TMS - LISBON

November 30, 2000

Alex Corretja

MODERATOR: Questions for Alex.

ALEX CORRETJA: It is great feeling to see that after I had two losses here, pretty tough ones, because I was in a good situation in both of them. It is nice to see that I came back, even if I lost the first set. Especially thinking about next week, it is really good for myself and for the whole Spanish team.

ALEX CORRETJA: It is clear that if I would think about the match in Australia, I would never beat him. So I've been thinking about myself, especially; my pride, and about next week. Once I lost the first set, I was a little disappointed because I knew that I had no chance to qualify for the semifinals. But then I was behaving, I believe, like a real man. Maybe the easiest thing was to just let it go, you know, and say, "Okay, we'll face next week. I'm not going to give a hundred percent. I don't care about this match." But I didn't want to lose to him again. I want to beat him. I wanted to show my friends and my colleagues for next week that we can beat him. This is good for us.

ALEX CORRETJA: I don't know. But, of course, we prefer to play on clay. We are going to play in our hometown. We love to play in Barcelona on that stadium. This is going to be like a dream come true. We hope we going to be in advantage of them. I don't know how much, but of course I think we are better players on clay than them. But we have to show it on the court.

ALEX CORRETJA: It is a good question because I didn't have time to think about having rest or having time off, you know, because I still in the season. I still have the biggest thing in my life, which is Davis Cup final next week. Afterwards, I think I will sleep a lot. That's what I need to do. I need to rest. I need to stay with my girlfriend, with my family, with my friends, and recover for next year. I'm definitely not going to Australia because I wanted to rest, I wanted to recover, and I don't want to be again the same guy as '99, which I was exhausted, I was tired of tennis, I didn't want to play. That was because a consequence of many things. So I think we have to learn from our mistakes. That's why I'm not going to press myself to go to Australia, to push myself, saying, "Oh, I need to go there. I'm No. 7 or 8 in the world. Maybe I can clinch some spots to be No. 5." It doesn't exist anymore for me. I want to enjoy my life. If I enjoy my life, I enjoy tennis.

ALEX CORRETJA: It was good for me to play him one more time, because last time I played him, you know how bad it was for me. It was difficult to play him. Especially after ten months, I think I'm at his level. It's good to see the way he plays, the way he behaves on the court, as well. You have to be ready because after one game he's saying, "Come on," like this. Sometimes I think it is too much. It is good for you because you have extra motivation to beat him. You don't really like to lose to him because he behaves sometimes, from my point of view, a little strange.

ALEX CORRETJA: I don't know. After four points, he's already, "Come on." I don't know if that's too normal. I think it's good that a guy has motivation, but sometimes I think he's doing more like psychological thing than other stuff. I don't know if he's so pumped to say "Come on" the first game of the match. That create me some good feelings because I wanted to beat him badly. Even if I was out of the tournament, I wanted to beat him, even if I had to stay here for the whole night.

ALEX CORRETJA: No. I don't like the way he behaves on the court. That's all. I never say that before for a player, but I don't like the way he behaves. He can do whatever he likes. But his behaving, it's a little strange.

ALEX CORRETJA: Of course.

ALEX CORRETJA: Yeah, so important. It was great for me to see that the public was behind me, especially after that ball that was like this far out (approximately five centimeters). I lost my concentration, I lost my focus; I think I lost the set. I could beat him the first set, and maybe I will still have the chance to qualify. But the public behaves pretty well with me. And also I believe because they saw that the guy was a little strange on the court. I just don't like the way he behaves. That's all. As I say, he can do whatever he wants. He can behaves as he wants. Everybody has his own personality. But I don't feel it's so normal what he does.