US OPEN

September 1, 2005

Gustavo Kuerten

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

GUSTAVO KUERTEN: Sore. Right now it's very tight. But I think I expect a little bit this to happen, too, because even playing two days ago, even this morning, I wasn't feel, you know, 100% again. I was feeling a lot of tightness in my body. I think it's a long time I'm not playing match like this for that many hours. That's normal that my body responding in this way. So I think I got to get used again to these situations. But that was one of the reason I keep playing, keep trying, too, knowing that I didn't -- I wasn't in any risk to get a serious injury. But the same way, I need to get myself adapt to these many hours playing again.

GUSTAVO KUERTEN: I think in the end of the second set, got very tight, and as far as the trainer help me out a little bit, I was somehow relieved and did -- unblock myself a little bit to play better. But as far as I was stretching a lot or going down my body, I was feeling a lot, so didn't really solve the problem. But I knew for me was better this way, just keep trying and see what I could do in that situation. It's true, I was able to play well the third set. Unfortunately I couldn't serve the same way. That's probably the best part of my game.

GUSTAVO KUERTEN: No, because I only had chance to play two Grand Slams. I was out for a long time, so for me was almost more than one year that I didn't win one match in Grand Slam. So especially this week was very enthusiastic for me, I think the result. Today I lost, but in the same way was very long that I didn't play big tournaments like this in the same level against a good player. So that's some signs that, you know, things are getting better. I know I have a long way to go, but this week I see how much I improve from three, four months ago till now.