TMS - MADRID

October 18, 2003

Younes El Aynaoui

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Younes El Aynaoui.

YOUNES EL AYNAOUI: No, it was before the match yesterday. I have something under my heel. To tell you the truth, yesterday and this morning, I was more thinking, I was preoccupied that if I win the match today, there would be no finals tomorrow because I don't think my feet would be okay. I didn't want to make an injection yesterday to get the pain out. There's still one tournament to go. Today I was not a hundred percent. Sometimes you can get out of it and win some matches, even if you're not at your top. But against Massu, I was a bit short. I was expecting that he's going to be a little bit tired, but he played well.

YOUNES EL AYNAOUI: Yeah, this is the second time we meet on court. Last time was Wimbledon, four sets. I think he played his best tennis since then. He was in Kitzbuhel. I think he's one of the players that has won most matches this season. He has confidence in himself, and his level is very high. I haven't seen him like that ever.

YOUNES EL AYNAOUI: Of course, he has only one match left. He's done the toughest work. Ferrero and Federer are very high-level players. Of course, it's going to be a difficult match. But the winner will be one of them. We will see.

YOUNES EL AYNAOUI: I think the secret is to be consistent at work, living a healthy life with no excesses. There's nothing better for sport than this. Experience also gives you a lot. The fact that I'm at a very high level, I finished well at No. 18. I started a bit later. At 20, I started the ATP.

YOUNES EL AYNAOUI: He's been strong. He really improved physically. He's there match after match. He moves very well on court. The last time I played against him at Wimbledon, he made me notice that he has improved.

YOUNES EL AYNAOUI: Yes. I won't say Spaniards and people from Morocco do not understand each other. But thanks to living here, I'm noticing that mentality is very similar. I feel good with people I live with. I lived in Vienna, Austria. I had a bit of trouble there. Belgium also. But now I'm in Spain since the year 2001. We feel great.

YOUNES EL AYNAOUI: Yes.

YOUNES EL AYNAOUI: First I left Morocco, went to the United States, then to France. I wanted to know different countries to have an idea of where to live after everything is over. That's how I traveled to three or four countries. I think my place is now in Barcelona.

YOUNES EL AYNAOUI: I think the crowd is perfect. What happened?

YOUNES EL AYNAOUI: It's true I haven't played too many Spaniards. But the fact that the crowd supports the Spaniards is normal. That happens in every country. The first day I remember playing on the secondary courts here. There was a crowd, but I thought the crowd was great. I noticed that it's people that are familiar with tennis that understand which are the key moments of a match. I felt support. I knew there were people out there supporting me and pushing me forward a little bit. So it was great.

YOUNES EL AYNAOUI: It's true players are very young. To earn a lot of money suddenly can influence you. That's why my career has been different to the rest of the players. I started not so young. I think it's not easy for them to be 18, 19, to get to the top, to be famous, to be followed everywhere, to have a lot of money, to affected by fame. It's difficult.

YOUNES EL AYNAOUI: Well, I guess there's contracts that may be dangerous for tennis players, let's say a young player that signs a contract for huge amounts of money, maybe that would be bad for him in the future. It's true that there's players, very young players, that are on the top right now.