WIMBLEDON

July 4, 2004

Miles Kasiri

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone. Miles Kasiri for you.

MILES KASIRI: Well, obviously I'm very disappointed that I lost. I know -- I think I played well. We both had a good match today. But I'm obviously disappointed that I lost. I know that I had a lot of chances in the first set. You know, I had set points. And in the second set, I was up in the tiebreak. It was so close. Just a couple of -- you know, there's like one or two points, that would have made the whole difference of the match. I could have won the match 7-5, 7-6, instead of him, if I would have won only two extra points. Obviously, I'm disappointed that I lost, but I'm also, you know, happy about getting to the final. Obviously, you know, I wanted to win it. That was the goal. But I'm not too disappointed.

MILES KASIRI: Exactly. That's what I was saying. That's the reason I'm disappointed because I know how close, you know. I had so many chances. I believe that I could have won that match had I played a few points better. So, yeah, it could have easily went his way, but it could have easily went my way, because I had a lot of chances.

MILES KASIRI: Yeah.

MILES KASIRI: Yeah, obviously it gives me confidence because, you know, you hasn't lost a match this year. He's won all three Grand Slams so far. And he's obviously a very good player. You know, I had a lot of chances against him today, and it was a very close match anyway, even though I lost. Yeah, I know if I played him again, I would have confidence I could beat him because, you know, I had a lot of chances today to take two of the sets. So, yeah, for future, say if I was to play him again, I would go on court believing I could win.

MILES KASIRI: It was nice. I didn't expect actually that many. Because yesterday in the semifinals, there was hardly anyone watching on court 13, probably less than a hundred people. Today I went out there, it was totally packed. There were flags like with my name on it and everything. It was weird actually. I've never had that before.

MILES KASIRI: No, actually I wasn't nervous at all. I was excited before the match. Yeah, it's nice to have atmosphere out there because especially in a lot of the junior tournaments, there's not big crowds. So it's nice to have a big atmosphere. It's also nice the crowd wasn't so one-sided, because there were a lot of French people supporting him, as well. So that was good.

MILES KASIRI: Yeah, probably, yeah. Almost, yeah. I've played in crowds maybe as big as that before. But, yeah, I'd say that was probably, yeah, almost the biggest.

MILES KASIRI: Yeah.

MILES KASIRI: No.

MILES KASIRI: No, it's not me (smiling). No, no, I lot of people have been like discussing about who that might be. But I don't know. We don't know.

MILES KASIRI: Yeah, I mean. Yeah, I know a lot of people who have dominated the Juniors have come to win the pros. Federer won the Juniors a few years ago and he's already won the pros pretty quickly. That gives me confidence that maybe I'm on the right track. But also I have a lot of, you know, improving to do before I can think about coming back here and, you know, having a chance of winning the pros here because it such a big step. So I've got to, you know, make a lot of improvements and keep working hard.

MILES KASIRI: Well, I have two tournaments next week, two challengers, which I have a wildcard for next week. So they'll kind of sum up my first professional tournaments, the smaller ones, not like the huge, like tour events, but it's a start. My goal is for the next two weeks is to try and, you know, win matches in them and try and do as well as I can, and just keep improving for the rest of the year so that I'm ready for next year, now, when turning pro.

MILES KASIRI: In Nottingham and Manchester. They're on grass, as well.

MILES KASIRI: No, challengers.

MILES KASIRI: Yeah, yeah. Like I said yesterday, it doesn't matter like if other people are giving me pressure because I won't feel it. The only pressure I feel is what I, you know, expect of myself really. So, yeah.

MILES KASIRI: Yeah, yeah, I'm going there - when is it - end of August.

MILES KASIRI: No, it doesn't really make any difference. It doesn't matter where they're from. Everyone else is like - not a rival, but like an opponent you can play. And I don't really see them very often anyway. I don't train with any of them or anything like that. So no, not really.

MILES KASIRI: Obviously I can get like tired and, I don't know, sometimes down if things aren't going too well. But, you know, I never lose interest. I'm always ready to work hard and, you know, to keep improving and stuff like that. But obviously there are times when sometimes you have to take a break and go and do other things with friends or have a few days off or something just so you get the hunger back really to come on the court and, you know, play again.

MILES KASIRI: No, I'm not really -- no, really not that much supporting a football team because I didn't really get into that because from like 12 till 17, I was in America. They didn't really have soccer over there. So, yeah, I love all of other sports and I love playing all other sports and everything like that. Yeah, I'm into just a lot of things.

MILES KASIRI: Yeah, actually I think he is one of them. And Pete Sampras obviously. I play nothing like Pete Sampras, more like Agassi, I would say. When I was in America, they used to -- because obviously Andre was there, as well. He kind of plays a similar kind of game, similar attitude, I guess, as well. They used to use him as an example for me to follow and stuff like that.

MILES KASIRI: No. When I was there, he had already left like years ago.

MILES KASIRI: No, I haven't. Obviously, I would love to if I had the chance, but, no, I never met him.

MILES KASIRI: Yeah, some other -- there were loads of pros there training like Tommy Haas, Max Mirnyi, Todd Reid - Australian guy who won Junior Wimbledon two years ago - Tatiana Golovin, Sharapova. They're the main ones I can think of.

MILES KASIRI: No. It wasn't like really close friends with her or anything. Obviously, I knew her. Well, obviously everyone in the whole academy knows each other. I mean, you know, training together in a group sometimes, just hitting together sometimes. Everyone went to school together also so I had a few classes with her. Yeah, I was friends with her when I was there.

MILES KASIRI: No, not that I know of.

MILES KASIRI: Oh, I'd say a few hundred. But not all of them are serious tennis players. There's only sort of an elite group of serious tennis players. I'd say I was one of them. The others, maybe they're there just for fun or just to go to school there and play tennis on the side. It wasn't all just serious people.

MILES KASIRI: Really, I'd say he always, you know, was very much emphasizing that you have to be physically strong to play the game. You know, if you're physically strong, then you believe in yourself and that makes you mentally strong. That's a big thing with him. Always make sure you're doing a tough fitness schedule and everything like that. He's always saying, if you want something, you've got to work hard for it. Just maybe trying to teach you to believe in yourself, stuff like that really.

MILES KASIRI: Yeah, it was extremely hard as first because when I first went when I was, what, 13, almost turning 14, I went by myself. It was the first time really I'd been -- I was over there for six months at a time. I used to get very homesick. As I said, like I said, a lot of the other guys who I was in the rooms with and everything, they were a lot older. It was hard to sleep early. When I was training all day, when I was only young, very young and small, and then these other guys, it's like they want to keep the light on till like one in the morning. So that was all tough. But, yeah, it was tough there for the first few years. But then one of the years, my family, say, would come out for a month at a time and visit me and stuff like that afterwards because it was a bit too much just being there by myself.

MILES KASIRI: Well, yeah, hopefully I can work my way up there, yeah, obviously. That's a goal. I don't want to be hanging around some small tournaments next year. I want to be playing here in the real thing.

MILES KASIRI: Well, maybe -- I don't know. Maybe they're -- I suppose they're -- well, I suppose maybe they -- some other countries, especially the poor countries, they're working a lot harder. They've been through tough situations. They want it more, you know. They've just worked harder for it, they're more determined for it.

MILES KASIRI: Yeah, exactly, yeah.

MILES KASIRI: Yeah.

MILES KASIRI: Well, yeah, yeah. Obviously, yeah. I don't want to just have to rely on playing Grand Slams by getting wildcards. I need to do it by myself. You know, it's going to be tough, you know, to get my ranking up high, you know. But, of course, that's what I want to do. I don't want to just have to rely on wildcards. I want to be in it on my own merit.