PACIFIC LIFE OPEN

March 13, 2004

Taylor Dent

TAYLOR DENT: Yeah, it definitely is working a little better today. It's still got room for improvement. I served a lot of bad patches. But I'm very excited with the progress I made from yesterday to today. The 7:30 serving session last night and this morning paid off a little bit, I guess.

TAYLOR DENT: It's pretty big. I'd say it's huge in the fact that you look at what he's done here and in his career. You know, I got through today not playing my best tennis. So that's a big confidence booster. Hopefully I can keep getting my tennis better and better as the tournament goes on.

TAYLOR DENT: Well, I served pretty clutch. I wouldn't say over all the match I served unbelievable, but I served very good at some big stages. He had some break points in the first set, and I seemed to come up with big first serves or second serves where they were either aces or unreturnables. I was returning and playing great from the baseline. I think we were probably like 50/50 from the points from the baseline. I broke him three times in just the second set. You know, all around it was pretty good. My volleys were a little shaky in the first two games the second, but other than that they were good.

TAYLOR DENT: Well, I don't expect them to. I think I've proven that I can play from the baseline with anybody. But I don't really put that much pressure on my groundies. If I'm breaking guys two or three times in a set, I'm ecstatic. But I'm not really counting on that.

TAYLOR DENT: I actually didn't want to have to make a decision when he hit the serve, whether the serve was good and I had to stay back or stay forward. So after he missed the serve, I said, "I'm coming in here cross-court no matter where he serves it." Just because it's a big point, and I didn't want to second guess myself or anything, so I just said it, and I'm going to cover the line. Because he passed me, I think, 30 times up the line with that backhand. So I said, "No way it's going to be 31." So, it just happened to work out.

TAYLOR DENT: It is definitely. The air is thinner here, the ball goes through the court fast. If you are hitting your spots, it's tough to get them back. He proved that, too. He served great down some big points and I couldn't get them back. It is a good server's court.

TAYLOR DENT: No, no. I was pumped. I gave it a little fist pump. I've had a rough four months and I've been working really hard. Hopefully some buildinging blocks I can move forward on. I'm happy I strung two matches together - even more importantly, that I felt like I played better today than I did yesterday. So hopefully I can keep progressing.

TAYLOR DENT: Oh, absolutely (smiling).

TAYLOR DENT: Yes. Two tomorrow maybe, if my arm can take it.

TAYLOR DENT: You know, these things happen. It's sports. There's no explanation sometimes for some things. I felt like I played my best tennis from the US Open to Moscow because I understood my game better than I ever have before. That time I was injured with the wrist over the summer, I missed the whole summer circuit in the US. I just sat down, thinking about my game, I had tapes of Sampras, Becker, Rafter, Edberg, trying to figure out what they did, and say, "Gosh, how can I do that?" Nothing changed from Moscow to the other things; it's just I couldn't execute what I was executing before. It was nothing unbelievable. I was playing my best tennis playing solid, high-percentage stuff. Nice solid serve to the spot, hitting a nice solid volley. I'm not expecting aces all the time or unbelievable volleys. It just happens.

TAYLOR DENT: No. I'm just giving them a better opportunity to hit returns. Instead of me hitting the spots, I'm hitting them right in the honey hole. Now I'm playing tougher volleys, they're in position better. It's just a hundred times easier for these guys to pass me in those circumstances, as where I hit a good serve wide, they're stretched, and even if they hit it down at my feet, they're going to have to hit a running backhand pass on a dead run. I know what position I'd rather be in passing a guy, that's for sure.

TAYLOR DENT: Yeah, you know, as far as individual wins go, it's nice. I'm not going to lie. He beat me here three years ago. But like I said before, it's more of a win to build confidence on, as far as trying to turn the corner a little bit with my play. It's a nice win, but there's a bigger picture.