TENNIS MASTERS CUP

November 8, 2003

Michael Llorda

Fabrice Santoro

FABRICE SANTORO: Well, every time we beat them was a tight match. But I think today was a better match than last week. At this level of the game, you know, when both teams play well, the match can turn either side at the end. So we just tried to keep our serve, to concentrate, and the first opportunity we had, we made it so... It was great.

FABRICE SANTORO: When you play them, the Masters, you Round Robin, you know every match is important, every match is like a final with the difference that if you lose one, you can still be able to go through the semifinal. So we are lucky we won today, but nothing has changed for us. We are still in the group, with one win; that's all.

MICHAEL LLODRA: Yeah. Yeah, of course. You know, we won one match today but it's not finished, you know. If we are in semis, we be very happy but is not finished. So we'll see what's happening in the next few days.

MICHAEL LLODRA: It's very good, you know, when you play since now two months in hard court indoor. You come in outdoor, sometimes it's cold; sometimes it's hot here. So it's very hard to play, I think, very good tennis. But today I think it was great for the crowd, so...

MICHAEL LLODRA: Yeah, yeah.

FABRICE SANTORO: I think because the court is pretty slow and the balls are pretty dead and soft, it's good for the game. It's good for the show, even for singles or doubles. I mean, you gonna see many rallies. Every part of the game, every kind of player has a good chance to play well here.

MICHAEL LLODRA: In the shower, you know, Todd Woodbridge told me the first match he play so many rallies. He told me that just before, 10 minutes ago. So I think if Woodbridge said that, it's okay.

MICHAEL LLODRA: Yeah.

FABRICE SANTORO: I think in the first set we were better than them. But then in the next two sets it was very tough for us to keep the score and to keep in touch with them because they were playing very well - serving well, returning unbelievable. We have to play very well, too, to stay in the match. Sometimes to be a little bit lucky, like in the second game of the third set. And at the end, the first chance we had, we made it. So in the second part of the match, I think we had -- in the third set we had 100 percent of conversion on the breakpoint. It was good.

FABRICE SANTORO: I think that the stadium is great, the audience was great today, you know. Played the first match of Round Robin doubles. Everybody who came here today, is gonna come tomorrow, will come only for doubles because there's no singles. It was great for the players to see that the audience was here to see doubles match and everybody was in the crowd paid for doubles match. It's great for the game.