U.S. OPEN

September 5, 1993

Andrei Medvedev

ANREI MEDVEDEV: Medvedev.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: Yeah, say it little bit harder because you can't really see where he is going. Especially he is lefty and lefty players, it is difficult. I had a lot of trouble to return, so --

ANREI MEDVEDEV: He was -- it was his back because I saw him in the locker room it was his back. Which probably coming from the serve.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: Because it is my job. This is a joke.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: Alexander Dolgopolov.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: A joke. J. O. K. E.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: Press?

ANDREI MEDVEDEV: Because it is a joke. After what you write in the paper, it is a joke. I mean, everyone has his own job and we all have free time and to me talking to the press is a joke, because it is so funny, no matter what you say you write what you want.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: Because I got some beautiful articles about me, which I was surprised to find in the papers and there was many quotes that I never said, that my me look like an idiot. It was in a central papers, like Herald Tribune and I wasn't so happy to read about this because-- not because they were bad. They were bad, but I wasn't disappointed because of that. But because it wasn't true. I don't mind to look bad if I am bad. But I never said what they wrote in the papers. I am very upset and I don't have -- I mean, I have trust with the press, but you know, it is difficult to find the people who like you; who are not looking for sensation; who just want to write the truth. It is difficult to find, you know, I never do want it once because of that. It is sort of personal.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: Oh, yeah, everywhere. Unfortunately, press is the same everywhere. I don't know why. But you know, probably you have the same -- your bosses, they put pressure on you that you get the sensations.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: If you don't get sensations they just produce the sensations by themselves. It is not nice because we don't feel good about that. We are tennis players. All we do we are playing tennis and we don't want anybody to look at our personal lives and to find out what we are doing before we go to bed or whatever. Especially we don't like to read what we never said.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: No, I am not saying that I hate this part. As I said, it is a funny part. Sometimes it was unbelievable. I read some nice articles about me and I just couldn't believe it. And I kept it and I got it from the papers and it is in my bank now in the safe because it is so nice. Because then you know, if I have a child and grandchild I can show them that I was a nice person.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: Drinks are for free. It is very nice. Massage for free. Transportation free. Beside, it is pretty complicated tournament. Because it is a Grand Slam, because you are trying to be concentrate every match and because the conditions are hard -- I mean, hard to play and the facility needs to be improved.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: They don't like it.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: Yeah, they told me not to say the truth to you because you see nobody tells you that the facility is bad. I don't think it is right because everybody knows and everybody feels the facility is bad. Players' lounge, and, you know, everything needs to be improved, every little thing. Nobody talks, unfortunately, about this. My philosophy is that somebody has to start and not just because we want to change. We want to change it or I want to change it, but because it is true. Nobody likes it here, so somebody has to start and I think that, tell you the truth, it flies, but people tell me that I should not be open in the press or I should not make jokes, but it is personal, you know, I am trying to be honest. It doesn't happen all the time. And as far as I can be honest, or I feel good about being honest, and you know, I don't want to be that kind of person, especially with the press.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: I don't know.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: You mean the relationship between players?

ANREI MEDVEDEV: Oh, yeah, they are great. Honestly, they are great. Let us say I have some players that they never say hello to me. It is not because they don't like me or something or I don't like them because we don't know each other. We never had a chance to talk. Normally we have a very good relationship because we are very much the same people because we are doing the same job, we are playing tennis and everybody knows, you know, how hard it, is or, you know, how nice it is, and we understand each other perfectly.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: I would say the best friends are Spanish, Spanish guys, especially Bruguera, and -- but you know, I can't say that, you know, those guys they are the best. I could say this, but I have very good relationship with everybody.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: Everybody thinks it is not popular. We don't-- because we don't have any tournaments unfortunately in Kiev, but you would be surprised to find out, how many people like to watch tennis and how many people you know, enjoy watching tennis, really enjoy it. We just don't have the chance to translate because we don't have much money in our country. If we have money, we need to spend it on different needs. But many people, they just love it.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: You read the papers?

ANREI MEDVEDEV: I read the papers as well. Hopefully we read the same.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: It is not nice. It is not nice. It needs to be get better, everyone wants it to be better, but I don't think we have enough power, I don't think we have right people to change it.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: I would like to see a locker room a little bit better. And, of course, the most thing that needs to be improved, it needs to be improved tomorrow, I mean today, any time, the food. Seriously, you get poison here. Listen, I am not joking. I am not joking, you get poison. You easily get poisoned in the players' lounge.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: Anything. That is what is interesting because you go and unfortunately this is the only place where you can eat; you have pasta, which you normally think that helps you, and, you know, sometimes it doesn't. Seriously, I felt very bad yesterday with my stomach and I ate twice in the players' lounge and I cannot think of anything else other than food. If you have a stomach upset, what do you think? It is food. And I ate twice in the players' lounge. I heard from the other players; they are not very happy about this. Nobody would tell you this, but it is true, the food needs to be improved. I think it is easy to improve anything, but food is easy to improve. Just make it, I don't know, probably the chef or no matter who is in charge of the food, they make it for general or a thousand people. What they should do, they should make food for every single person. They should imagine, this part of spaghetti that they make would be one person. Seriously, they throw like 100 kilos of spaghetti and they just pour that and they think people will eat it. Sure, we will eat it; then we get poison. I am not saying poison-- maybe it is the wrong word, but I understand that it is getting stomach upset.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: Spaghetti.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: Oh, yeah, sure. I am very sure that you know, United States of America deserve to have one Grand Slam tournament not because -- not just because it is a big country or important country, but because you have so many great players. You have No. 1 and 2 in the world. You should be proud of it. But the thing is that it needs to be changed. It needs to be changed because everyone can see there are many people. Many people can see that the U.S. Open is one of the most important Grand Slams. It is not the secret. Being the top tournament, or trying to be top tournament, this tournament needs to be improved.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: It goes all to me.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: Which state?

ANREI MEDVEDEV: Nothing goes to Ukraine. I keep it all.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: My mom was a coach.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: When I started to consider tennis as lots of fun, I was eight, but before this, I was already hitting the ball probably since six or five. I was like -- I liked soccer much more than tennis. Because my mom was a tennis coach, she gave me this, I don't know, she gave me this inspiration to play tennis.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: I stay there.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: It is great. It is a great city for sure. You can see some real life and you know, since we only playing small places, being in New York for two weeks is great.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: No.

ANREI MEDVEDEV: Nobody recognize me. Because the people they don't look at you. It is very nice to be honest.