For Stephane Robert, the newly- crowned Delhi Open champion, tennis is not the most important thing in life but "inner peace" is.
The Frenchman defeated fourth seed Saketh Myneni faded 6 -3 6-0 in the summit clash, which was over in under an hour at the DLTA Complex.
Bowled over by the "love and kindness" displayed by the Indians in his short sojourn here, Robert said he wants to come back to the country, which is different from "selfish" Europe.
"It's a bit messy out there on streets but there is kindness in people. I saw one guy selling something and one guy arriving and talking to him before buying. There is a link in people. It's not there in Europe, it's selfish. I like to see this love for each other," Robert said sharing his experience of being out on Delhi streets.
"You can feel that. In Europe you have it (love) for family but not for others. It's the same in Thailand," he added.
His life does not revolve around just tennis courts, rather, experiencing new cultures and meeting new people is what excites Roberts more.
Perhaps he was the only player competing in Delhi Open, who had interest in life outside tennis courts and took time to see Lodhi Garden, Qutub Minar and the Humayun's Tomb.
"Happy to see all those. It's an amazing feeling. That is why I like to meet people, see new cultures. I had a great week in Delhi. In Thailand too people were nice," he said but rued that he could not see Taj Mahal as he chose the wrong day to be in Agra.
"They told me it's Friday and it's closed."
But he is determined to come back and see the monument on his next visit to the country.
When the discussion was back to tennis, he says the game is not the most important aspect of his life.
"For me tennis is not most important. There is life. I am focused on what I want to do. Since I started playing tennis, mostly I have stayed in Europe. But then I visited Vietnam and Thailand, spent some time. I like the energy there. It's completely different."
"At 35, I have experience. The key is to know and I know myself. Inner peace is important.
A hamstring injury in 2014 at Roland Garros badly
affected his rankings. He was in top-100 at that time but last year in May he was languishing outside 550.
But he worked his way back. This year Robert has got fantastic results. He not only qualified for the Australian Open main draw in January but also reached Round 3, where he lost to compatriot and world number 25 Gael Monfils.
"I was unlucky to get injured at French Open. For six months I did not play. Now I don't play for rankings. That puts pressure on you. If I have pleasure on court, I win. The goal is to be focused from first to last point. Even if I am focused to 80 percent it works."
Asked if good results in the beginning of the season added to his confidence, he said, "It does not change anything about confidence."
He did talk about his win over home favourite Saketh Myneni and said the match was not easy.
"It was not easy. It looked easy from outside. Saketh is very talented. He has strokes from both sides. I am happy to win my first ever Challenger on hard courts. I have won 5-6, but all of them are on clay. I wanted to win a hard court challenger and now it's off my back.
