TMS - MADRID

October 13, 2003

Nicolas Massu

NICOLAS MASSU: I think here all players are tough; they're all good. They're top players. There's no easy match, especially on this surface. It's very important to take the serve and return it. I think I played well.

NICOLAS MASSU: Yes. I'm playing well, my best tennis, in fact. Maybe this is not the best surface for me, but time will improve it. After the years, I find myself more comfortable. I enjoy playing here. I take it as a way of learning. Today, I played really well, and that's been an important step for me.

NICOLAS MASSU: I think everyone has their own way of playing. It's not a matter of technique or strength. It's simply that I won the tiebreak in an important game. That was the difference.

NICOLAS MASSU: I'm happy. I'm fit. I'm physically well. Thank God I've had no injuries lately. I want to give the best of myself, to play as good as I can, and to leave my soul on the court. Then results may arrive or not. But now I want to give the best of myself and have faith in what I can do in this tournament.

NICOLAS MASSU: I'm telling you, we have the 50 best players in the world here. You're always going to have to play with a difficult player. We all know Guga. We all know he's a great player. But I have to do what I know, try to play my best, even if it's a difficult match because it's going to be a difficult match. I have to have faith in myself, as well as he has faith in himself. We're going to see tomorrow. I'm telling you, the winner is going to have another difficult round afterwards with Roddick or anyone who wins afterwards. These tournaments are very difficult. They're tough. The winner is not the best one actually, but the one who plays best the day of the match.

NICOLAS MASSU: It's not really important. I'm now in the Top 20. When this tournament was decided, I was top 40. So I think I deserve to be here because I was worse some time ago, now I have improved. So I think I deserve to be here. I have to take advantage of it. I have to keep up with my ranking, because a slight error can bring you down. Just don't have to think about being among the Top 20 or 100, that doesn't matter. You just have to play good.

NICOLAS MASSU: Well, that's something that doesn't really matter to me. I need to keep up with my game. I'd rather be No. 2 in Chile and No. 1 in the world. Actually, I don't care about numbers right now. My goal right now is to be Top 10, and I don't care about the rest.