NASDAQ-100 OPEN

March 27, 2005

Dominik Hrbaty

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Dominik Hrbaty.

DOMINIK HRBATY: Of course, that's why I came here to play couple of matches for practice, get used to the weather conditions, different balls, different courts. I'm happy that I came earlier. Today I think it paid off.

DOMINIK HRBATY: I think it already should be the first set one-sided. I played well there, just made couple of errors. I had set points, didn't make it. With Marat I was playing, I just wanted to risk it. Either I take all or I lose. With him, you cannot play with his kind of player just to hold the ball there and hope he miss. I tried it to, you know, to play really fast, faster than him, and maybe when you get closer to the end of the set and you get little bit nervous, then you can make mistakes. But I won the first set with little bit luck. I mean, in tennis, sometimes you need also luck to win. Then after I won first set, I just felt very confident that I am not going to lose it, because I played first set well and I was serving much better in the second set and returning well. So that's why it seemed one-sided.

DOMINIK HRBATY: Yeah, Marat is kind of player like that. I mean, we played many matches. I think we have 7-all now, which is quite a lot for a tour, to meet 14 times together. So we played a lot of matches, and I played a match once in the finals in St. Petersburg that he was really frustrated. I lost first set -- I won first set. I was break up in the second set. He broke the racquet and he broke it the way that pieces of the racquet got into his hand. And he needed injury time-out to take it out. Suddenly, he came back and he just started to hit winners, you know. He's the kind of player that he shows emotions but you never can like really say, "Now he's really down and then he's not gonna fight." He can turn back any time during the match, and he just can win it.

DOMINIK HRBATY: No, I didn't. It was too late. I usually sleep at 10 o'clock.

DOMINIK HRBATY: Of course. It makes little bit difference always because you need to make more energy to play on the court, to run. There, he was lucky that we went indoor. He knew that. But he played unbelievable there. I mean, that's why he won Australian Open. So today, I don't think it was his day.

DOMINIK HRBATY: Yeah. I won many times, but also I lost many times. But I enjoy to play these guys because they are the top of the tennis, top level. You can be relax, you can enjoy tennis, just sometimes even risk it a bit more than usual. Because if you lose, nobody says you lost because -- I mean, he was worse on the ranking, but he's better player. Sometimes that's why I play maybe better against these guys.

DOMINIK HRBATY: Sometimes. I was surprised. I served really well, especially in the second set. Even in the first set, I served a couple of games really well. But sometimes it can be difficult, sometimes I can hit with the frames, sometimes I can lose the timing for the serve. But I won two times Auckland, which is the windiest city in the world. With my toss, I mean, just maybe it doesn't matter. It only matters on concentration. And you have to really concentrate on the ball to hit it in the sweet spot.

DOMINIK HRBATY: What is "demeanor"?

DOMINIK HRBATY: He's always same (smiling). He is the kind of person that he has his own personality and he never change. I think that's nice because tennis needs personalties. The guy like him only can get more attention, more people coming to the tennis, more sponsors, more money. If there would be everybody same, then people don't be interested to come to tennis.

DOMINIK HRBATY: You know, it's not easy. I mean, I think he played really bad today, like if you played really bad like him and your last (inaudible) level is somewhere much higher than where he played today. He showed a lot of frustration on the court. It's not easy, you know, to play. But he fight. I mean, he came back for first-set tiebreak, so you can't say he didn't fight. But he just played really bad. He probably, in the end of the match, he gave couple points. But it was more like he resigned because he knew that with his game he cannot win today.

DOMINIK HRBATY: No.

DOMINIK HRBATY: It can happen to anybody. It can happen even to Roger Federer, which is it seems that he doesn't have a bad day. But you are always only a person that goes out there and hopes to play his best tennis. And like anybody else, you have a bad day in the work. He had a bad day in the work today; it just didn't go his way. If you would be playing all day, or every time you go on the court and playing very well, then you would have two No. 1s. But only there can be only No. 1, one, and that's Roger because he's playing really consistent.

DOMINIK HRBATY: Yeah, it's, I mean, tough to say. He's top player. I mean, it's enough to win all those 20 tournaments; you want to win more. If you play the 10 other in the first round, it doesn't matter. It's important to win the important ones and many of this. So it's only beginning of season. I think he's going to fight for No. 1 in the end of the year for sure.