m doing when I have a time off. And I like other sports like playing football, like, you know, with friends. Or basketball, just easy.
– You can’t get injured.
– Yeah, it’s just super easy, you know.
– When you play football, which position usually?
– No, it’s like one on one or two on two. It’s not like 11 to 11 but two against two.
– Do you have a football team? Do you follow football? Do you watch… Did you watch this years’ Champions League final for instance?
– I didn’t. I was watching Barcelona 2014-15. Okay. I watched every match that year. And after that… when Neymar, Suarez and Messi left Barcelona, I stopped watching football.
– That was the end for you?
– That was the end for me, for football.
– Tsitsipas spoke during Roland Garros about the meaning of love in sports. You certainly have something to say about this.
– I like to share the court with my girlfriend for sure. But we are going to the court to try to win the game, so …
– It’s not for fun.
– It’s not fun… Of course it’s for fun but we would like to win anyway.
– But it’s also a way to share something in a more intense way. Both of you are tennis players and playing together must be somehow fun.
– Yeah, it’s good. It’s good. We can play in the Grand Slams, the mixed doubles. So it’s not so bad.
– And you mentioned that you beat Djokovic. How does it feel to beat Djokovic? Alejandro Tabilo beat him in Rome. And he was telling me the whole process in the match, like, ‘I’m about to beat Djokovic!’. Did you believe that when you were doing it?
– I think there was just the last game that I was feeling that I had a chance to beat him because with Novak, you never know. If he loses 5-1, he can win the match. So I think that game, I felt the super energy that I can win the game because when I put myself 5-1, I started to think that I can win the match. And it was something incredible that happened to me that I can beat Novak and show me that I can play really good tennis if I beat a number one.
– Your career is kind of just starting. Any crazy dreams in tennis?
– I don’t, never had crazy dreams.
– Are you very rational? You don’t dream, you just plan and play.
– Yeah, I just try to play as much as possible because I’m happy that I’m healthy, that I can play lots of tournaments. So I don’t have like the dream to win a Grand Slam. Of course I want to, but it’s not like from childhood that I want to achieve that.
– The men are playing traditionally in Grand Slams best of five sets. Would you agree to put the men playing best of three, like women, or is best of five some tradition in Grand Slams that you have to keep?
– I think it’s, this is the tradition to do Grand Slams because that’s why if you win the Grand Slams, you have to keep it. Grand Slams are the most valuable thing that you can, I think, achieve. This is, it’s so difficult to win seven matches for three winning sets. So I would keep it because this is the toughest peak that you can achieve to win a Grand Slam.
Weeks after Machac’s interview at Roland Garros, the Czech won the mixed doubles with Siniakova. The media in her home country assumed that the pair were only sporting, that the personal relationship had broken down, something they themselves had implied. But the Olympic signs were very different. After the victory, CLAY asked the pair what was really going on.
– Can it be said that they are back together?
– Siniakova: That’s our personal lives, you don’t need to know that.
– Machac: So this is top secret. Top secret.
– It’s just that a lot of the fans are confused…
– Siniakova: We like it when you are confused!
– Machac: Exactly. That’s how we feel powerful.
