U.S. OPEN

August 26, 1996

MaliVai Washington

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: Sorry I bolted off the court, first of all, and itt took me so long to get here I don't know, early in the match, my foot and legs felt like soup. Towards the end of the match, my stomach felt like week-old sushi. I don't know. I don't know what it was. I don't know if it was the heat. Maybe it was a combination of the heat and something I ate. I don't know. My stomach was just kind of churning for a while there. I feel a lot better now.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: No. I couldn't stop. I'd never stop just because of sickness. I mean, if I'm injured, you know, sometimes you can't go on. Sickness, sometimes you can cover up, puke a couple times and keep going. No, I wasn't in any danger of quitting today.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: I was trying -- actually, no, I didn't get as in like vomiting sick, no. But I sat down and I was trying to be as still as I could. I felt if I moved around too much, I might lose it. That's why I ran off. I didn't want anyone to see me lose it; felt like I was about to.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: Yeah, through down a lot of water.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: Both.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: I don't know. I eat what I usually eat. For breakfast I always eat pancakes. That's what I had this morning. I don't know if it was that. I did have a little something, you know, in the lounge right before I went on the court.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: Like I just said, I did have a small bite in the lounge about a half an hour before the match. I'm not saying that was it, but I don't make a habit of eating too much here at the courts.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: I've always been a big fan of all tournaments following the ATP Tour rankings. I think that's the only fair way to do it. I think that's the way it should be done at all the Grand Slams. That's just my personal opinion. I remember a couple years ago at Wimbledon, I actually benefitted from being seeded when I really wasn't supposed to. Gee, I couldn't imagine what it felt like for the guy who kind of got bumped out maybe because of me. Like some of the guys were saying in the press conference yesterday in the players' lounge, a guy works his butt off for, you know, his whole career, for the whole year, he's in a position to be seeded at a Grand Slam, I don't care if he's American or Argentinian or Spanish or wherever, if he's in a position to be seeded, he should be seeded. It's an honor to be seeded at a Grand Slam. I don't think a guy should be dissed at all.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: Regarding what?

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: I don't know. I heard part of that was due to the fact that he was injured.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: I mean, because didn't he pull out of Long Island, too?

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: If he feels that's the action he should take, he should take it. I mean, me, personally, I may protest in a little different way than pulling out of the tournament. I know this tournament meant a lot to him. If he had done extremely well, a couple of the guys didn't do so well, he had the chance to overtake the No. 1 spot. He definitely sacrificed a lot. Being seeded as low as he was obviously meant a lot to him. He's a ball player on any surface. What was he seeded, seventh?

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: Down from four?

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: I don't think I can agree with that seeding.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: There was a buzz going around. My opinion is that there's never a good enough reason to really boycott. I think that went through a lot of players' minds. I think you can get your point across just as strongly without boycotting. I think we did get our point across.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: I don't think people had -- I don't know. I think sometimes people didn't have a huge problem with Wimbledon and their system, though every once in a while players did have problems. Muster had a problem this year with it. I think they wanted to seed him --

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: I remember a couple years ago Krickstein had a problem. He, all of a sudden, came up with an injury. I'm sure it was his injury, too, why he pulled out. I'm just a big fan of, whether it's Wimbledon or not, going by the rankings. I mean, you can't just say, "We just want to seed this guy." Let's say we go back to Wimbledon next year, Tim Henman had a great year, went to the quarters. "Tim is ranked 20 in the world, let's seed him 16." You always run the risk of showing a little favoritism.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: It appears that way. I mean, I'd like to hear it from the horse's mouth.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: What were the exact reasons for putting the seeds exactly like they did the first time around? I mean, yeah, there was that appearance. I hope that they were honestly doing the draws in the best way they could.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: Pardon?

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: I hope they were. You know, obviously players didn't think they had done it to the best of their ability, and therefore it was redrawn.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: I mean, it carries over. I mean, it's a memory. I don't know. That's in England, we're in the States. That's grass, this is hard. People there are normal, people here in New York are weird (laughter). It's totally different. It's a totally new tournament; me, included, because I was born here in New York, so I'm weird, too.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: Elaborate on?

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: I mean, I always say, you can be in New York and you can see anything, you can do anything pretty much at any hour of the day or night. Whatever your mind -- the weirdness of your mind can conceive, you can find it in New York.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: Yeah. Now I know I can get to the finals of a Grand Slam. I don't know, I'm just kind of -- I approach every tournament still the same way I always have, just one match at a time. I mean, guys aren't all of a sudden going to roll over and die just because I made the finals of Wimbledon. I mean, that was a nice accomplishment, but if anything, guys want to beat you more.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: Sure. A little bit. I think I expect bigger things coming into the US Open here.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: You know, I'd love to -- assuming we go that far, Andre and I are supposed to meet, if seedings hold true, in the Round of 16. That would be a pretty nice meeting, I think. There's still a lot of tennis to be played before that.

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