XXVI OLYMPIC GAMES

July 28, 1996

MaliVai Washington

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: Well, I think on a guy like Kenneth who is going to be looking to come into the net a lot, going to be looking to attack. He really closes the net tight. If you just try to hit past, he is going to be covering the net like a glove, like a blanket. I think you've got to throw in a few lobs. I don't know, I got over him maybe, you know, two or three times, maybe even four, five times, sometimes on big points and, you know, it makes the guy think twice before he really closes the net. And you just kind of want to get that in the guy's head, that you have the topspin lob and, you know, that -- you know, then it makes it a little easier to try and get it around him sometimes.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: I think if you try to rush and finish, you try to do something, you know, that you try to change from what you are already doing. During the first rain delay I think I just won -- maybe I had just won the second set and no, I don't want to start rushing or anything. What I am doing right at that point was working, working well. So I just want to keep -- you know, keep that flow going. If that means, you know, waiting 10, 15 minutes because of the rain, well, then you do that. But I think sometimes you can make a mistake if you, all of a sudden, try to start rushing things and changing your game.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: Sure, you expect that at Wimbledon. I didn't quite expect it is here. Yeah, I mean, I have made that mistake in the past, trying to beat the rain with, you know, finishing off a game or finishing off a few points. If it starts raining, hey, I almost start slowing down a little bit, you know, wait and see if it is going to keep going or if it is going to stop.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: Not really. I mean, I figured, you know, if I play that kind of tiebreak that I played today, I was up 3-0, I know I had at least -- I might have even been up by 6-4, 6-3 --

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: I mean, if I play that kind of tiebreak, I am going to win that nine times out of ten. And today just happened to be that one out of ten that I didn't win, and I thought I played good tennis the first set. But he matched it. He came up with his shots too, and, you know, if a guy can do that, sometimes you've just got to say, hey, that is your set, too good. I think my level of game stayed the same and his level came down a little bit. He started throwing in a couple of doubles, I think. In the first game, in the second set, he threw in a double. He started missing a couple of volleys. Then you are up a break. Then you really start going for your shots. From there -- I guess I was on a roll from there on.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: I mean, I don't think my chances for a medal are any better than they were before I played my first round. I just don't even look at that. I don't know who is seeded. I don't know who I play next round. I don't even know what seed I am. I just take it a match at a time. And like -- as I say, it doesn't matter what the rankings are, the seedings are, you are out on the court with another guy, it is man against man, and basically whoever puts up the numbers, whoever hits the shots is going to win. Nothing else really matters. I think, you know, if anything, I even have to be a little more focused, a little more prepared when I walk out on the court because I think, you know, the more success you have, the more guys really want to-- the more guys really want to beat you, so... But I am feeling good. I just take it a match at a time and just try to do what I want to do out there. Usually it turns out pretty good.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: Yeah, there was a lot of rain delays here -- or there, and there were a couple here today. Other than that, no, there are not too many similarities. I haven't seen any streakers. (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER) I haven't, you know, not yet. That is the only similarity -- I guess dealing with that over in Europe, you know, can help you deal with it here a little bit.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: It is definitely a plus. Geez, I mean, playing for your country in the Olympics only comes around every four years, and for a guy like me, you know, 26, I don't know, geez, I am 27 now, 27 years old, I mean, there is a good chance this is going to be my only Olympics because come four years from now, there are going to be a lot of young guys gunning to make the Olympic team, so this might be my only Olympics. So it is special to me, and it is a good little -- a good change from the regular grind of the tour. I mean --

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: It is a different kind of pressure. There is no money. There is no points. There is no ranking on the line. It is just, I don't know, your pride is on the line; your pride for your country and your pride that you walk out on to the court, you know, and -- for wanting to beat the other guy. So, I mean, coming to the Olympics, you get down to the sheer essence of sports, I think; whereas, at other times, it is not the sheer essence - sometimes other things are motivating you to play or to do well. Here it is just the sheer love of the game.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: Geez, I wanted to see how loud they could get. They got loud. That crowd on 1 might have even gotten louder than that whole crowd on center a couple days ago. But that was great. I mean, you play in front of that kind of crowd, you can't help but -- you can be giving it your all; then you hear that crowd; then you will give it 1% more. I don't know how or where it comes from, but it spurs you on just a little bit more. It feels great.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: Well, I don't know. I don't know what happened. I only caught the very end of the second, the last couple -- two games of the second and third set, so -- I heard he was down. I don't know what happened in the first set-and-a-half, but, I mean, I am sure it is the same for him. When that crowd gets going, I mean, you can just be sitting there on the changeover and the crowd goes nuts, you just start getting a little excited inside.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: I don't know if I have noticed it from players in how they approach playing me, but I know how I approach playing other top players. I mean, I just have a different level of intensity and concentration and, you know, in everything when I am playing, let us say, the No. 1 guy in the world as opposed to the No. 50 guy in the world, you know, that is a big opportunity, you know, to beat a well-ranked, well-respected player. And, you know, with the success I have been having, you know, I would suspect that guys are coming out on the court a little more excited, a little more intense, a little more ready to take the big Mal down.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: I mean, in my mind I don't think it has changed. I have always felt like I have been able to compete at a top level. I guess once your ranking gets up there and people can look at it say, okay, Mal is such and such a ranking, he has beaten so and so, therefore, he belongs. I think, in my mind, I have always walked out on the court with an attitude thinking that, you know, hey, this is my game plan, I want to try to execute this, and I think if I execute it, I can win. I have a good chance of winning. Yeah, I think I answered it.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: What do you mean?

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: I think just, like I have said a thousand times since Wimbledon, since I have been back, I mean, the reception has been great. I mean, the reception over there in England by the British people -- geez, the reception that I was getting around the world while I was in England was amazing. And coming back home, you are having a nice little reception at the airport when you get back. You walk into a restaurant and a few people start -- you know, you just want to be real low key, and a couple of people start applauding. It is a lot more attention, you know. I guess it is a little more to deal with. But, geez, it is a good problem to have, you know. I am not complaining at all.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: I don't think any of us spoke for about a good ten minutes (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER). Our minds were just blown. Or his mind wasn't. I mean, I -- geez.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: No, no, no. That didn't cost me, that just cost me my mind. Richard cost me the title. That was just the whole -- that was a really weird situation. I think we were both stunned. I hope he is getting as many questions about the streaker as I have been getting. People don't ask me about Wimbledon anymore.....

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: Yeah, they ask me about the streaker, and how was she, and what did she look like, and all that. So it will be nice once the streaker dies down. I wonder what kind of pressure he is getting back there.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: No, we haven't discussed it. But, you know, we have played a match together and, you know, we both know what we have to do. Yeah, you've got to work together as a team. But I have to do everything I can to prepare and to play my best tennis out there. And he has to do the same. And then when, you know, hopefully we can play good tennis at the same time. And then you have success.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: I don't know --

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: I can't -- I don't know. In my opinion, in my feeling, I find it hard to believe that guys would turn down playing the Olympics. I think it is a great opportunity -- whether you are for the States or whoever, I think it is a great opportunity to represent your country in a great event. You know, I suppose more guys showed up that would, you know, lessen the likelihood of a tournament being played during the Olympics, but to each his own.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: I don't know. Maybe they are smoking something. (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER) I don't know. I mean, I think it is a little nuts. I mean, just because, I mean, I thought it was nuts when a few guys declined to play for various countries, and, you know, now that I have been here and had a chance to experience it, I know they are nuts now. I mean, you know, this isn't an opportunity that comes around all the time. I mean, if you are fortunate, well, maybe you get a chance to play two times or three times. But, geez, you get this opportunity, you got to play.

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: Yeah, oh, sure. It is kind of, you know, it is kind of like -- I don't know. Unless you have been here you don't -- it is like being shot. Unless you have been shot, you don't know what it is like. I have never been shot. That is the analogy that just popped into my head (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER) I don't know why it popped into my Head, but it did. Unless you have been in the Olympics, you can talk about it with different people. You can watch it on TV. But unless you have walked in the Olympic stadium and gone around the track with the American flag waving and you are waving back and you can swear they are all looking at you, unless you have done that, you can't really understand the feeling; so...

MALIVAI WASHINGTON: Yeah, I am staying in the Village, but the nights -- actually the nights before my matches, I am actually staying out here.