PACIFIC LIFE OPEN

March 14, 2003

Rainer Schuettler

MODERATOR: With the win today, Rainer advances to his first career tennis Master Series semifinal; he becomes the first German to reach the semifinals here at Indian Wells since Boris Becker in 1995. Questions for Rainer.

RAINER SCHUETTLER: I mean, of course it was very important that I made the first break, then he had some pressure on my serve. I was happy with my serve today again. The last match I really served good. That gave him a lot of pressure like during my service games. There was one tough point in the match when I was Love-40 down in the second set. But, yeah, I won the game. I think from this point on when he was a break down, he had a lot of pressure and he had to go for the shots. My tactics work. My strategy worked really well today.

RAINER SCHUETTLER: I don't think that he was slower in Australia than he was today because he had one day off after the long match he had. I think he's pretty fit, so he had enough time to recover. Yeah, my tactics were similar to the one from Australia.

RAINER SCHUETTLER: Of course. My game is to make the opponent run because I like to run, I like to have some rallies. Here today it worked pretty well.

RAINER SCHUETTLER: Yeah, I always like to return and play passing shots. I mean, yeah, my return is one of my strengths. So, yeah, it fits my game. I like it.

RAINER SCHUETTLER: I mean, I tried to play a stop, yeah, of course. But there was a little bit wind out there. Sometimes you cannot say, "Okay, I want to place it right there." I wanted to make him come to the net, to move forward, because he was so far behind the baseline. I mean, of course, if I hit it a little bit later, then the ball is going out. But it was a perfect dropshot.

RAINER SCHUETTLER: I think it's everything. I worked very hard during the last couple of years, and every year I played a little bit better. And last year I was 23 in the rankings. Everybody asked me, "Why is it possible that you such a big success right now?" But I was 23 in the world. After Australia, I was 16. So it's not really a big difference. The only difference is that I played one Grand Slam tournament very well. So I played two weeks like unbelievable tennis, and that's the only difference. I played the same tennis last year than I played today. Maybe right now I have a little bit more confidence and I go -- like the dropshot, I go for some more risky shots during the important points.

RAINER SCHUETTLER: Sounds great, huh (smiling)?

RAINER SCHUETTLER: This year I can't complain. Yeah, I think if you play good tennis, you also earn some money.

RAINER SCHUETTLER: Yeah, that's right.

RAINER SCHUETTLER: I mean, after Boris' Wimbledon victory, there was a big boom in Germany. I mean, this was a time when it really -- like when tennis came up and everybody played tennis. Of course, maybe without Boris I never would have started to play tennis. Before I used to play soccer. I loved to play soccer. Then like I tried to play tennis. When I was 15, 16, I started to practice a little bit more. Then I said, "Okay, I have to decide soccer or tennis." My decision was to play more tennis. For sure it was a very important moment I think for the tennis in Germany.

RAINER SCHUETTLER: Yeah. I never thought about playing professional tennis actually. I graduated school when I was 19. When I was 17 I started to play more tournaments. This was the point when I thought about playing professional tennis. Because I did pretty good in the junior tournaments, there was a point where I started to think about playing professional tennis.

RAINER SCHUETTLER: I mean, both of them are great players. In the semis it really doesn't matter who's coming, it will be a tough match. If I want to win, I have to be a hundred percent prepared and fit. So I played James Blake in Australia. It was a tough match, four sets. But he has a huge serve, huge forehand. He's playing really good. I saw the match yesterday against Moya. It was a very good match. I mean, Guga was No. 1 in the world. I mean, he's coming back. He was injured for a long time. He's playing great tennis as well right now. I think in both matches, there will be a lot of rallies. Yeah, hopefully I will leave the court as the winner, but it will be hard work.