US OPEN

September 2, 2000

Hyung-Taik Lee

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: He says that he's a country boy, he's from a small town, it's in the province of Kang Won Do in Korea, his home town name is Hang Sun. He says that, you know, he caught the eye of his coach in his elementary school when he was in third grade. He started playing tennis. Then he joined the Davis Cup, and then in 1998, Samsung sponsored him so he could go play all over the world. He says he's been in the US for seven weeks now. As you know, he doesn't speak much English, it's kind of difficult. But besides that, he says he likes it.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: He says he hadn't heard of Pete Sampras at the time. That's No. 1. (Laughter.) He says that he got to know the, you know, American players when he was in middle school. But if someone had told him in elementary school that he would be playing someone of that caliber, he said it would be a dream come true and an honor.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: Yes. (Laughter.) Without a doubt.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: He says that a shoulder injury has been nagging him in the past. It wasn't until recently that Samsung, they put him on a rehabilitation program and now he says his shoulder is 100%. That's probably why you see the difference in his play.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: He says his chances of winning is probably not even 50 percent, at best.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: He says that basically he's pretty confident with his forehand and backhand. He says he can hit it any way he pleases. He says he likes to be up against hard-hitters. He says he's best when they hit the ball hard. Going back to that Pete Sampras question, he says if he's not in awe of Arthur Ashe, he doesn't know if it's going to be there. But if he's not in awe of the crowd and stadium, he's going to put up a good fight.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: He says that many athletes, not just tennis players in Korea, they have the mandatory military requirement for two and a half years. A lot of athletes in their prime, he says he feels very sorry that they can't compete. There is one loophole around it. Chan Ho Park, who pitches for the L.A. dodgers, if they win the gold medal in the Asian Games, they're not obligated to go. He says that he and another player are the only tennis players that can actually go and not worry about the army.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: Another tennis player. He says any field, any event, if they win the gold medal in the Asian games.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: He says he doesn't know him, but he's seen him.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: He says that he's had some tooth problems, so he's been going to the dentist. (Laughter.)

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: He says that the best thing, I guess, he is being weary of with Sampras is obviously his great serve. He says he's going to have to work on his return. If he can return Sampras' serve, he says the game will be a good game.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: Since you asked for the home town spelling, the province that it's in is K-a-n-g W-o-n D-o. That's the province. There's maybe five provinces in Korea. In his home town, Hang Sung, he left there when he was in fifth grade to go into all these tennis training. It's a very small town. Tennis courts, he doesn't know how many there are. They're definitely not known for that. The whole province of Kang Won Do is famous for their potatoes. He recommends their potatoes and buns, and meat - he says cows.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: Samsung is supporting him 100% right now.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: He says that he is the youngest of three boys in his family. He says that for the confusion, I know a lot of people are asking if that's his coach or father, that's his coach. Sadly, his father passed away when he was in third grade, before he started tennis. His family is all back at home. He's only here by himself.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: (Laughing.) He says no. He says it's all stuff he knew from Korea. But I think he's holding back.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: He says that he doesn't have -- he's not looking that much into the future. He's just talking about his plans ahead of him. He says that after this, he's going to go back to Korea and I guess train for the Olympics, then he wants to go to a Tour in Hong Kong and Tokyo, there's tennis tournaments out there. Then he says he'll go from there.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: He says that before The Bronx he was at Binghamton and he was in a pool of eight people that were left. If he were to beat his -- it was actually one of his teammates, if he were to beat him, he would have had an automatic bid into the US Open. But he was leading in the match and then he lost, and then all he had was a hamburger, he says, that day. That's the only thing he had right afterwards because he had to rush down to New York so he could come out to The Bronx. He came down around one o'clock. He said he was very tired and very lucky.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: The Koreans that are living here?

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: He says that the only person he knows here is a former tennis player in Korea, who happens to be running a dry cleaners - surprise - (laughter.) He's close with his son, so he says he comes here and hangs out with his son and his family.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: He says no. One thing is that they think that he should get a good night's rest. Samsung thinks he should get a good night's rest. He's been put up at the nicest places. If anything he's grateful for, it's a good sleep at night.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: Yes. Before about two questions ago he said this is the first -- it's huge in Korea right now because he's the first man to actually get out of the first round, and then he's the highest ranked Korean player ever, so he's just creating history in Korea when it comes to tennis.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: He says that directly his family was an influence. He has always been asking if his mother -- if he has family in the north. He says he kind of envies the people who got together. Unfortunately, he was only reading it in the papers because he's been here while that's been going on. But there's no direct influence or anything.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: He says yes. I mean it's huge, because he's away and it's like his home court. On his court today, Court 11 I believe -- sorry, Court 10, half the people that were there were Korean. You could hear shouts of, "Go," things like that. He says he felt right at home.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: (Laughing.) He says the only thing he can think of is it would be very hard for him to get off the plane.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: He says that he hasn't been to that many Grand Slams. He's been to Australia, Wimbledon. He says that everywhere they went, he says the US Open, the people are kind of not very nice and the food is expensive and he's heard a lot of that said. I said, "What about in actuality when you came here?" He said there is a little bit of that, New York hospitality here.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: He says he believes that the highest-ranked Korean player before was somewhere in the 120s. He believes he's broken that. He says that basically everything he does is a record right now because there hasn't been a Korean player - men's player, let me clarify - that's been out of the first round. He made history when he went to the second round. Now that he's past the third round, he says everything he's done from now on, it's all a brand new record.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: Well, obviously he said Sampras. He says but he's not in awe. He says he respects their game and he likes them very much but he's not in awe of them.

HYUNG-TAIK LEE: He says no, he's never spoken to this many reporters. And number two, still, yes, the dentist is the harder one.