US OPEN

September 7, 2001

Kevin Ullyet

THE MODERATOR: First question, please.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Yeah, I mean, it's not often, I don't know how many Grand Slams Zimbabwe's had. Byron's won one.

WAYNE BLACK: I don't know how many Grand Slams African players have had.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Especially the whole effort, not just Zimbabwe. It's a huge thing.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Well, over the grass court season and the start of the hardcourt season, we just -- I guess we had a lack of confidence. We decided, I mean, I guess at least the start of this tournament, we're gonna take more risks and be way more aggressive than we have been. And it just, after one or two matches, we were feeling so good with the aggressive play that we were doing, and it just -- it snowballed from there. Taking more chances and etc.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Yeah. After the first two especially. And then we, I mean the quarterfinals, the guys we beat -- I mean third round, the guys we beat were supposed to be the high seeds, we had a pretty good round against them. We were confident from then on.

WAYNE BLACK: Yeah, I know he'd be very proud today. I wanted to -- we rushed out on the court. I wanted to say, you know, something like that. You know, just thanks to my dad and wanted to dedicate the trophy to my mom, who's had, you know, quite a rough year. And just do all that they've given us. It's just, you know, I mean I know I couldn't do it in singles probably for him. But I think doubles would put a big smile on his face.

WAYNE BLACK: Sorry?

WAYNE BLACK: It's just been a long year with my dad passing and everything, just getting used to it.

WAYNE BLACK: Well, Byron won the French with Stark. But as a team, it's a first major.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Yeah. Just fires us up, I think, a little bit more (smiling).

WAYNE BLACK: Bothered us the second set (laughing).

KEVIN ULLYETT: They're still there.

WAYNE BLACK: We're playing Slovenia in two weeks at home and they will be there. They live for that.

WAYNE BLACK: That's to get back into Group I.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Stay in Group I.

WAYNE BLACK: After you guys, we lost to Romania and then Belarus.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Just drummers, weren't they?

WAYNE BLACK: I don't know.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Yeah.

WAYNE BLACK: Yeah, yeah.

WAYNE BLACK: Well, I mean, I hear probably what you hear. Just I haven't been back there since April. I was there for a couple of weeks in April and that's all I've been there this year really. But, you know, I hear from my friends. They're finding it tough to make a living still. I mean the economy just is really the bad thing. You know, safety-wise, danger-wise, it's fine, I think. Especially in the cities, it's still like before. But it's just the dollar is just so devalued now. It's just tough -- then the government brings in all the rules saying it's illegal to change money and all that, so it's making it hard for someone to make a living back there.

WAYNE BLACK: We haven't got a farm. We've got like 25 acres just in the suburbs. It's a big piece of property. But, yeah, no, that's -- only the big, big farms are in danger, the 400,000 acres, you know. Those are the farms that are being...

WAYNE BLACK: No.

WAYNE BLACK: I'll build -- I'll stay there. Did you see those two properties at my parents' place?

WAYNE BLACK: Next door there's another property there.

WAYNE BLACK: There's like an orchard there next door. I might build something there in the future.

WAYNE BLACK: I'm leaving tonight.

WAYNE BLACK: Zimbabwean sporting history... I know the ladies won a gold medal in hockey at the Olympics. In Moscow.

KEVIN ULLYETT: 1980.

WAYNE BLACK: Other than what Nick Price has done, I mean, you can't... Probably up there in the top five (smiling). Top four or five.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Same, I don't have my own place there. My parents live about ten minutes away from Wayne's parents.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Yeah, we grew up -- I mean, I left there when I was seven. I went to school in South Africa.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Yeah. But we had a couple battles when we were about five or six.

KEVIN ULLYETT: No, some sand.

WAYNE BLACK: Sand courts.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Under 8 tournaments.

KEVIN ULLYETT: My parents just moved.

WAYNE BLACK: Independence.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Yeah, we had a small holding and there was some trouble out there with some, you know, some rockets and stuff like that, and my dad just thought it was a bit hairy so we got out. Then three, four years ago, '98, he decided he wanted to go back. He thought it was nice. He still had his land there. He wanted to go back, so...

KEVIN ULLYETT: So he is back, yeah.

WAYNE BLACK: Just want them to know that it's a great country. I think the people are so nice and friendly there - on the whole and on the average. Unfortunately, they've just been getting such bad press at the moment. But it's just a wonderful place, you know. If for some reason I won't be able to live there in the future, I'm just gonna jump off a building I think. So... What else can I say?

KEVIN ULLYETT: Yeah, I think the people --.

WAYNE BLACK: The people are so nice.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Very friendly.

WAYNE BLACK: Hospitable. Especially if you meet a farmer, the most hospitable person on the face of the Earth.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Wimbledon last year.

WAYNE BLACK: Wimbledon last year.

WAYNE BLACK: Against the States?

KEVIN ULLYETT: A few challengers when we were younger.

WAYNE BLACK: Starting out.

KEVIN ULLYETT: 21, 22. But that was pretty much our first --.

WAYNE BLACK: We played once or twice a year.

KEVIN ULLYETT: That was one of our first big matches. That's what made us decide, "Let's give it a go on the tour."

WAYNE BLACK: Cara's here. She's in the semifinals.

WAYNE BLACK: Yeah, when you put it like that, it sounds good.

KEVIN ULLYETT: I think just when we come over here, it's just all the battles and the hardships that our country is going through, we come over, it's just -- everything's great, you know. Because it's just kind of a -- we can focus on our tennis and just go out there and really have a ball.

KEVIN ULLYETT: I don't know about a refuge because we, you know, we love home and going back there. But maybe a bit of an escape I guess.

WAYNE BLACK: Yeah, it feels great. It gives us a bit more motivation as well, you know. But we got to make up for it with lots of energy, lots of fighting. I mean, you know, as we said, we haven't had that great of results in the last year or so. So... Just try to hang in there. We've been honest with each other, hard working, just doing all the right things and believing it will come.

WAYNE BLACK: When we won the quarters, we said we got rewarded. I don't know what you call this (smiling).

KEVIN ULLYETT: Our record in the finals is good, yeah. It's very good. We always seem to play -- finals that we've won together, we've played really great matches. This one we played good, but other ones were even better. It was a smaller scale.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Yeah.

WAYNE BLACK: One or two.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Yeah, it was -- they had a couple set points. But doubles, sometimes you need a little bit of luck and maybe a little bit of a (inaudible) here or there.

WAYNE BLACK: Kevin had a toss and lob on set point against us.

KEVIN ULLYETT: We'd been saving it. The sun was really directly on that side. Wayne kept saying, "Save the lob, hit one or two, but let's try and save it." I don't know, I just threw one up.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Saved the set point.

KEVIN ULLYETT: I think it was 8-7.

KEVIN ULLYETT: I think that's a crock of bull, actually.

WAYNE BLACK: Terrible. It's terrible.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Doubles is a historical part of the game. If they try and cut it short, that's sacrilegious as far as I'm concerned. It's kind of saying, "Come, we'll give you two sets, we want you out of there. Don't want to take too much TV time or whatever."

WAYNE BLACK: I'm gonna build another house in the orchard there probably. But I'm gonna live there for the rest of my life. So... I'll run the tennis courts.

WAYNE BLACK: Yeah. I mean, we have staff. You know, we have eight people there, you know, just taking care of the courts, the orchard, the avocados.

WAYNE BLACK: Four. One hard. And I'll be on the other side of the property and look after my mom for the rest of her life. She can stay near the grass courts.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Yeah. Zimbabwe. Not in South Africa when we moved, but Zimbabwe.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Yeah.

KEVIN ULLYETT: No, hardcourt.

KEVIN ULLYETT: Yeah. My dad -- they only really got going, you know, not when we had the court. They didn't play that much. But when we moved to South Africa, they played more. Got really into it.