MONTE CARLO OPEN

April 21, 2000

Gaston Gaudio

Q. Your name, is it from an Italian origin or Spanish origin?

GASTON GAUDIO: My mother is from Spanish origin and my father, I think, is Italian.

GASTON GAUDIO: Well, we live in Argentina so I don't know.

GASTON GAUDIO: The same. He born in Argentina. I don't really don't know where the surname comes.

GASTON GAUDIO: I suppose that I have to get better my serve and I get to put a little bit stronger. Then the rest going to be confidence and experience.

GASTON GAUDIO: I start because my brother starts playing tennis before and I was following him to every club he goes and I was following him. Then he didn't play anymore and then I continued playing and doing better than him.

GASTON GAUDIO: In Buenos Aires.

GASTON GAUDIO: I don't know if he played at his level he was playing until now. The first set could have been both sides, but the second set I think he started becoming tired and I started playing my game and then it was good for me.

GASTON GAUDIO: Running.

GASTON GAUDIO: Yes, I run a lot. I hit very hard. My backhand is very good. It is better than my drive and my forehand. With my forehand I try to put the ball in. But with my backhand I have a better shot in my backhand.

GASTON GAUDIO: Yes, I think it was in Bogota, the ATP Tour in Bogota. I was training with him since three years, but we split, finished.

GASTON GAUDIO: Percentage decisions from both sides. Nothing else.

GASTON GAUDIO: I was practicing with him before when I was young, when I was 15, I started with him and then we finished because I have problems with other things because he was too busy and we couldn't travel around the world with me. Now we are together again.

GASTON GAUDIO: It is the same thing.

GASTON GAUDIO: But me too. You have to have a special feeling with your coach. You can't choose any kind of coach just because he is good. If you don't have -- if you don't trust him then it doesn't work. So it is the same thing.

GASTON GAUDIO: It is difficult. Horacio don't like it. But one week now and then it is nice.

GASTON GAUDIO: I think that it is not in my tennis. I think it is in my concentration, to put everything of me. With Horacio only, he is a very tough guy so we try to put my best; sometimes I was very lazy sometimes.

GASTON GAUDIO: Why for me it --

GASTON GAUDIO: For me and for everybody it is a surprise. Nobody thinks that I am going to get into the semifinals but we are working for that. If we get it, good. If not, we try it the next week.

GASTON GAUDIO: Yes.

GASTON GAUDIO: Yes.

GASTON GAUDIO: Last year the Argentinian guys maybe they fight each other so many times. But now, no, we are very friends and we are travelling all together and we are getting better like that.

GASTON GAUDIO: I don't have -- it is the same. With Gumi and Zabaleta and Squillara it is good.

GASTON GAUDIO: I don't have any enemy. I don't care about the ones that I don't want.

GASTON GAUDIO: I am on the net all the day long talking my friends and my mother and everything. I am always with a computer.

GASTON GAUDIO: To win this one. And then the next one. Every week it is the same.

GASTON GAUDIO: No, that was a long time ago, now our only person is Zabaleta that is getting the best ranking of us. Vilas is an idol there in Argentina, but now not anymore.

GASTON GAUDIO: Yes.

GASTON GAUDIO: Yes, we were friends three years ago, I was practicing in the same club than him. But yes he helped me so many times. I have to appreciate the things he do for me.

GASTON GAUDIO: The same things that they tell you as a coach. He so much experience, so he try to help me sometimes.

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