US OPEN

September 1, 2000

Alex Corretja

ALEX CORRETJA: It's good to see I won in straight sets again. Against a different player like Marc, he was serving pretty well. It was difficult for me to break him. But, still, I was serving pretty nice, pretty sweet. It seems that things were going pretty well for me today.

ALEX CORRETJA: What do you mean?

ALEX CORRETJA: I believe it must be a joke that they slow down the surface.

ALEX CORRETJA: Yeah, because it's like a rocket. I mean, even me, I can serve 15 aces per match, which usually I don't do that. If they slow it down, I believe they need to slow it even more because I don't see that the ball it goes slow here. You can ask the other guys. They can say maybe that it's unbelievable fast. I can tell you, if you see my match against Rosset, we were serving just aces the whole time. I don't see how can they say that they slow it down. I don't believe that. The balls are faster than ever. From my point of view, the ball and the court is pretty fast. I didn't hit on stadium. Maybe it's a little slower. I don't see it too slow.

ALEX CORRETJA: This is unfair.

ALEX CORRETJA: Because we are 128 guys.

ALEX CORRETJA: Of course.

ALEX CORRETJA: Of course, it shouldn't be like this. When you play a Grand Slam, you got to give the chance to the 128 guys on the draw to be fair for everybody, you know. If we get to French Open and we really slow down the courts because we believe it's better for the French guys, maybe it's going to be unfair for the serve-and-volley guys. You have to give the chance to everybody. We know if Sampras plays well, it's going to be difficult to win anyway. You cannot put just a rocket on the court. Because like this it's easy for him to serve. Like when we came to Australia this year, that was a disaster. I mean, the ball was fast. The court was unplayable. It was completely disgusting to play there. I believe tennis is more than serve. You have to realize that everybody have to show how good it is, but not just how good he can serve, from my point of view.

ALEX CORRETJA: I was playing pretty solid, especially with my serve, because I was focused on my game. He was serving pretty well. It was difficult to broke him. I was waiting for my chance. Fortunately, first set and third set it came up, and I took them. As I said, the court was pretty fast. I mean, the way he was serving, it was really difficult to return. Even the second serves were difficult to return. I don't see how the courts are slow, honestly.

ALEX CORRETJA: No, no, because I never lost my -- I believe my faith, you know. I was always there thinking that I was a good player, even if I was having some small problems. I knew I would come back. If you are a good player, all of a sudden it's like you don't forget to play tennis after two days, you know. It is clear that I was struggling a little bit, but I was thinking that I was going to be back at the top of the game because I know that I have really good potential, even if people believe that I'm just a clay court guy. I can develop my game almost everywhere, and that's good for my game.

ALEX CORRETJA: Well, it's a nice compliment, because if he plays well, it seems that he's a really good guy, he's a really good player, you know. It's difficult to beat him. If he say that he play well and he didn't beat me, it means I'm in a good way. I hope I can continue because I'm feeling pretty well on the court. He told me actually, "Again, two cross-court passing shots in the right moment, so I was disappointed. You did it every time when you play against me." I said, "I'm sorry, it was just good for me."

ALEX CORRETJA: I like to see Mark personally to talk to him straight, to tell him what I think. But I believe when they create this Champions Race, it was to forget about clay court players or hard court players because you are forced to play on hard, on clay, on grass and indoors. It seems that your ranking, it is complete by all these surfaces. At the end what we don't want to hear is, "This guy is No. 5, but he just play well on clay." If you develop your game well on all surfaces, why then you should change the rankings for the Grand Slams? We've been playing through the whole year for one ranking, then we get to the Grand Slams and change the seeding. What for? I mean, if we have a ranking and we have a system, it's because we believe it's the best system, otherwise they have to find another solution, another system. But I completely criticize if we get to the Grand Slams and then they change the seeds. What about the other tournaments? I believe, as you can see every day how many upsets we have, so nobody can say, "This guy going to be playing better than the other one." Even if some people believe there are some favorite players, at the end you have to show it on the court. So I don't agree with having seeded special for Grand Slams because I believe it's unfair. If next year I get to French Open and I'm No. 20 in the world, I'm not seeded, bad luck, I don't deserve it. I have to win it. I have 52 weeks to earn my ranking. If I get there, I'm not seeded, bad luck for me. Just play against the top guys in the first rounds, that's all. I believe because I believe it's unfair, if I get to the French Open, they say, "Corretja is 20, but he plays better than whatever on clay, so he's going to be seeded in front of him." This is stupid. I don't like that.

ALEX CORRETJA: Of course not.

ALEX CORRETJA: Didn't bother me the case that Nicolas was seeded and I wasn't. The thing that bother me was that I was -- I didn't agree with the way they did the seeds. They didn't have any rules there, you know. They said they have five years back. I didn't like the system they had, and I told them already. That's why you can criticize some things. It's good that they improve something for next year. Still maybe they not going to respect the entry system, which is not right. When you see that they take some players, and the others take them out, you don't understand why they keep some and the others kick them out. That's why sometimes you get confused in Wimbledon. But not because of a particular player, honestly. I don't have anything against him, of course.