AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 21, 2005

Dominik Hrbaty

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

DOMINIK HRBATY: I don't know if it was the toughest. It was really tough. I played a couple of tough matches. Actually, I played one against Gaston in Roland Garros. I won 18 in the fifth. He got cramping at that time. I play a couple of other ones that were really long. But I think these two with Gaston, we played over four hours both. That was one of the longest I played maybe. I don't remember in the States, but for sure was one of the longest.

DOMINIK HRBATY: Yeah, I made one easy mistake with the volley, then one missed backhand cross-court. I wanted to go for it. And then he played couple of good points. He hold the ball well, didn't miss. Actually, I was always under pressure at that balls. Didn't really have time to move him that much. But, yeah, it can happen. You just don't want to lose concentration because of the set like this. Even I lost second set, third set in the tiebreaker, but still I believed that if I fight, I can beat him. And he got cramps. That time when I saw that he's not moving well, I knew that this is my chance.

DOMINIK HRBATY: Funny thing is that there is lot of guys that they sometimes smile, you know, or laugh on you that, "Oh, you practicing so much," like Safin don't practice that much. He always say. But it pays off, you know. Then you can show the guys that so much practice, it pays you back sometime. And this is one of the matches that then it eventually return and I won it because of my lot of practice, lot of work on the court and off the court. So then it's the best feeling, you know. See the other guy that he can't anymore and you can still be there and smile on his face and say, "I'm still ready, come on."

DOMINIK HRBATY: Mine is for sure that I'm a hard head, you know. Like I always practice a lot. That's my talent. I always work on my either physical way or tennis. Everything I learned I believe that I learned because of my work. I'm not really talented guy. But my talent is to work hard and to work a lot.

DOMINIK HRBATY: Yeah.

DOMINIK HRBATY: Definitely is not Milan because it's a little too fast for me (laughter).

DOMINIK HRBATY: But, yeah, I starting to enjoy more tennis on the hard court than I used to. I mean, I was always clay court player. I had the best results. Just one year turned around, and since then I have much better results on hard court. But it's also because I play on the hard court for 10 months a year. So this is also the one thing that I learned through a lot of hours, lot of matches, that I learned how to play on the hard courts. I'm getting even better on the grass, which is the last surface I really prefer.