TMS - THE ERICSSON OPEN

March 23, 2001

Marcelo Rios

THE MODERATOR: First question, please.

MARCELO RIOS: Just someone playing good. I'm just starting moving. I'm having big problem moving around and hitting the ball as I used to hit it. I've been working out really hard, but it's tough to improve.

MARCELO RIOS: Well, I haven't been playing good since I have the surgery. I think I play good match, but I've been struggling a lot with the movement. That's the main part. And then hitting it late. I'm not on top of the ball. My game is all about moving and hitting the ball whenever I can, and obviously I think if you're not moving good, you try to go for winners. If you're not feeling the ball, you miss a lot.

MARCELO RIOS: I think some days I can feel good. Some days I don't feel good. I don't have any pain in my groins, but still I'm sore. Some days I'm sore, some days not. Some days I feel really good. Some days I don't. It's not working good.

MARCELO RIOS: He have two years, he dropped 140, couldn't win a match. Same thing is happening to me and I'm losing to anybody. I'm losing matches that before maybe I didn't lose. But I think -- I know I'm doing the things good. I'm practicing really hard and I'm not improving. That's the main part, is I practice five hours a day, three hours a day, and next day I can't move. So it's really hard, and I'm figuring out what I can do.

MARCELO RIOS: For sure. I think I'm giving more. I'm trying to practice more. I'm trying to do more physically in tennis and working really hard. But I'm not improving.

MARCELO RIOS: I don't use Agassi as an example. I think anybody that was up and then go down and come up, for sure he's doing good work. But I think it's tough after an injury. I think it's after you have surgery, and I didn't -- that's why people say don't have surgery, just try to tough it out like that. It's really hard. It's really hard after a surgery.

MARCELO RIOS: That's what I'm trying to do. If I didn't have any confidence in myself, I wouldn't be playing.

MARCELO RIOS: I think if you were a top player for four years, five years and now you're 23rd, losing first round, I think is not really good. You don't feel any -- you're not happy what's going on. I think once everybody say you're 20, you're really good. But if you were in the top of the game, I think being 20 is not good.

MARCELO RIOS: It's not pain. It's -- I don't know if it's the worst pain. For sure I don't have pain like before the surgery. It's not the same pain. But it's tough to recover. I can't recover from one day to another, and obviously I lose a lot of confidence. When I came back, I can -- really, one year, it's a lot of time. I can't get back to my game after what happened.

MARCELO RIOS: I hope. I hope so.

MARCELO RIOS: First time I see him play. He have big serve, and that's it. I don't think he have a -- he just hit the ball as hard as he can. If it go in, go in. But nothing special.

MARCELO RIOS: I'm not saying that. You win the matches because you won it. Obviously I'm not in my 100 percent. I think he's not a bad player but nothing special.