U.S. OPEN

August 26, 1996

Vincent Spadea

VINCE SPADEA: He was?

VINCE SPADEA: Yes. It was weird, though. I was doing it to him first from the beginning. I was up 6-2, 2-0, Love-40, I think. I was just hitting every return well, either for a winner. I was serving really well.

VINCE SPADEA: Exactly. In the second I tightened up a little bit, starting hoping for the serves to go in, instead of relaxing and going with how I know how to serve best. I got it back together in the third. I got down that break and kept my intensity going.

VINCE SPADEA: Yeah, he did, I know. But I got them back. I got a couple at the end.

VINCE SPADEA: It hit my arm. I didn't feel it at all. I don't know if it was the adrenaline. I wasn't too crazy about that type of action, you know what I mean? I guess it's part of the game. But I had to calm myself down to withhold any retaliation.

VINCE SPADEA: Yes.

VINCE SPADEA: I wasn't playing kid games out there. I needed to focus better and playing well. That wasn't going to go in the right direction.

VINCE SPADEA: Absolutely. Last year I had a great run. The year before I think I went around and lost a close match. I always feel like when it's time to start coming up with the big shots and big matches, I think I can usually hold my own and rise to the occasion. That's a nice quality to have. Hopefully I can continue this week and next week, whatever. It's nice to come back to a place you always played well at.

VINCE SPADEA: No, once. New Haven two weeks ago.

VINCE SPADEA: 6 and 3. I lost a close tiebreaker. I had a set point in the first. I kind of got rattled, lost my composure a little bit.

VINCE SPADEA: Not at all. I got off to a really fast start. I was really zeroed in on the ball, focused like never before. That gave me an edge. It put him off his game. The better I returned, the worse he was serving. It stayed that way for a while until I started letting off a little, missing a few. He got his confidence back.

VINCE SPADEA: Yeah. He didn't miss a lot of those backhand chips. He was hitting them pretty deep. It's hard to hit a passing shot when you're backing up. He covers the net well, plays the net well. He's a big guy. It's hard to do a lot. I had to sort of mix up getting my first serve in heavy and then trying to dictate the point. Then when I got my feel back, I needed to go for some serves. I couldn't just win off of kicking a serve in and trying to win points off the rally. It's hard out there to do that.

VINCE SPADEA: Minimal. My family.

VINCE SPADEA: Yes. Then a few other friends; somewhat fans, I guess.

VINCE SPADEA: I think Prinosil.

VINCE SPADEA: Big serve.

VINCE SPADEA: Yeah. I mean, if I'm on my game, that's definitely a strength of mine, if I can keep my energy up all the time and not worry about what's happening. It's always a tough situation, because it forces you to hold serve because you're not going to break them every time. It kind of puts a little more pressure on yourself.

VINCE SPADEA: What is that?

VINCE SPADEA: It's different, but in a great sense where I feel like I've had my years of experience here, learning years. This is going to be another one, just like last year and the other two years. I think this is my fourth time. I'm coming into my own where, psychologically I'm going into these matches feeling like, you know, I'm expected to -- like not to win every match, but, you know, really having a great shot to hold my own. Whereas before, you have that psychological factor that you always have to overcome, which it's always going to affect your physical play. Now that that's really not so much of a factor, that's a really great difference from the past years.

VINCE SPADEA: I've known Stan for a long time. He was National Team and USTA development program. We've always, in tournaments, kept in contact and so forth. He wants to keep an eye on the development players.

VINCE SPADEA: No. Last time I saw, I wasn't in a McDonald's commercial or anything.

VINCE SPADEA: What endorsements are there to have?

VINCE SPADEA: Unless you're a superstar, besides tennis apparel and racquets and so forth, it's really hard.

VINCE SPADEA: No. I need to make more steps forward on my own situation before any of that comes.

VINCE SPADEA: Right now, actually, I've been working with Gavin Hopper for some part of the summer.

VINCE SPADEA: Just because, the coaching situation, unless you haven't had a long-term situation with anyone, it's always kind of in and out.

VINCE SPADEA: Yeah, I'm leaning towards that way. I think so.

VINCE SPADEA: This is an issue I deal with every day. It's hard to really elaborate what I'm thinking. I really don't have a specific direction on which way I want to go. The idea is to find someone I'm comfortable with and stick with it, have faith in the person I'm working with, go from there. That's how you're going to see improvement; not week by week.

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