adidas International

January 6, 2003

Jaymon Crabb

JAYMON CRABB: I like the way I stayed with him from the baseline. He's one of the best baseliners in the world, and I thought I could hang with him a little bit. Sort of probably cost me in the end, because I was doing a lot of running out there. But I enjoyed that, yeah.

JAYMON CRABB: Yep, yeah. You know, the last two days I've been playing well, so going out there I thought I had a good chance. Once I held my first few service games and I knew I was into the match, the nerves started to settle down a bit, and I knew I had a good chance. So I think I had a very high percentage of first serves in the first set. And at the end of the first set, I thought if I can keep that going, would have been a real good chance. I have to look at the statistics later, but from the first game of the second set, it was a very bad game to lose because sort of lost the crowd a little bit there, going down an early break.

JAYMON CRABB: Yeah, I got them both back, to 5-all. But played another bad service game at 5-all. The point to break, is actually a long point. And I was breathing pretty heavily after that one, going into the 5-all. I don't think I made a first serve at 5-all. So that cost me.

JAYMON CRABB: I've got quallies starting on Thursday for the Australian Open, so this is great leading to the Australian Open. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Probably have a day off tomorrow and, yeah, bit of a hit Wednesday afternoon when I get there. Yeah, getting ready to play there.

JAYMON CRABB: I never played him before.

JAYMON CRABB: I played Rios at the Australian Open, but not Juan Carlos. No, I don't think.

JAYMON CRABB: Okay. Maybe he played Jones at the Australian Open. Maybe that was who he played. I don't know.

JAYMON CRABB: When I saw him, yes and no. Because I had played against Portas and Squillari in quallies, and they play a little bit similar to how Ferrero plays. He's a little bit further up the court than they are - more than Squillari is for sure. I was playing well from the back of the court. I was, you know, it's a great chance to play the fourth best player in the world. It's not gonna come along every day, you know. It was an enjoyable match.

JAYMON CRABB: Yep. I think he ran me a lot more than I ran him. He was up a bit tighter on the baseline. When he got the short ball, he dealt with it, where sometimes I got the short ball and I let him back into the point a bit. He, you know, today I don't think that -- that match was his first match for the year. So, you know, if I had served a little bit better in the second and third sets, maybe I could have turned it around.

JAYMON CRABB: Yeah, sure. Yeah, it's great walking around out there and not having the kids ask us for autographs and stuff. Sure, I enjoy it from time to time. But the way Lleyton gets it, yeah, it would be a drag in the end, I'd say.

JAYMON CRABB: Yeah, for sure. And also, guys like Juan Carlos haven't seen us before. They've got to sort of figure out how to play us. I'm used to seeing him on TV, and just seeing him down the other end, I've seen him play a lot. So I'm sure it helps us a little bit.

JAYMON CRABB: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah.

JAYMON CRABB: My goal is to break in the Top 100. Yeah, I didn't have a great finish to the year last year, so, yeah, I'm looking forward to a good start. I've started well so far. I played pretty good in Adelaide, I played good here. So, yeah, I'm just looking forward to the Aussie Open, see what happens there.

JAYMON CRABB: I guess maybe '97 I played my first year, yep. Had a couple of elbow operations, so cut short a few years, at the end of '97 and end of '98. So at the end of '98, '99 it wasn't great. Then I had 2000, 2001, 2002, they've been, yep, full on.

JAYMON CRABB: Oh, no, it's Australian Open. I'm looking forward to it for sure. Every match is going to be hard out there as well. I think, you know, the quallies here was tougher, by our numbers, rankings. But, you know, Australian Open, everyone's going to be out there playing their best. Yeah, no, I'm looking forward to playing there, yeah.

JAYMON CRABB: Into Aussie Open?

JAYMON CRABB: I would have been directly in, but I actually entered a week late so I'm gonna need a wildcard there. I should have been directly in.