U.S. OPEN

August 31, 1996

Vincent Spadea

VINCE SPADEA: He raised his level and I didn't get too many serves in, didn't attack, didn't hit my shots the way I had been to get to that point. He moved me around, you know, hit corner to corner, didn't miss too much. He was moving well and I was a little bit tight.

VINCE SPADEA: Yeah. I just started thinking about different things, instead of executing my shots the way I had. Not too uncommon.

VINCE SPADEA: Yeah, a little bit. Actually, I did.

VINCE SPADEA: Yeah, yeah. To tell you the truth, I was coming in and making a lot of volley winners. One time in the fourth set I came in and dug out this really low volley. I kind of had like this twitch in my leg, you know, in my hamstring. I sort of felt like, "Gee, I better keep in control of that." That kind of backed me off the net a little bit, just because he was hitting precise shots and I needed to really get down low.

VINCE SPADEA: I don't know. Might have been around that time, 4-2 or so, 3-2, something.

VINCE SPADEA: I don't know. It was my left leg. I wasn't cramping out there or anything. It was just like a very -- like the very beginning of something like that. I mean, I was fine. I mean, I was obviously getting a little bit fatigued out there. I mean, I think he might have been, too. Looked like it anyway.

VINCE SPADEA: A little bit. I was just trying to focus on serving the match out. That's not easy to do if you're playing out in Central Park with no one watching, against that type of player. I mean, the conditions and circumstances had something to do with it. It wasn't like I was totally in shock. Last year I served out of match against Kafelnikov. I served out pretty handily. Same type situation. Just didn't make out, didn't even come close in those games anyway.

VINCE SPADEA: He's going to make you work for every ball. He's going to make you hit the shots at 6-All and 5-All that you hit at 1-Love when you're feeling a little bit different emotionally.

VINCE SPADEA: Well, I mean, it's something where I have to improve my game whether I won this match or not. There are a lot of things I can still improve. That was encouraging, but at the same time it was discouraging to be out there that way. I needed a few more points off my serve. I needed to be able to just continue the way I was going without having to second guess myself and all. It's just disappointing. It's happened to me before, it's just this was a much bigger opportunity. It will happen to me again. It's something that's hard to deal with.

VINCE SPADEA: I mean, I was in control of the match. It's hard to say -- it's not like I just kept it close and it just happened to go five sets. It was my match to win. Whether he was playing well or not, I was the better player for most of the third and fourth sets. That's why it's three out of five, it's not two sets that you've got to play. You know, I did a good job getting myself back in the match, because I was struggling at first a little bit. I mean, I felt fairly confident the whole time. I was feeling good about what I was doing. I've played him before, so I wasn't that overwhelmed by how the match was going to go or unsure. You know, that game is going to go through my head over and over just because there's so many different ways of approaching it. Obviously I didn't do it the right way.

VINCE SPADEA: Yeah. You're aware of it and have to deal with it, just relax and do what you've been doing. Easier said than done, obviously. It actually just happened to me in doubles two days ago. We were playing the Woodies. That was another good opportunity for my partner and I. We served for the match as a doubles team at 5-4 in the third. Just like the champions they were, they fought back and pulled it out. We were sitting thinking about what I'm doing right now.

VINCE SPADEA: I didn't really take a look really.

VINCE SPADEA: Apparently.

VINCE SPADEA: What's that?

VINCE SPADEA: Well, I just said that I wanted to go out and do what I'd been doing to get to that point. I was coming in, hitting some good volleys. I was playing solid from the back, taking my chances, playing steady, defensive on other points. I needed to combine all that. That's basically what you do from the first point. I served and volleyed the first point. He had a good low return. I missed the volley. It was something where I wanted to start out aggressive, but maybe I overdid it. Maybe I should have waited for a different point to do that. Then that kind of set me back, saying, "You're jumping the gun here, not going with the game plan that got you here." I went to the other extreme and just stayed back and let him dictate play. He was accurate, and I wasn't as fluid as I can be.

VINCE SPADEA: No. If anything you're like, "Okay, can't happen to me twice in a row. I'm going to do better, learn from what happened." Obviously didn't work out.

VINCE SPADEA: Yes.

VINCE SPADEA: I mean, you know, it's hard -- it's hard to say. I guess I did some things well and I needed to improve some other things. I did the best I could, to tell you the truth.

VINCE SPADEA: Obviously a big factor. I can't tell you. I mean, I'm just the player I am. If you notice the game where he served out the match and the game where I was trying to serve out the match, the person receiving, it was not the same type of attitude and play in that game. I had a few easy shots that I sort of focused in on what occurred prior to that, whereas he just stuck with that point at hand. I mean, I had an easy forehand at 5-3 there the last game, had that easy overhead. I won one or two of the points. If I'm winning all those points, it's 30-40, 15-40 instead of 40-15. That's basically what happens. That's what separates.

VINCE SPADEA: Yeah, to some extent. I mean, I feel pretty good on it. I've had some arm problems, hard to practice it and get it to where I needed to. For the circumstances and the whole situation, the service, I don't serve like Pete Sampras. It's pretty simple. I don't think it's a liability either. Somewhere in between I need to keep going and try to make it more of a weapon.

VINCE SPADEA: I haven't looked at it. I need to video it and so forth. It feels fairly natural and so forth.

VINCE SPADEA: Yeah, apparently that's the case. Winning close matches, those are the types of things you have to do. That particular match, he kind of was -- his back was against the wall. I don't think that happens that often. For him to be that high, he pretty much, you know, is in more control, just wins the tight points. That's where he was four points from being out of the tournament. I mean, he's a tough player to play when it's zero-zero in a practice match. It's tough to get balls by him then, much less if there's four points on the line and it's over. He's going to be at optimum level in every department.

VINCE SPADEA: Yeah. It's hard. It's hard because now you've got to go out and do it again. You've got to go out and break him, go out and hold. If the time is there, you have to go out and hold, serve for the match again. I came so close. I wasn't like, "Oh, gosh, I'm going to lose." It was like, "Okay, let's do it again." I got sort of a second wind.

VINCE SPADEA: Here.

VINCE SPADEA: Yes. At night, a little bit more intimidating.

VINCE SPADEA: At 5-4?

VINCE SPADEA: When I hit it wide?

VINCE SPADEA: Yeah. Well, no. Yeah, I'm just not used to serving and volleying when I'm hitting a serve out wide, I don't think. That makes it an unintelligent move right there, just because you go with your bread and butter when it's crunch time.

VINCE SPADEA: I didn't move my feet on it. I sort of just took it for granted. The whole court was open and I didn't even snap or go after it. At that point I was just disappointed that I was losing my serve the way I was doing, yet I was breaking him, too. I guess I just ran out of time.

VINCE SPADEA: Personally I thought so, but I don't know if that's what he was trying to get me to think or if that was really the case.

VINCE SPADEA: No no, not really.

VINCE SPADEA: Actually I did for like maybe two or three points. I was like, "This is not what I need to do." I needed to stay aggressive, whether the points were long or short. He's the guy who is supposed to be running and in great shape. I'm the guy that needs to be, you know, hitting out and going for it.

VINCE SPADEA: I don't know. I don't want to start saying anything. It could have looked a little bit shaky there, I don't know. I mean, on the other hand, why would he want me to think that he's tired so I get all psyched up and say, "I'm going to win for sure." On the other hand, he's like dying out there. Fifth set, he got a short ball, he's there in a second just ripping. He didn't show any signs. If you look at some of his past matches, that's definitely maybe something that he tinkers with he's always fooling around with the balls. You know, that's what makes him mentally strong. You try to get every edge you can. That's the adversity you need to overcome if you're going to be a top player.

VINCE SPADEA: I assume so. I have nothing else to do.

VINCE SPADEA: Who knows.