US OPEN

August 31, 2002

Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi

MODERATOR: Questions, please.

AMIR HADAD: It's very disappointing. I mean, we had a good match today. We play very good against the fifth seed. We had a lot of chances to win the match. Unfortunately, we lost the match today. We had some stupid mistakes maybe in the third set. That caused the loss. But I think in the future, if we play together more and more tournaments, we're going to get better and we can beat guys like this. I mean, I'm very positive. We lost, but I'm very positive for the future.

AISAM QURESHI: We actually more emphasize on singles. I don't want to turn into a doubles player. Especially, next year the whole system is going to play around doubles players also. We both emphasize on singles. Hopefully if we can play in the same tournaments during the singles, we can play doubles, for sure.

AMIR HADAD: The second side, the court was empty. If the ball was in, we break for sure, then the whole match was like open. That's what I said, we had some bad luck today. Also the weather, a lot of wind. We played two times here, and the weather was pretty bad for us. I hope next year the weather is going to be better.

AISAM QURESHI: It felt like Wimbledon, rainy, windy, but we were playing on hard court (laughter).

AISAM QURESHI: Unbelievable for me. It's been unbelievable really.

AISAM QURESHI: No, I was not expecting before Wimbledon at all to become so big, the media, on the television every day. Almost it changed my life in kind of way. Get so popular. For being not a tennis player, being a Muslim and a Jew, not for the right reason. That's the only thing I don't like.

AISAM QURESHI: I feel more important now (laughter).

AISAM QURESHI: About getting the wildcard in US Open, it's an honor for Pakistan Tennis Federation, for Pakistani also. I never expected I'm going to get a wildcard. Everybody is very happy about it. Glad we won the first round. We lost to the defending champions. It was tough. But I'm sure everybody back home are really happy.

AISAM QURESHI: Culture is totally different, like being a Muslim. The people are very warm. They welcome everybody. Just like me, you know, happy and enjoying their lives.

AMIR HADAD: Before Wimbledon, we practice together, before the singles qualifying. He asked me if I had somebody to play doubles with. He asked me if I wanted to play with him. I said sure. That's how we start.

AMIR HADAD: Very positive. We were in the newspaper because we made third round Wimbledon. Didn't get to the point of Muslim and Jew. In Israel, there's Arabs, Jew, everybody live together. It was not a big issue in Israel. It was pretty normal for everybody.

AMIR HADAD: Of course, it happened to us every day the last 50 years, especially it is last two years. Every day I think something happen. Maybe you don't know about it, but in Israel you know about every little accident. Here you only hear about the big, big suicide bombing. Every day something happen. You have to get used to it. It's sad, but that's life in Israel. We're trying to fight terror every day. It's not good way to live, but what can you do?

AMIR HADAD: I don't think so. If yes, I'll be very happy.