adidas International

January 13, 2001

Magnus Norman

THE MODERATOR: First question, please.

MAGNUS NORMAN: Well, a little bit I think. My legs weren't moving very good today. But I feel like my game is coming together even though I lost, you know, to Lleyton. I thought my shots were a little better today than it was yesterday. My movement on the court was perhaps a little bit slower today than it was yesterday.

MAGNUS NORMAN: No, I just felt like I was a little bit tired. At that, as you said, at that moment of the match, I felt like, you know, I had to -- it's going to be very tough. That's why I looked up at my coach. But, you know, Lleyton played a good match and, you know, he's very solid. I mean, if you're going to beat him, you have to play very good tennis.

MAGNUS NORMAN: Yeah. I mean, I just had a practice now for 45 minutes after the match, and, you know, I'm getting there. I'm getting there. As I said yesterday, I was sick for three weeks at the end of the season so, you know, I'm still trying to catch up with it, you know.

MAGNUS NORMAN: No, of course he can go all the way. He's one of the favorites. At the same time, he is playing under a lot of pressure in Melbourne, you know, everybody wants to beat him. But as I said yesterday in an interview that he's a good match player. You know, he's a winner. One day sooner or later I think he's going to win a Grand Slam. He's mentally very strong, and, you know, yeah, he's a tough player.

MAGNUS NORMAN: No, no.

MAGNUS NORMAN: No. I thought maybe it was better to wait until after the, you know, so we could warm up a little bit more. I was very stressed in the locker room. I had to get taped, you know, because I had a lot of blisters. All of a sudden we had to walk on court and we had to sit on the court for 15 minutes while I could have warmed up my body a little bit and gotten ready. But, you know, it's the same for both of us.

MAGNUS NORMAN: Why not? It would have been a good thing. There was not a lot of people yelling for me out there, so at least the national Swedish, you know, song would be at least a good way to show appreciation, yeah.

MAGNUS NORMAN: No, not at all. It's a great tournament and it's a great organization, and, you know, Australia, you know, everything is fine here. So, you know, I don't care if they miss Swedish song or not.

MAGNUS NORMAN: Exactly. You got that right. I don't know if it's being played here or not.

MAGNUS NORMAN: So, yeah.

MAGNUS NORMAN: He's very quick around the court, and he's got a bigger serve now than when I played him a year ago in Australia down in Melbourne. He's got a better serve now. And, you know, as I said, he's a match player, you know, he's a tough player. He's very strong mentally. If you want to beat him, you have to play a good match.

MAGNUS NORMAN: No. I mean, we are both there to win and he's a nice guy outside of the court. And if some player has a problem with his attitude, I mean , I don't understand that because, as I say, he's a match player. He wants to win. But he's not unfair to me. I think he's fair, but he wants to win. It's the same with me. You know...

MAGNUS NORMAN: It's difficult to say because I haven't really seen them play so much after Lisbon. But I know that Kuerten and Safin, you know, Safin is injured I read in the paper, and Kuerten hasn't had a lot of match practice. So I think Lleyton and myself, we are in good shape. We are ready to, you know, to do a good tournament in Australia. But I think Sampras and Agassi, they look strong as well from what I've seen on television. So yeah.

MAGNUS NORMAN: It's not a major setback. Of course I wanted to, you know, to win today. I always want to win when I go on the court. But, you know, it doesn't bother me that much. I just had some practice again outside here, and I feel as ready as I can be, you know, with the preparation I had beforehand for, you know, for the first Grand Slam of the year.

MAGNUS NORMAN: Yeah. I -- I played well, but my mind wasn't really there today so I wanted to punish myself for 45 minutes.

MAGNUS NORMAN: No.