ROGERS MASTERS

August 12, 2005

Mariano Puerta

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Mariano.

MARIANO PUERTA: (Translated from Spanish by ATP) He also enjoyed the match. Feels like he did a couple of good things. He just thought he faced a really good Nadal today. He was always far ahead. He didn't really feel like he could do a whole lot more. Really felt being under him all the time.

MARIANO PUERTA: (Translated from Spanish by ATP) He feels it was a lot easier for him to play on clay. He was probably not expecting Nadal to be as fast. Mariano thought he could have had more time to create his shots. The court was fast. Nadal was just better today.

MARIANO PUERTA: (Translated from Spanish by ATP) First of all, you're talking about a player that is probably going to be one of the best players of all time. When you are talking about a player at that level, he's pretty much going to do everything really good. Rafael, he defends really, really well. That makes it that much tougher to beat him. Mariano also feels a lot of players are starting to feel that. It's just getting really hard to play against him.

MARIANO PUERTA: (Translated from Spanish by ATP) He doesn't have the fastest serve, but he places it really well. He handles both the slice and the spin really well. It's a serve that when it kicks, it really kicks, and it's hard to read. It makes it that much more difficult to break him and to attack the serve. He also feels like it's the first time he played a left-hander this week, and that also made it a little bit more complicated.