MONTE CARLO OPEN

April 27, 1997

Alex Corretja

Q. You seemed without weapons out there today.

ALEX CORRETJA: Well, no. He was playing good tennis. It was difficult to play. It was very windy. He was playing really aggressive. I think I was not disarmed, was the problem. He was playing better than me. I think the match was pretty close, but I never can change it. I was a couple times really close to change the match, but I couldn't do it. That's why I lost, because he was always in front of the score. .

ALEX CORRETJA: Well, especially when he's confident, he's inside of the court. If it's windy, it's even difficult to play topspin and high balls because you never control the ball. It was tough to play in that situation. It's not an excuse. It was windy for both players. He was maybe better on the court. He was serving better than me also, taking some good serves. I didn't serve that good. I didn't care when he is inside the court. I think if I play deep and I play long, also it's bad for him because it's really difficult to play all the time like when the ball is coming up to you. But I didn't find a place on the court. During this week I was feeling great. Today was difficult for me. Maybe also I was talking to Nicola a couple minutes ago, I told him last 20 days I was playing 22 matches, singles and doubles. It's a lot. It's good, because it means I was playing great tennis, three finals in a row. Singles two weeks ago, doubles last week, and singles again. It's good. But I arrive here on Monday night. I play on Tuesday morning. I play Wednesday singles and doubles, Thursday singles and doubles. I play Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I was a little bit tired before the match. During the match, I was starting to feel worse than the other days. It's not excuse. I'm happy because I played a couple matches.