NASDAQ-100 OPEN

April 4, 2004

Guillermo Coria

GUILLERMO CORIA: At 4-all, when (I/he) served at 15-love, when I came down, the whole left side of the back stiffened up. It came from nothing, because I was feeling great up to that point.

GUILLERMO CORIA: The problem was really to serve. When I had to turn during the service motion, I don't recall playing long points to be honest. If I did, I believe that Roddick was the one missing the shots.

GUILLERMO CORIA: At the beginning, it was just the serve. Then as I progressed, it started hurting on every side - sitting down, standing up. I knew it was very difficult to play Roddick feeling this way. When I served, I had to go up to stretch to get to the ball, and that made things even harder for me.

GUILLERMO CORIA: 4-all, 15-love.

GUILLERMO CORIA: I felt burned out and very sad after all that I had to go through this week, the tough matches that I had to play, to in one point feel the pain that I felt, it was extremely hard for me, very disappointing. I was hoping that the pain was going to go away, but I knew after a certain point that it was not going to go away.

GUILLERMO CORIA: He gave me a massage. But right there, Bill noticed that it was very stiff, the area. He told me to be careful out there. But the massage, really, there was not much that could be done at that point.

GUILLERMO CORIA: I believe I should have retired after the first set, but nobody wants to retire in a final with all the people that paid the money to come see me play. I knew that I probably couldn't go through. I knew against Roddick, it would be very tough. But I didn't want to retire then so... I knew I should be in the first set, after the first set.

GUILLERMO CORIA: Yes.

GUILLERMO CORIA: I thought of course if it was three sets, it may be easier. But it's still very hard because with the way I was serving, what I could do with the serve against Roddick, I would not win.

GUILLERMO CORIA: No, I'm going tomorrow, and I believe in two or three days I will be ready to go. I don't want to miss the opportunity to play Davis Cup for Argentina like I had to do against Spain last year. Especially now that Nalbandian is out, I feel that I really need to give it a try in two or three days.

GUILLERMO CORIA: No, I don't think so. It was one bad motion that caused this, and I feel that I have played long matches before where the other guys were in a lot worse shape than me. I believe I am stronger than many guys out there. I would not be 4 in the world if I was not strong enough.

GUILLERMO CORIA: It was on the serve. It could have started to develop when I was returning Andy's serve because I was returning the serve way up there all the time. I was always up. I had to always stretch to get the ball up there. That could have helped the problem to develop.

GUILLERMO CORIA: Like I said on court, the crowd was incredible and got me really motivated and focused out there. It felt like a soccer game. It helped me get through some of the pain. And, like I said the whole week, I have felt that I was playing at home here.

GUILLERMO CORIA: I was very upset, very sad. To get injured in a final in a big tournament like this, which it was a dream for me to get to the final, it was very upsetting. I hope to have a chance to get back and get to a final like this again.

GUILLERMO CORIA: Winning the indoor tournament in Basel last year and getting to the final here, which is considered the fifth biggest tournament in the world, shows that I am very close, I believe. I'm going to continue to work hard to hopefully win a big one on hard soon.

GUILLERMO CORIA: It was just a feeling I had in the locker room. There is nothing really to point that out exactly, that Andy was nervous. Maybe he was not, maybe I'm just imagining. But then once we got on court, Andy was playing very quick. I felt that that was something also that kind of showed that Andy maybe was nervous. That made me play even more consistent and missing less shots. And then in the second set, once Andy saw that I was not 100 percent, I felt that Andy slowed down and started playing his game a lot more.