ATP Tour World Championship

November 28, 1998

Alex Corretja

Q. Difference between this court and clay court, are you sure you can play unbelievable also on fast court now?

ALEX CORRETJA: Yes. It's a great feeling for us and for our tennis to have again a big final between two friends, after two players. It's great because this is not clay. We are just clay court players, as everybody told us all around the world. Unfortunately for the people, we just don't play well on clay, and we can play well everywhere. I think they have to show some respect, because I never call American guy hard court player. Right now we are realizing that we can play well everywhere.

ALEX CORRETJA: I think it's a great mentality, and I hope I'm not going to know anybody on the court tomorrow as well. I hope I'm going to go on the court, try to play my tennis, try to forget that Carlos is my friend. I hope the experience from the French Open is going to help me tomorrow. At that time I couldn't play my game. I was just thinking about our friendly; I didn't play good tennis. So in this time, I'm going to try to move and to play well, to play aggressive, and to try to see if I can do my game, even if I have to play against Carlos, which I know him very well.

ALEX CORRETJA: No, honestly not. I think it's unbelievable that we just play again another epic match because it's just fantastic, I think for the spectators as well, this emotion till the end. On that time, I was the guy who lost 7-6 in the fifth. I had match point. Today he had a couple of match points, and he couldn't make it, and I won. I can realize that God was fair, and he gave me the win this time after two years just hearing about everybody about that match, everybody remembering, even on the street, about that match. So I hope right now I'm going to turn it around and everybody's going to remember me, maybe about winning this title, but at least winning Sampras 7-6 in the third in the semifinal of the Masters.

ALEX CORRETJA: Well, I think he was a little bit tired, but he was really emotion. He had a couple of match points. He got -- especially on one he had some good position to win the point. It's obvious when you are really close to win, you always get a little bit tighter. He could finish the match because he had an easy forehand in the middle of the court, but he couldn't play a winner. I just play a good passing shot, and he just miss the volley. It was great because I kept my concentration to the end, and I wanted to win this time.

ALEX CORRETJA: Because we work really hard. We are traveling the whole year with our physical trainer, with our coach. We try to do also a lot of fitness because our game is not just to serve, and serve and volley, to make 25 aces per match. So we need to work really hard. That's why we are really fit.

ALEX CORRETJA: No, I didn't suffer. But at the end you get a little bit tired always to hear the same questions in the press conference, like, "You are just a clay court player," when you show you can win on all the courts, like I did this year. I won Dubai on hard courts, I won Indianapolis, I won Lyon. People are still asking me in the press conference, "Well, because you are a clay court player, you cannot win indoors," two weeks after I won in Lyon, that was in Moscow, for example. You get kind of disappointed. At the same time, you feel like the people doesn't know anything about tennis. Yeah, it's true, it's like this. It's kind of a pity sometimes. But I was just trying to improve my game all around the world, all around the surface, especially on hard courts and indoors because the big events are there. If you are a good clay court player, it's not enough to be at the top of the game. So you have to be playing really well on all surfaces. It's right now what I've been doing. I think I have much more points on hard court than on clay this year, even if I'm a clay court player.

ALEX CORRETJA: I hope it's going to be different, because that time I lost. I hope tomorrow I can beat him. It's going to be different because here you can win more extra points with your serve, hitting some winners from the baseline. For sure it's going to be a tough match for both, because we're not going to play 40 aces each. We will have to run a lot. It's going to be tough, especially because it's the best of five. It's going to be maybe the last day of the year playing a Tour event. Especially I will have to make the last effort.

ALEX CORRETJA: No. I was just trying to play the regular point. I was trying to play with my first serve. If you see, I didn't play a hard serve; I was just playing kick because I wanted to keep him outside from the net. I wanted to keep him on the baseline, to make him run, to make him think to win me that point. I didn't want to miss the first serve and he would have a chance to come to the net and put all the pressure to me. I wanted to keep him on the baseline and see if he could beat me from the baseline, and he couldn't. He had good chances, but he couldn't make it. I think it was good tactic from my part.

ALEX CORRETJA: I wouldn't think it for sure. It would be like a miracle, I would say. The miracle becomes true. I said to one of the Spanish guys, "Maybe the future will take us together to the final, to Moya and me," after we start the week here in Hannover. But it was kind of like kidding. I didn't realize that it could be truth. Right now, I'm glad to be in the final. I'm glad to play against Carlos because he's my friend and I'm happy about him, that he's in the final. But this time I will try to just beat him.

ALEX CORRETJA: Well, it was -- I think it was the main reason I can play good tennis here because I never won two straight matches in a row in indoors. Mentally, it was a little bit tough for me. At the same time in Spain, we don't have that many courts, we just have one, unfortunately. I think we are superstars because we just have one court and we can still play the finals of the Masters. We have really good luck or it's because we can play really good tennis. It was really important to go there and to win, so I hope somebody's going to hear me finally and they're going to make some courts, not just because of us, but for the future of our Spanish tennis, it's really important. We work really hard. I think we are not just baseliners. We can play really good tennis at the same time. We hope in the future we're going to have some courts.

ALEX CORRETJA: At the moment it is not truth. There's people that want to see if it's possible. At this moment, I cannot decide it. We will have to see if I will have to play for Catalonia or Spain, I will have to decide. At this moment, I cannot go to one side or the other.

ALEX CORRETJA: Well, it comes really fast because I said that in Indianapolis maybe, and two months later I'm here in the finals of the championship event. It comes fast, but at the same time it comes slow because the last three years I've been struggling on indoors. All that years that I've been practicing and losing first rounds, right now are paying off my mentality and my game. That's why I'm playing better. I have to still play better on this surface, but I think I'm doing much more than before.