Fresh off a hard-fought three-set win (6-3 4-6 6-3) over Frantzen and Haase at Roland-Garros, Sriram Balaji sat down with Prateek Chachra from Indian Tennis Daily to reflect on the Round 1 match, his new partnership with Marcelo Demoliner, and what comes next.

Prateek: Thank you so much for joining. I’m Prateek from Indian Tennis Daily. An amazing match and your serving was fantastic. What are your thoughts on the match? How did you feel about the serve and your level in general?

Balaji: Overall, the level I played, I’m really happy about it. Throughout the match I stayed focused and kept the level high. Just in the third set, the beginning — the first two games — my service percentage had dropped. Even though the first game I served only four second serves and we held, in my second service game we faced a couple of break points because my toss was not high enough or whatever. I knew that was happening but I couldn’t get over that for 4-5 minutes. But yeah, really happy — the last game I finished well with two good serves.

Prateek: Great way to close it out. In that game you mentioned — you had two break points but then won three points in a row to hold. How did you feel in that moment?

Balaji: Basically, especially on clay, if you don’t make the first serves and you give them a lot of second serves — and they are good, not even just as a doubles player, Haase has been very good as a singles player too — if you give him a lot of second serves, he’s going to make us play. It’s not easy at this level, especially on clay. So the main goal was to make a lot of first serves, which dropped in that game. We were facing a couple of break points. And then from deuce, I served a good first serve and we won the point. That’s the main thing — you need a lot of first serves.

Prateek: What are your thoughts on the new partnership with Demoliner and what’s the best part about playing with him?

Balaji: We started playing together about three weeks ago — a couple of Challengers and then last week we played in Hamburg qualies. We won a round and lost in the second. It’s been up and down and we’re still learning a lot of things. That’s the reason we started playing three weeks ago — to be sharp for the slam. This tournament is important — today we both played really well, not only in terms of tennis but also our chemistry. We stuck together even though we lost a break in the second — after that we came back. That was very important.

Prateek: You were partners with Oberleitner before — why did you guys split?

Balaji: It was his decision and I have to respect his decision. The partner he went with was maybe ten spots higher than me in the ranking — it would be easier for him to get into the ATP 250s. At the rankings we are right now, ten spots makes a lot of difference with the cuts and all. I think he’s a very good guy, so I have to respect him.

Prateek: What are your thoughts on the next match and your plans to prepare?

Balaji: We have to see who comes through — we’ll watch the match and take some notes. But for today, I think we did well. It’s just time to relax and get back to work from tomorrow.

Prateek: How are you enjoying the Paris weather and conditions?

Balaji: It’s better than the last few years — it was always raining then. This time, for Indians, it’s normal to be hot. I like it.

Prateek: Any last words for all the Indian fans rooting for you?

Balaji: Keep supporting — especially Indian Tennis Daily — good support for the tennis fraternity in India and they’ve been doing a great job. Also the Indian fans, hopefully they can watch our matches on FanCode and Sony and all that. Hopefully they keep supporting us. I think Yuki is playing soon, so I’ll do my routine and then go watch his match.

Balaji and Demoliner move into the second round at Roland-Garros — a new partnership still finding its rhythm, but already delivering on the biggest stage.