TELECOM ITALIA MASTERS

May 5, 2003

Guillermo Coria

GUILLERMO CORIA: No, I did not expect such an easy match. I knew that Tim had been injured, but he's a great player. He was in the Top 10 for so long, and I knew that I had to play at my best level and stay concentrated during the whole match.

GUILLERMO CORIA: No, I had the same tactic throughout the match. Maybe I should have played a little bit heavier balls, but the result is 6-2, 6-1 so I'm pleased with that.

GUILLERMO CORIA: No. Like, everything. Since Monte-Carlo, I've had so much confidence in myself and I feel good on the court. So I just went on court knowing that I had to play my own game.

GUILLERMO CORIA: He didn't play that much serve and volley today. The times he came to the net, I passed him quite well, so he stayed back. Yeah, it's difficult to play serve and volley on clay.

GUILLERMO CORIA: When he was hitting the ball in the right spot, yeah, it was coming hard. But when I was making him run, no, he didn't really hurt.

GUILLERMO CORIA: Too difficult to compare. In Monte-Carlo, I didn't have any rhythm myself and he was playing so well. He made semifinals that year. This time, I'm playing well with a lot of confidence, and he didn't have any rhythm. So we both didn't have a good day on a particular day.

GUILLERMO CORIA: Yeah, no doubt. I'm No. 16 in the world. I know that I have to improve like every aspect of my game to go even higher, but, yes, I'm playing my best right now.

GUILLERMO CORIA: Ferrero, Moya and Agassi, then of course Safin, Grosjean. There's a lot, but those three, Ferrero, Moya, Agassi, they are the toughest ones.

GUILLERMO CORIA: I hope very far. Now I have a tough match coming up, either Youzhny or a Romanian player. If I win that one, then it's Agassi. I would really like to play Agassi. I played him twice on hard court, and I would really like to play him here. If I get to play him and win that match, then who knows, I can go very far.

GUILLERMO CORIA: I don't know. It's difficult to say because I would have a different tactic on grass. You can't play the same on clay and on grass. I just hope to arrive at Wimbledon playing like this kind of tennis and with a lot of confidence and, you know, can do well there.

GUILLERMO CORIA: I'm surprised about the age, but I'm not surprised about the fact that Agassi is still No. 1. I mean, to play against him is unbelievable. It's like playing against an animal. You don't know how to win a point against him.

GUILLERMO CORIA: No, I started the year in a difficult way because I split up with my coach, Franco Davin, and I started working with Alberto Mancini and my physical trainer, Jorge Trevison. I just started working very hard, and I wanted to be at the top for Roland Garros and just keep improving. I didn't have any ranking goals, but only improving, keep improving.

GUILLERMO CORIA: Everything. He is very solid on every shot. This year he's won every tournament. He lost once, so...

GUILLERMO CORIA: Everybody thinks about his own game, so I concentrate on my game. I don't care about Zabaleta, Chela or Gaudio. But, of course, we all get along very well.

GUILLERMO CORIA: No, I think it's by chance. We just are so far away from home, and every time we play a tournament, we play 100 percent, we want to win. But there's no real, like, movement behind this.

GUILLERMO CORIA: No, I mean, I've seen a lot of videos of Vilas. My father was a big fan of his. I know him personally as well. I really want to be like him on the court because he was a fighter. If I can be half of the player that he was, that would be great.

GUILLERMO CORIA: No, absolutely not, it's been a dream of mine since I was a kid. I made the right decision not to play against Russia because I had blisters on my foot. But, you know, I'm really looking forward to the semifinal against Spain and hopefully to be part of the team.

GUILLERMO CORIA: Well, that's the reason why. I mean, we're really coming from a country where we didn't have that many opportunities. Okay, Nalbandian and myself, we got help from the federation when we were Juniors, but everybody else did it on their own. So we really had to fight for everything. That's the hunger inside us. I don't know what's going on in England, but Henman is like playing great. Is one, okay, but is really like Top 8.

GUILLERMO CORIA: It's a little bit fast. I had a hard time just staying, you know, not falling down. But I really like the court. It's a nice stadium.