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DAVIS CUP QUALIFYING: USA VS UZBEKISTANMarch 5, 2020Captain Mardy FishMike BryanBob BryanTommy PaulTaylor FritzReilly OpelkaHonolulu, Hawaii THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Reilly, obviously you are favored this weekend. What are the challenges that Istomin offers? REILLY OPELKA: Yeah, I mean, he's been on tour for about 10 plus years. He's got a lot of experience. Him and I played twice. I beat him once, he beat me once. Both really close matches. I mean, obviously it's going to be a battle. I'm expecting it to be a tough match. Just like our last two. If I don't come ready to play, play really good tennis, it's not going to be fun for me. I'm going to go in and go to work and expect a battle. Q. Mardy, obviously favored here. When you come in against a team, like Istomin has been around, how do you approach things overall this weekend? CAPTAIN FISH: The whole team has had good results in Davis Cup, period. Can't just look at the rankings in Davis Cup. Denis, as you said, has been around a long time. Played him at Wimbledon at least once. I think the guys have a pretty good understanding of what he's going to bring, problems he can create. But I think they've got more issues from us, from these guys. The goal is to get back to Madrid. There's only one reason why we're here. Q. Talk about the first match tomorrow. REILLY OPELKA: I like playing first up. Maybe we play later on in the day. It's the same as a normal match for me. Treat it the same as I would any other tournament, just go about my business. Q. Tommy, if you get to get out there on the score, your excitement about being a part of this team? TOMMY PAUL: Definitely I'm really excited. It's really cool to play for the Davis Cup team. It's always been a dream of mine. Just going to try to keep everybody ready, stay ready myself in case they need me. Q. Taylor, great result in Acapulco a couple weeks ago. Really good starts in 2020. Where do you feel like your tennis is coming into this weekend? TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, definitely I feel like I'm playing my best tennis. It's really good. All of us, everyone has had really good results recently. We all are pretty confident coming in. I think the main thing is just to stay focused and take care of the things that we can take care of so when we get on the court we're as prepared as possible to play our best tennis and to win. Q. Boys, we thought you were done obviously with the Davis Cup. Welcome back. What was the conversation with Mardy or how did you make this decision to come back and play? MIKE BRYAN: Mardy called. I thought he was just calling to say hi. He wanted us to play. Didn't have to think about it very long. I called Bob right away. We were excited to play for a buddy, now Captain Fish who I played alongside for many years on Davis Cup. We wanted one more shot at it. We felt like in the back of our minds we didn't have the best feeling in Portland, so we wanted to come back. It's an honor to be back on this team with these NextGen guys, see Mardy's passion for Davis Cup, these guys, to be part of it again in our last season, it means a lot. Q. (No microphone.) TAYLOR FRITZ: I don't know. The conditions will be a lot different, different balls, different court. The court we played on when I was here last time wasn't the best court, to be honest. It's different but it's nice to go kind of familiar with where I am. I kind of know the area a bit, so yeah. Not bad. Only two months in, been to Honolulu twice. Q. Is there a challenge, Mardy, with a younger team? CAPTAIN FISH: No, I mean, Tuesday morning was the first hit. Me as a captain, I didn't have to worry about what was going on in practice, because the Bryans, these guys can sometimes have some weird practices from time to time, fun with each other from time to time. Got two GOATs and three punks on our team. No, it's great to have these two generations here to sort of mix together. The Bryans have seen it all. They've been around forever. We're trying to build something really special with the youngsters, too. Frances is a part of that, as well, Tiafoe, Jack Sock, Sam Querrey, Steve Johnson, Ryan Harrison. You can go down the list of guys that are still part of the team. They may not be here, but they're part of the process, part of the team. Glad that Tommy can get in the mix here and sort of feel the excitement of the team and be a part of it. Have Reilly and Taylor playing singles because they were pretty awesome in Madrid. Q. (Question about coming to Madrid.) BOB BRYAN: I'm going to come as a trainer or masseuse. No, no, we're just very thankful for this opportunity, to come here and have a possibility of cleansing what happened in Portland. It wasn't a fun way to go out. So it's another opportunity to play for our country, to be on a squad with some young guns. We're all very excited about this generation of players. We saw them come up through the juniors, now we're big fans of what they're doing. All climbing the rankings. It's fun to be alongside them and our buddy Mardy. Q. (Question about Tokyo.) BOB BRYAN: We're on the card to play some WTT. Our name is in the hat. It's a tough squad to make. There's only two doubles teams for the U.S. Rajeev won the Australian Open, got some big guns here. We'll take it as it comes, see what happens. Q. Is the Olympic something you're hoping for this season? TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, obviously we don't know what's going to happen with what's going on in the world right now. If the Olympics is happening, then I would very much want to be there. Tokyo is one of my favorite cities in the whole world. I would really like to go play the Olympics there. REILLY OPELKA: Undecided. TOMMY PAUL: If I get called up, I'd love to do it. I don't know what it's looking right now on the list, but I definitely would love to be part of the team. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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