US OPEN

September 3, 2003

Xavier Malisse

XAVIER MALISSE: No, but the conditions are different, you know. The balls are a lot slower. There's fog out there. So everything goes a lot slower. Andy has more power than me. For him, it's a little easier to get those balls going. For me, not. I didn't want to take any risks either and just hit wild. So, you know, sometimes you got to change it.

XAVIER MALISSE: Well, I lost the point. And, you know, we played a rally. I should have probably just made the backhand. You know, after that, you see I try to make the passing shot. I missed it. I can't really say anything about it because he attacked. I tried to counterattack. I missed it. I tried to make it. It's just well-played of him, putting pressure on at the right time. You know, he just played a good point.

XAVIER MALISSE: A little bit. He served too good in the first two sets. I think the third set I started returning a lot better, blocking the serves. On the five breakpoints, you know, he played well on all five and maybe one on the second serve, on the set point. I just clipped the tape. But otherwise he played well. So it's not like I made the mistake or anything. I think today he deserved to win.

XAVIER MALISSE: Well, first it goes 140, 139 the whole time. And, you know, even if you get your racquet on it, the ball just takes off and goes long. You know, he mixes it up great. Then if he misses the first, then on that second, you got all that spin on it. Just jumps everywhere. So, you know, it's a great serve. It's the toughest serve I've, you know, I've ever seen. Sometimes you got to guess. But I started getting it a little bit in the third. But, otherwise, everything -- you know, he's just too good serving.

XAVIER MALISSE: Yeah. I've had it since - who did I play last? Tursunov. I had it there in the last set. It's been okay. But because it's so slippery and wet, it moves, the tape. But it didn't really bother me.

XAVIER MALISSE: Oh, in the second set?

XAVIER MALISSE: Yeah, no, I think was a bad call. It was too slippery. I was serving and I had to slip forward to get my hold. We should have quit at like 15-30. But, you know, they make the calls, and sometimes they're good; sometimes they're not.