US OPEN

August 29, 2001

Hugo Armando

HUGO ARMANDO: Definitely. It was something I was really looking forward to. Last few days, I just couldn't wait to get on the court. You know, it was fun. I definitely enjoyed it. I wish I could have done a few things a little bit better, but I have no regrets.

HUGO ARMANDO: No, I was -- I'd say I was feeling pretty good when I went out there. Maybe a little bit nervous. But overall, I was feeling pretty good.

HUGO ARMANDO: Not really. I mean, there's a couple times where I kind of picked up on a couple things and kind of moved to one side early, and I had a couple good returns when I did that. But it's not easy. It's really hard to read his serve.

HUGO ARMANDO: I was born in the US. I've always been an American.

HUGO ARMANDO: Born in Miami.

HUGO ARMANDO: Yep.

HUGO ARMANDO: Yes.

HUGO ARMANDO: Yes.

HUGO ARMANDO: I played the qualifier there. I lost second round.

HUGO ARMANDO: I saw him win on TV. I was in The Netherlands actually. I was very happy, very excited for him. I'm actually a big fan of Goran's. It was good to see him win Wimbledon.

HUGO ARMANDO: Yeah.

HUGO ARMANDO: Not today.

HUGO ARMANDO: I don't know. It was a long time ago. It was down at a training center they had at Key Biscayne. I think I was 14 or 16. One of the press guys there said, "Hey, Hurricane." I guess everybody started calling me that after that.

HUGO ARMANDO: Yeah.

HUGO ARMANDO: Yeah, one that hit South Carolina. I'm not sure if it was in '89 or '90, somewhere around there.

HUGO ARMANDO: He's a nice guy. You know, he comes out, he says "hi" to everybody all the time, and he's just like one more player. You know, even though he's a big star and he's a great player, he's just like one of the guys.

HUGO ARMANDO: Yeah, he's got charisma. He's an outgoing guy. That's why the crowd loves him. That's why everybody was so happy for him when he won Wimbledon I think.

HUGO ARMANDO: Just got to smile. You know, what can you say about it? He's had a great year. He's waited, I guess, all his life to win Wimbledon. He finally has. I'm sure he's enjoying it. More power to him.

HUGO ARMANDO: I'm playing one challenger before I go to play a tour event in Bucharest on clay. Then there's a 125 challenger in Poland. Then after that I'll go to Palermo and play another tour event.

HUGO ARMANDO: Challenger.

HUGO ARMANDO: Scheveningen, a week before Amsterdam.

HUGO ARMANDO: Yeah, by the sea side.

HUGO ARMANDO: No, I was actually in my hotel room. I remember we had a rain delay. I was in my hotel room with my dad watching the match. My dad and I were both pulling for him.

HUGO ARMANDO: No, I thought it was great. I thought it was great to see that, to just see the crowd going wild like that and get into it. I thought it was great.

HUGO ARMANDO: No, no. Just clapped a couple times after he won it and got happy for him. And that was it.

HUGO ARMANDO: No, never did.

HUGO ARMANDO: What's that?

HUGO ARMANDO: Not really, no.

HUGO ARMANDO: Yeah, I spent a lot of time at Crandon Park, I guess you could say that. We had tennis courts where we lived. We lived in Key Colony, we always played there. My sister started playing, and that's how kind of I got into it.

HUGO ARMANDO: Yeah, I mean, I guess it's kind of like everybody. I think we all have two sides. It's a matter of moods. Also, sometimes you come out, you're feeling good, everything's going well for you. Sometimes you get up cranky and then every little thing bothers you. I wasn't surprised to see both sides. It's just human.

HUGO ARMANDO: He said that?

HUGO ARMANDO: I wish I had a bad day serving like that. But it looked pretty good from my side. I mean, I couldn't read it at all. Just seemed to me like he was hitting the spots dead on.

HUGO ARMANDO: It puts more pressure on you to serve better. I think you try to go for a little bit more. He forces you to make mistakes. You know if you hold your serve, next game he could just hit four aces or four good serves and then that's it. You got to serve again. He forces you to put a little bit more pressure on yourself when you're serving, so that's kind of difficult.

HUGO ARMANDO: I feel I had a very good chance going into the match. I've been playing really well lately. I was serving very well lately. Today, it kind of let me down. I don't think I served as well as I had been. But then again, like I said earlier, it's probably because Goran was serving so well, he put a lot more pressure on me to serve even better. But I did think I had a chance, yes, I did.

HUGO ARMANDO: 5'11'' three-quarters, but I like to say I'm six feet.

HUGO ARMANDO: That little bit.

HUGO ARMANDO: With the hair.

HUGO ARMANDO: Yeah, I do. I lived in Bradenton probably for about 13 years now.

HUGO ARMANDO: Let's see, when I was four, my parents decided to go to Argentina. I lived there for about four years. And then when I was eight, we came back to Florida and I lived around Miami, Fort Lauderdale area until I was about ten or eleven. And we moved to Bradenton, and I've been there ever since.

HUGO ARMANDO: Yeah.

HUGO ARMANDO: For four or five years.

HUGO ARMANDO: I was eleven, yeah.

HUGO ARMANDO: Yeah.

HUGO ARMANDO: Actually, you know where the Bolletierri Academy is?

HUGO ARMANDO: About two blocks from that.

HUGO ARMANDO: Yeah, I practice there. I work out of there. I go and use the facilities there. Nick helps me out every once in a while when he can.

HUGO ARMANDO: No. Actually, I'm not. Nick, that's one of the first reasons why I moved to Bradenton - Nick offered me a scholarship when I was around ten or eleven. We moved up there, my whole family moved up there. We've been there ever since. So even though I'm not an IMG guy, I'm part of the family.

HUGO ARMANDO: Yeah, I took the scholarship when I was eleven or twelve and have been there ever since.

HUGO ARMANDO: I like to golf. Golf, fish whenever I have a chance, whenever I'm home. I'm a big soccer fan. Watch some soccer.

HUGO ARMANDO: No, he said, "Tough match," you know. "Good playing." That was it.

HUGO ARMANDO: Yes, I did. Bay Shore High School. It's right across the street from Nick's.

HUGO ARMANDO: Huh?

HUGO ARMANDO: Yeah, it's a public school, yeah. Most of the kids that go to Nick's either go to Bradenton Academy, St. Stephen's.

HUGO ARMANDO: No, English is.

HUGO ARMANDO: Yeah, I do speak Spanish.

HUGO ARMANDO: Not really, to be honest. I haven't had much luck with wildcards in the past. I haven't received much help from the USTA. Don't know why, but, you know, I've always felt like I played well enough to maybe deserve one or earn one in a few tournaments that I have asked for wildcards. But, unfortunately, I never got one. This was my first big wildcard you could say.

HUGO ARMANDO: I was actually at home. I looked it up on the Internet and I saw I played Goran. It's exciting, you know, to get to play a Wimbledon champion, a great player like Goran. It's exciting. You can't ask for anything more. I mean, I knew it was gonna be tough and it was gonna be a battle. But, you know, it's great to be able to say that, "Hey, you know what, I played against a Wimbledon champion."

HUGO ARMANDO: Yeah, probably. I played in front of a pretty big crowd in Kitzbuhel when I played Kafelnikov. That was third round, a pretty big crowd. I think this might have been a bigger crowd.

HUGO ARMANDO: My father's here. I have a few friends that live here in New York that came up with me, and my fiancee is here.

HUGO ARMANDO: He coaches me. He's my coach.

HUGO ARMANDO: Hugo Armando also.

HUGO ARMANDO: Hurricane Senior, there you go.

HUGO ARMANDO: I kind of expected it. I mean, like we talked earlier, I know Goran is a big fan of the people and people like to watch him. It's really exciting. So I kind of expected that. My dad told me, "You know you're going to go out there and even though you're American, most of the people are going to be with Goran just because of what he's done and everything." I kind of expected it, and I was kind of prepared for it so it really didn't bother me that much.

HUGO ARMANDO: Yeah, yeah. I heard a few "Go Hugos" out there.

HUGO ARMANDO: Yeah, it was good to hear. Definitely good to hear.

HUGO ARMANDO: I've gotten hit a few times playing doubles. I think I know what that guy felt like.

HUGO ARMANDO: Sting. Very sharp sting.