By Liza Horan

Paris—As if slugging it out with No. 3 Novak Djokovic for more than two hours on a cold and windy day only to lose wasn't enough, No. 98 Robby Ginepri took the stand in the press room to plead guilty to a "rollercoaster ride" of a career whose best singles ranking reached No. 26 in 2005 but had sunk to No. 171 in 2008.

He chalks up the stop-and-go success to motivation: "One day I'd be really happy on the court and want to play, and the next (day) just not want to hit. You can't do that as a professional. You've got to go to work each day, no matter what kind of day it is," he said after losing 6-4, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2. "If you're feeling down, you have to find some positives and take some momentum into the practices and do your very best.

"That's what I'm going to try to work on from here on out. I'm 27 now. My career is kind of midway through and I feel like I can still do a lot of damage out there."

Until Roland Garros, Ginepri had won just one match in 2010—"a pretty terrible stat" by his own admission. Yet here he dispensed with two seeded players, No. 16 and 2003 champion Juan Carlos Ferrero and No. 18 Sam Querrey.

While the press probed Ginepri on his less successful periods, his spirit seemed unperturbed, his answers sincere, and his ego in tact.

His "nice guy" persona has charmed many, and today—on court and in the post-match interview room, Ginepri showed he has just enough ego to make him competitive and to save face.

"I felt a little stupid slipping and falling on my face," Ginepri said when asked about those spontaneous push-ups he pulled on stadium court, "so I tried to get the crowd back to my side.

"Maybe that took a little bit of my focus away doing that. I'll probably never push-ups again on court."

Ginepri will take the next few days off to "reflect on some things here and get my mind-set ready to compete as well as I can at Queen's (Club)," says Ginepri, whose first ATP title came on the grass at Newport in 2003. "Hopefully I can go pretty deep in the grass-court season and off to the hard courts, which I feel very comfortable on."

Bonus Quote:
"Anything is possible in sports. There's always an opportunity for anyone that day. The good thing about tennis: It's one-on-one combat so if someone's not feeling up to it that day, the other person is usually going to win." —Robby Ginepri on Novak Djokovic's chance on winning Roland Garros 2010