US OPEN

August 30, 2002

Dick Norman

Q. You waited a long time to get here, into the main draw, was the experience everything that you hoped it would be?

DICK NORMAN: Well, it could have been better, of course, but in the circumstances, I'm very happy. I can be satisfied. When I came in here 10 days ago, I was just playing to win the first one in the quallies and nothing more than that. I would have been happy with the second round in qualifying, but then I started playing better and better.

DICK NORMAN: Yeah, a little bit. But now I'm playing better than in my first match in the qualifying. So I started improve like a little bit every match.

DICK NORMAN: Yeah, it was surprising. First I was afraid of the big court, like distance are different, like the walls are further and wider. It's not always easy when you play serve-and-volley. Sometimes you want to hit the net and slam the ball into the wall, but then the stands and the walls are like so far, it bounces almost three times before you hit the wall. I prefer like smaller courts. But it didn't bother me today, so I was happy with that.

DICK NORMAN: I didn't see it. I didn't feel that way, no. I couldn't feel it, that he was serving softly.

DICK NORMAN: I would say if I win, yes, (laughs). But Tim is a good player. He's like No. 5 in the world I heard. (Laughter).

DICK NORMAN: I feel like I still can improve a little bit. My ranking is improving, and it will soon get to the -- I mean, soon I will get my best ranking I ever had, and I still feel like I'm improved a little bit. Like my volleys, I could have a little bit more punch in the volley. My serve could still improve a little bit.