US OPEN

August 26, 2003

Alex Corretja

ALEX CORRETJA: It's not just Comack. It's been a while already that my game hasn't been at the place I would like to. But I'm in a process which I'm working hard to be back at my highest level. Of course, it will take a while. This is not going from one day to the other. It's been a difficult season for me in the tennis way. I'm just trying to do my best. It's not just because I lost last week. I come up here lack of confidence. It's already been a few more weeks.

ALEX CORRETJA: Well, I believe after many good seasons and many years on the tour and traveling and playing and practicing, spending time out of house, sometimes you feel a little human being and you feel tired. That's all. I mean, there's not much to say. It's just regular life. I believe everyone goes in a process which is not easy to solve. You just got to find the solutions. I'm working on that. It's nothing have to be too much worry. It's just that I need to continue in the same way I am right now.

ALEX CORRETJA: No. For me it was a huge match. It was the beginning of a nice career for me, I would say. Since that match, I started to play much better. But for me the best moment it was winning, probably when I won the Masters or when we won Davis Cup, when I was winning like a few Masters Series and many other titles. But I learn a lot from that loss, but of course it's not my best memory.

ALEX CORRETJA: That will be impossible to know. I don't know if on that time I was ready to be on that kind of level. I was pretty young. For me playing on hard courts, it was at the beginning pretty much difficult. It change already. I mean, it brought me to a different step. I don't care about if I would have won. But, of course, sometimes there are winnings or losings that affect yourself. But on that situation, it only gave me confidence. I don't think that was the match that it took me down. It was the opposite: it took me pretty high up.

ALEX CORRETJA: Well, probably if you can stand at the No. 1, it's because you been playing pretty solid and pretty consistent during the year. The rankings are there. I mean, maybe you didn't win the major, but you be playing semis or quarters or finals. Plus then you win Masters Series. So why not? I don't see any reason why you only can be No. 1 if you win a Grand Slam. There are other tournaments are pretty important, too. I believe that if you been playing through the whole year in a good, consistent level, you deserve to be there. I mean, this is something pretty obvious.