ATP Tour World Championship

November 26, 1998

Greg Rusedski

Q. Good practicing for a left-hander, having to play a right-hander, a bit confusing?

GREG RUSEDSKI: It was. Because all day I thought I was playing Marcelo. All of a sudden, Tim up 5-1 or 5-2, they say I'm playing Albert Costa.

GREG RUSEDSKI: 5-1 or 5-2 in the third set for Tim. It was quite a difficult transition, because all of a sudden your frame of mind changes completely because you're playing a guy who has never won a match indoors, he's 0 for 14. You just got a totally different game plan compared to what you're going to play against Rios. You kind of feel the pressure because it's one of those matches you feel you should really never lose indoors. So I was a little bit tight in there today, as you probably noticed (laughter).

GREG RUSEDSKI: I don't know about that. I think that's going to be pretty difficult. Alex seems to be hitting the ball really well. I think he played pretty solid his first two matches against Andre and against Tim today. That's going to be asking a lot. I just have to go out there against Tim and do my best. If I win, then I go back in the Top 10. If I lose, then I don't. There's something always to be gained whether you win the match. If I don't get to the semis, no big deal. It would be nice to try to get to the Top 10 at the end of the year.

GREG RUSEDSKI: This is true. I might call up Tanya Harding to come along here or something this week (laughter).

GREG RUSEDSKI: Yeah, my back is absolutely fine. It was just my nerves today a little bit (laughter). Besides that, you know, everything else seemed fine.

GREG RUSEDSKI: I had Love-40 two times, I think I dumped six returns in the bottom of the net. A little bit of nerves. I have to be happy that I came out. I lost my serve once in the second set, broke him every other time. Hit some good backhand passes, then just played reasonably solid to close the match out. For me, there's nothing to lose tomorrow. It's a much more relaxed situation. I don't think someone is going to come in and replace Tim tomorrow, so I won't have the same problem.

GREG RUSEDSKI: Well, it should be a lot of fun. I mean, the best man is going to win tomorrow. I mean, it could be myself, it could be Tim, whoever plays the better tennis on the day. We're 1-1 in our career. Last time I played him, I beat him in Vienna 6-4, 6-4. I think we've both improved a lot as players. It's great for Britain to have two players playing in the World Championships against each other. It's a no-lose situation for both of us.

GREG RUSEDSKI: A friendly match?

GREG RUSEDSKI: Tanya Harding is coming around one o'clock, she's flying in, so you never know (laughter). I think Albert is going to go out and do his best. What more can you ask for? I mean, it doesn't make a difference. If Alex wins, fair enough, he deserves it, he qualified, he's 5 in the world. If he goes through, great for him. If I don't, that's all right as well. I know I had two matches, I had a lot of fun, then there's next year.

GREG RUSEDSKI: Yes, it's nice to be able to get in. I was so close, missing out only by one match this year. It's nice to be able to play two matches this year and finally get my first win. Maybe when I come back next year, then I can have the experience. It's always nice when you've won at least a match there to give you confidence. Hopefully, tomorrow I can continue.

GREG RUSEDSKI: Exactly. It will throw me into at least to No. 10 in the world. I think I'll be able to pass Krajicek, who is injured at the moment. The worst I'll finish is 10. That would be absolutely brilliant for me.

GREG RUSEDSKI: I don't know if you should have believed me in that stage really.

GREG RUSEDSKI: Didn't take me long. I was just disappointed at the time. I knew I was going to be coming anyway. It's just the initial reaction I think everybody has when they lose. Everybody has disappointment.

GREG RUSEDSKI: It's not on the Tour really. It's a different story playing at the Nationals and playing on the Tour. I think being on the Tour it's totally different things. It's in the main events and main Tour events. If you want to count them, you can count them as well. I guess 1-3 then. I won the last one, that's all I have to say (laughter).

GREG RUSEDSKI: That would be absolutely brilliant. Two years in a row that I finished in the Top 10. Considering the missing of two to three months with injury, I mean, it's something special because they have the list of the year's Top-10 players. If you're 11, you don't get on that list. It would be nice to do that at the end of year and have two British players in the Top 10.

GREG RUSEDSKI: Must have been about seven, eight minutes. It wasn't a lot.

GREG RUSEDSKI: I saw him around. I knew he was in here this week. It's just I expected to play Rios because he stayed around, he had a hit today, he looked like he was ready to play. I knew Costa was here just in case. I thought he'd at least give this a go, being that he had a chance to get to No. 1. If things didn't work out for him today, then he'd probably pull out. I was very surprised to be playing Albert today.

GREG RUSEDSKI: Well, I played with a few wooden racquets to see if I could play with the past great champions. I hit with a few wooden racquets. I went out for some sushi. I saw you there last night. Just did the normal things everybody else did. I practiced with Corretja a few times, hit with Moya this morning.

GREG RUSEDSKI: Well, I mean, I have to accept it. Kafelnikov deserved to be in there. I was just waiting. You play a waiting game. It's not always easy. To get a win is nice. Hopefully, it can continue tomorrow.

GREG RUSEDSKI: I think he's playing some of his best tennis at the moment. I think the first set against Rios was very impressive. The second set, Rios really didn't give a match. But Tim really shut the door on him, which was great, won it 6-1. Today against Corretja, he had to come up with a solid performance because Alex is striking the ball extremely well. It was a pressure situation because he knows if he wins that match, he's quallied for the semi already. If he loses, then anything can happen. He handled the pressure and the two matches extremely well. I think he's playing very good tennis and has a good chance to maybe make the finals this week.

GREG RUSEDSKI: I don't know. Things just sort of happen. It's nice to see both of us being able to be at the top level. I think it's great for the game in Britain. It's great for both of us because you always imagine as a player that you'd like to get to the top of the game, but then it sort of happens and you're kind of there. Some players say they've always believed that they're going to be at the top of the game. I don't know if it always realistically works like that. It's a little bit of luck, a little bit of practice and working hard, a combination of a few things.

GREG RUSEDSKI: Yeah, everything's fine. What can I say? We get along fine, no problems. Hopefully we'll play World Team Cup this year. That was the major problem last year. Besides that, everything's fine. We respect each other on the tennis court. We have that rivalry, which is very good for both of us because each one of us wants to get ahead of each other, get to the top of the game in the word, win Wimbledon, do our goals that we want to do.

GREG RUSEDSKI: Yeah. We practiced last week at Queen's Club, been playing a few practice sets. Things have been going well. It's great for both of us because we get to work on each other's game and just to improve all the time.

GREG RUSEDSKI: We've always had great junior players. We had Martin Lee who was World No. 1 in the Juniors. We had Delgado who won the Orange Bowl under 14s. We've never really had the transition where they've gone to the seniors. Tim has done that transition, played well in the seniors, even though he didn't play as well in the juniors. He need some youngsters to come up. Our third player is only 181 in the world. It would be nice if we had more players in the Top 100 or Top 50 like Sweden has or Spain has 16 players, or America. Hopefully the LTA and British tennis can get better from the situation that's happening with myself and Tim, more players to come up.