AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 19, 2001

Andrew Ilie

THE MODERATOR: First question, please.

ANDREW ILIE: I'll have to snip it beforehand.

ANDREW ILIE: Yeah.

ANDREW ILIE: It's great. I went out there today and I really wanted to play a solid match all the way through. You know, first set was a little bit shakey, but it's really hot out there. It hit me early on. I think it hit him, too. It was good to get out of the first set. Very important first set especially in these conditions. Sort of got him down a bit and played some pretty good tennis when I needed to.

ANDREW ILIE: Yeah, I played well enough to win. That's all that matters. You know, I couldn't really get too excited out there. I would have burned too much energy. As I said, the heat just struck me quite heavily today.

ANDREW ILIE: No, this is what it's all about, though. It's about winning the matches you're supposed to win and saving it all up for the matches when you're the underdog and you're playing quality players like Agassi. You know, I'm just going to go out there and give it all I have. You know, if he is too good for me on the day, that's fine. Let him play that way. But, you know, I'm just really looking forward to a challenge.

ANDREW ILIE: Andre suggests a lot of things and so does Gilbert, doesn't he, yeah, in the paper. But, you know, there's limitless possibilities out there, and we'll just have to find out.

ANDREW ILIE: Since, well, best of five it's a difficult one. Since I played Lapentti in the fourth. But Lapentti's a very solid player, but, you know, I think this will be probably the most important best-of-five match I've ever played.

ANDREW ILIE: Well, you know, I'm playing Andre, fourth round, Grand Slam and at home. And I've been playing well, so I'm really looking forward to it.

ANDREW ILIE: Of course. Again, they got me through today. I was sort of struggling a little bit due to the heat. But, you know, they really got me through, and I couldn't really, you know, show my appreciation as much as I wanted to but, you know, they really got me through again. Hopefully, you know, we'll be able to, you know, get one on Sunday.

ANDREW ILIE: I don't know. We'll wait and see I guess.

ANDREW ILIE: It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, you know. As long as, as I said, you go out there, give it a good whack, we'll be fine.

ANDREW ILIE: Played him once in LA, lost to him in Australia. Best of three there.

ANDREW ILIE: No, I've actually discussed this matter with John and, you know, I'm actually pleased with the outcome of that discussion.

ANDREW ILIE: No, we discussed regarding the, you know, the surface it's being played on and it's just going to, you know, we'll have to wait and see until after the Australian Open.

ANDREW ILIE: No, I mean it's basically I knew I had the second set, and even if I sacrificed one service, one service break, I was not going to burn a lot of energy towards the end of the second set. I wanted to keep it all for the start of the third.

ANDREW ILIE: Yeah, you know, it's basically, as I said earlier, if -- just played good enough to win and, you know, wouldn't have really helped me if I had gone out there and started blasting 200 kilometer an hour serves and start cramping or pull a muscle or something like that. I'm not saying that the opponent today wasn't a worthy opponent; he was. He's a really good player, a really solid, really talented. But under today's conditions and the way the heat was going, I didn't really think that, you know, I probably, you know, I thought I needed a bit of a breather in the second set. And, you know, of course he could have back fired at me. But, you know, got to take some chances. If I burned out too early, and, you know, if I finished it really strongly in the second and, you know, been too weak in the third, and, you know, if he wins the third set, could go to four, could go to five, could go either way again.

ANDREW ILIE: No. I've been really, you know, as I said, I was trying to be really loose out there and not really, you know, get too tense and not really burn, as I said, burn too much energy by playing really hard-fought for an extended period of time. Of course he was-- actually really good counterpunches, so playing really hard at him would have been a disadvantage for me.

ANDREW ILIE: I don't know. Probably be Sunday I guess. But, you know, as I said, I'm not worried and I hope Andre is.