TMS - HAMBURG

May 14, 2001

Andre Agassi

ATP: Questions, please.

ANDRE AGASSI: Yeah, I felt good. It was a lot more comfortable out there certainly this week than last week. It's been a lot of practice so I was anxious to play the match and I felt good. It wasn't very -- it was pretty straightforward from start to finish and felt pretty comfortable the whole time.

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, I mean, you can't just expect to show up on red clay for the first time in a year few days before the first event and go out there and be perfect. I mean, I think I was -- in hindsight now thinking back on my match in Rome, I think I found myself forcing a little too much, maybe not being quite as patient. When you play so many matches on the hard court, your instinct is to take control of every shot and so I was trying to do that and then you worry that if I don't, then they are going to take control. But it is a whole different rhythm to clay and it takes you some time. There is still more work to do so it is going to be hopefully a great week for me, but it starts now and the next match is going to be an opportunity for me to gain even more confidence.

ANDRE AGASSI: Always important.

ANDRE AGASSI: Oh, I mean, there is a lot of variables, but it is always nice to be around the people you like being around.

ANDRE AGASSI: Thank you.

ANDRE AGASSI: I do. I am not playing Dusseldorf but I do, I actually think you want to get a lot of matches, as many as possible, but, you know, I feel like Rome with Hamburg and then the week out before Paris will give me a chance. Going into the French Open, you need to work yourself into the tournament anyhow and if I can get through a few matches in Paris and then things start to really feel even a lot more differently. So I think it has been a great schedule and, you know, it is all guesswork until it is hindsight. Going into the French now I feel like this week I can make some real good steps forward and then prepare next week and then roll the dice and hope that everything is where it needs to be.

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, I don't know what he is feeling or what he is not feeling. This has never been a surface that was very comfortable to Pete and so it is always a big adjustment and this surface can really highlight any aches or pains that you may feel. I don't know how his body is feeling. I don't know any of that, so it is not comfortable to try to make the adjustments necessary and he still has another two weeks to prepare. I am sure it is only going to get better for him.

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, it's really what you play for. It's the biggest one now coming up. For me I want to play my best tennis there. I would like to play my best tennis here and there, but that is what it boils down to is playing the best matches there and I am looking forward to that opportunity, that challenge. It is never easy, never has been, and, you know, I am anxious about it.

ANDRE AGASSI: It's the French Open, so...

ANDRE AGASSI: It is one of the four. And it means a lot to me. I have had some pretty incredible ups and downs there, some incredible highs and some incredible disappointments. So it's -- it is a place I am very attached to.

ANDRE AGASSI: Well you have to be at your best; then you have to get a little luck. I think it's been a combination. I have been very prepared for the tournaments I have played and, you know, and I had some luck on my side. You can't really win without it - not all the big ones, and to win the first three big tournaments of the year was just kind of -- showed where I am with my game and with my mind and, you know, but now it is different. That is over a month ago and a lot can change in a month and you have to always reestablish yourself out there; everybody is anxious to beat you, and different environment, different surface, different challenge. So I'd like to do something special in the clay season, it would mean a lot to me to do that.

ANDRE AGASSI: In all honesty, I mean, and as respectfully as possible, I will say this, but anybody that really talks about one person winning all four Grand Slams after only one of them doesn't have a real understanding of how difficult it is to win those tournaments. So it is an absurd thought to even discuss. We are going into the French Open and there is a lot of guys playing well and of course I want to win and that makes me one of 127 other guys.