WESTERN AND SOUTHERN FINANCIAL GROUP MASTERS

August 15, 2003

Rainer Schuettler

MODERATOR: Okay. Rainer advances to his third Tennis Masters Series semifinal this season, and he improves to 18 and 6 in Tennis Masters tournaments this year. Okay. Questions.

RAINER SCHUETTLER: Definitely. I think today I played pretty well, and I was surprised because after the first round, I had problems with my back, so I thought the tournament is over already, and then I had a tough match against Nieminen, the Finnish guy, and I was really surprised that I won there, and then every day it got better and today -- I started with some problems, but I played pretty good tennis today, and I didn't miss a lot of balls. And he had one break point, I made an ace. So I was very consistent, and I was very happy with my whole game.

RAINER SCHUETTLER: I have it sometimes. It's like joints, when they are blocked, and the muscle, I don't know how to explain it in English, but the muscle gets stiff and there is no movement at all, so, but I have it sometimes and I'm a little bit tired, so I'll take next week off definitely, and then be fit for the Open.

RAINER SCHUETTLER: Very important. I never -- I never played a final in a Masters Series event, so I definitely want to go further, and I'm looking forward to the match tomorrow. I mean today I -- as I said, I was very happy with my whole match, with my game. Everything was pretty good, so I'm looking forward to the match tomorrow.

RAINER SCHUETTLER: Yeah. They have a different kind of game. I lost last week in Montreal to David Nalbandian, and he's a very, very solid player. I mean everything, from the baseline, he can play from the baseline. He plays at the net. Mardy is a little bit different. He tries to, yeah, to go a lot to the net with a big serve, to take the balls early, and yeah, he's playing more aggressive than David, but he's making more winners, but also more errors, so it's a completely different kind of game.

RAINER SCHUETTLER: Of course. I'm happy that I'm in the semis, but actually it really doesn't matter to me. I mean I try to play good tennis, and I hope that I can reach the final here, so then I want to see the statistics when the last German reached the final.

RAINER SCHUETTLER: '85. So...