TMS MONTE CARLO

April 16, 2003

Vincent Spadea

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

VINCENT SPADEA: Uh-hmm.

VINCENT SPADEA: Well, I'm glad, you know, I'm still alive and showing that American players are still capable of competing and playing well on clay. This is a very difficult tournament, and no matter the surface, it could have been like this. Or, you know, James had a tough match today. There were other guys that were capable of being here, too, but I happen to be playing pretty solid this week and I got the breaks so far.

VINCENT SPADEA: Yeah, in '99.

VINCENT SPADEA: I lost to Kuerten in the quarterfinal match.

VINCENT SPADEA: It's hard to say. You know, expectations are probably a little too optimistic, but goals are important. So I do have goals to make sure that my game is getting better. I am comfortable on European clay. I'm getting more and more comfortable all the time. I know that I've beaten a lot of players in the past, and that gives me confidence to go further in these kinds of tournaments. So I wouldn't say I'd place a certain round or certain position on my final outcome goal, but I definitely feel like I'm capable of winning, you know, if I'm playing on, you know, I'm competing, in any match and winning it.

VINCENT SPADEA: Yeah, the atmosphere is, you know, naturally it's intimidating. It's a big center court, there's a lot of people not really rooting extensively for you. But I had experience last year in France, I played Pioline and Grosjean in Roland Garros the same tournament. So that was a more overwhelming experience. So I think I was able to handle this pretty comfortably. Even when I was losing, it's just not fun to lose, so the crowd -- they can't make it that much worse, just because you're more disappointed in the outcome that's going on rather than worrying about their celebrations. You know, I had a short amount of time to figure out what to do out there.

VINCENT SPADEA: I'm close to as comfortable, yeah. I don't know if I'm better or a little worse, but my ground stroke game, I think I'm improving my fitness. I think it helps in this kind of surface. And knowing how this surface plays and how the players play, over the years, it's been an advantage. So, I mean, I was in the third round of the French last year and lost a close match. So I've had opportunities to go deeper into tournaments, and that's one of my goals this week.

VINCENT SPADEA: I feel like I'm just getting better in general and my game applies well to clay. So I think that combination between my confidence and winning more matches all the time and the fact that I have a style that plays comfortably on this surface with playing ground strokes and moving, I think that combination is helping me do well this week and hopefully in Roland Garros and other tournaments.