US OPEN

September 2, 2000

Dominik Hrbaty

MODERATOR: Questions for Dominik.

DOMINIK HRBATY: It's not like that. It seems like that, but it's not like that. After Wimbledon, I got lower back problems. I had inflammation in the lower back. At both Gstaad and Stuttgart, I was playing, but every move I made was painful. I couldn't play very well. After that, I didn't play tennis for two weeks. I pulled out from other few tournament tournaments. Then I start in Cincinnati, was first tournament. Still I was afraid to move. After that, was getting better. I was practicing a lot. Now this is different because it's like best-of-five. You have a lot of games. You have four or five sets you can play. It's like even if you lost first set or second set, you can still win the match.

DOMINIK HRBATY: 6-1 now. I don't know. I like his game. I like the game he's playing because I can see well what he's playing. This is kind of know-how in tennis. Sampras, 100 players, 99 like that, if I could see like that, I would be No. 1. If you get once to that level, you can see the player where he's playing. Even the players you don't like to play, it's very, very tough for them to beat you. This is like kind of a know how in tennis. I like his game. I can see well what he's doing.

DOMINIK HRBATY: I think they are slower actually than the last year. Maybe the balls are slow. I played a few tournaments before. They were really fast courts, like Cincinnati and Long Island. There was no rallies. Maybe when I came here, seems to me that it's slower. There are more rallies from the baseline. I don't think it's really too fast.

DOMINIK HRBATY: I have to return well and serve well. If I do these two things well, I have a big chance to win.

DOMINIK HRBATY: Three in one day. But it was like -- every match was one set. Our president is 65 years old. You can imagine how tough is for him to play. He was so tired, but he keeps playing. He's a big fan of tennis.

DOMINIK HRBATY: It was after Roland Garros, three days later.

DOMINIK HRBATY: We won the tournament with the president.

DOMINIK HRBATY: We played together, doubles. We won the tournament. It was very hot. He gets a lot of problems after that.

DOMINIK HRBATY: No. Actually the prime minister, he should play, but he didn't play. He had to do some international meetings. We beat some guys, also big persons in Slovakia. It was like a VIP tournaments, tennis players with some VIPs.

DOMINIK HRBATY: By car, no. It's too far (laughter). Too far to go to come back. But I have a lot of friends here.

DOMINIK HRBATY: Some are like hockey players, National Hockey League players. Some friends I met in Long Island. They were together here today. A lot of people.