US OPEN

September 7, 2001

Don Johnson

Jared Palmer

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

DON JOHNSON: We did.

JARED PALMER: We had a few.

DON JOHNSON: We had quite a few actually. We had one serving, and Kevin hit a great topspin lob off the backhand. I thought I hit a decent volley.

JARED PALMER: Hit a good volley. Hit a good lob.

DON JOHNSON: Very good lob. The other ones I didn't play supremely well on the set points.

DON JOHNSON: One on serve.

DON JOHNSON: I was serving, I was serving.

DON JOHNSON: Something like that.

DON JOHNSON: (Inaudible) with the wind, too. I was surprised. We would have done the exact same thing, I think, if we had to do it all over. We would have hit the same serve and hit the same volley.

JARED PALMER: Yeah. Just hit a great shot.

DON JOHNSON: We do.

DON JOHNSON: She didn't. My grandfather, he's on a respirator, so she found out yesterday and she had to change her flight and flew to Champagne Urbana this morning rather than come here.

JARED PALMER: Your grandfather or her grandfather?

DON JOHNSON: Her grandfather.

DON JOHNSON: I hope so.

DON JOHNSON: Yeah, it is a disappointment, but Jared and I, we have so much to look forward to. We have so much to look back upon. We had a tremendous year. And just because we lost here at the US Open doesn't mean that we're not going to strive to get better and perform better in Winston-Salem. We have the indoor season coming up, and of course the World Championships in India. I don't think it's a setback. I just think we have to keep pushing forward.

DON JOHNSON: (Laughing). Want to answer?

JARED PALMER: Who are you asking?

JARED PALMER: I would have no idea. I don't know. I have no idea how they feel.

DON JOHNSON: I have actually gotten a call from my former partner, Francisco Montana. He was very upbeat and very congratulatory towards what we've achieved. Also at Wimbledon, after we won Wimbledon, my partner that was injured in a car crash, Piet Norval, called and was very ecstatic for both of us. It's kind of like what they say in golf when you go out and shoot an 80 . I don't know if you know that story.

DON JOHNSON: No, that's okay. I think the story goes your friends, when you tell them you shot an 80 , 50 percent of them don't believe you and the other 50 percent are jealous. The other 50 percent really believe you shot an 85 (laughing) but they congratulate you.

DON JOHNSON: No, I was happy. We had a great time out there. It was a little disappointing. We were close. We could have won the first set. We were up a break in the third. And those guys, we got to hand it to those guys. They played really well.

JARED PALMER: I think they both played equally well.

JARED PALMER: Yeah. They both returned pretty well and they hit some good second shots at key times. They were both pretty good off the ground and solid at net. I mean, a solid team.

DON JOHNSON: Unless somebody wants to donate a wildcard to me in singles. But, yeah, Jared and I have formed a great team, and we're doing super together. I hope we can look forward to the future here and continue to increase the talents of our team. I think we get along well off the court, on the court, and we're not going to hang our head. We're going to get ready for Winston-Salem and get ready for the fall.