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NASDAQ-100 OPEN

March 27, 2006

Simon Greul

MIAMI, FLORIDA

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. Congratulations.
SIMON GREUL: Thanks.
Q. You seemed very happy at the end of that match.
SIMON GREUL: Yeah, I'm very happy at the moment. You know, it's a first very big tournament for me and now I'm in the last 16, so that's unbelievable for me.
Yeah, at the beginning I was a little bit nervous on the big Stadium Court. Didn't play that good. But then second set I got in the game, played some good balls and got a little bit confident and, yeah, it was a close match in the third set. You know, I'm very happy that I won it at least.
Q. What was the difference as far as you winning, your actual tennis? What did you do right today?
SIMON GREUL: Yeah, I think I played my game. I wanted to keep the pressure on him because if he is putting the pressure on me, coming to the net, it's difficult for me. So I tried to play good balls, tried to come to the net, tried to make him run and make him some mistakes.
Yeah, that's what I wanted to do, and it worked.
Q. What is your game usually? Are you a serve and volleyer? Are you a baseliner?
SIMON GREUL: No, normally I'm baseliner, but I'm trying to go to the net more often at the moment.
Q. We haven't heard a lot from you. Why have you arrived so late?
SIMON GREUL: Yeah, yeah, last years I played on the challenger tour. I was ranked under 200, but not more than 150 or something like that.
Now, yeah, playing good at the moment. I played good last year, a lot on the challenger tour, now I'm trying to get to the bigger tournaments. Now it's working here very good.
Q. Were you injured?
SIMON GREUL: Yeah, over three years ago, I was like 150, then I was injured for some months and I dropped. Then I came up again, but not this high.
Q. This is the most money you've ever won.
SIMON GREUL: Yep (smiling).
Q. Any excitement about that or is it all tennis?
SIMON GREUL: At the moment, I don't think about the money. I just think about what happened and the next match perhaps.
I know it's a lot of money for me and I'm happy, but I don't know what I want to do with it. I don't know.
Q. What about South Florida? You've been very successful here recently.
SIMON GREUL: Yeah, I like it to play here, but I like to play also in other places, so I don't know why it's good here for me.
Q. Can you tell us a little bit about you as a person, where have you started to play tennis, your family? Have you always wanted to be a tennis player?
SIMON GREUL: Well, I started to play tennis when I was six. My father and my mother also played tennis but, you know, a little bit, just for fun.
Yeah, I'm playing -- I'm practicing at the tennis academy in Stuttgart in Germany for 15 years or more, so I was all the time there. Yeah, I went to school till, I don't know how you call it in English, the highest, what you can do in Germany, it's called Abitur. Then I had to go to the Army for two months, then I started with 22 play on the tour. Four years later, I'm here.
Q. Are you single? Are you married?
SIMON GREUL: No, I'm single.
Q. And what other things do you like to do besides tennis?
SIMON GREUL: I like to watch basketball. It's here, I can watch a lot in USA. In Germany they don't show it on TV.
Yeah, like to go out a little bit, like to play football -- soccer, it's called soccer.
Yeah, most of the time I play tennis.
Q. Are you watching the NCAA tournament?
SIMON GREUL: I'm watching the NBA. I'm a fan of Dallas Mavericks because of Dirk Nowitski (phonetic spelling), you know, big German guy (smiling).
Q. You are from Stuttgart?
SIMON GREUL: Yeah, from Stuttgart.
Q. The city of Stuttgart?
SIMON GREUL: Yeah.
Q. What do your parents do or what did they do for work?
SIMON GREUL: My father is a teacher and my mother is working for you know the city, I don't know how you call it in English, the organization of the city. I don't know how.
Q. What kind of teacher is your dad?
SIMON GREUL: English, History.
Q. For older kids?
SIMON GREUL: Yeah.
Q. You said you were nervous in the beginning of the match.
SIMON GREUL: Yes.
Q. What did you tell yourself?
SIMON GREUL: At the beginning, told me to stay calm, to play my game, focus on each point and, yeah, didn't work that well first set. I was very happy when I made my first game at the beginning of the second set, and then it was a little bit easier for me. I was in the game. Then I played well.
Q. Did you ever think that you could win when you won that first game? I mean...
SIMON GREUL: No. I just was happy that I won one game and I said, "Okay, now everything can happen. I have one game."
And then I made the break and then I thought, "Okay, come on, focus on your service games," and it worked.
Q. When you came here as a qualifier, same question, did you think you could get this far?
SIMON GREUL: No, no. Of course not. I played a good first qualification match, and then the second, qualification final, I had to save two matchpoints. Yeah, then I was happy to be in the main draw, Srichaphan in the first round. I thought this was very difficult, but I played good.
Yeah, I'm confident. Good.
Q. What are you doing better now?
SIMON GREUL: I don't know. I don't make --
Q. Is it your attitude, your game?
SIMON GREUL: I don't know. I think most of it is the confidence. Yeah, perhaps I made not that much easy errors than before, but, yeah.
Q. You're very comfortable playing an all-court game. You seem very comfortable at the net. Has that always been the case?
SIMON GREUL: Yeah, I wanted to go to the net, trying to improve my play at the net. It was good today, I think.
Q. Can we ask who inspired you to play tennis rather than soccer when you were a kid? Was it Boris?
SIMON GREUL: Yeah, of course. It was, at this time, everybody wanted to be like Boris, wanted to play tennis. But, yeah, perhaps, yeah.
My parents played tennis, so I came to the sport, and I liked it.
Q. You seem to use a very, very large racquet. Is that the case?
SIMON GREUL: Large racquet? It's a little bit longer, but it's not especially large.
Q. What strings do you use?
SIMON GREUL: Pacific.
Q. Not Luxilon, the clay courters' strings?
SIMON GREUL: No.
Q. Being on Stadium Court, what kind of experience is that for you here? That's high-profile.
SIMON GREUL: Yeah, at beginning it was a little bit strange. I played on the other smaller courts for my matches. And, yeah, it's a good feeling to play there. I told you at the beginning, I was a little bit nervous, but for me it's great to play there.
Q. What did you know about Tim Henman before the match?
SIMON GREUL: I knew a lot about him. I saw him often playing. I thought he's playing more serve and volley, but he stayed at the baseline and came then to the net with backhand slice.
Yeah, I wanted to keep the pressure on him, that he has to run, that he has to make the mistakes perhaps.
Yeah, from the second set on, I did it very well, I think.
Q. You said you knew a lot about Henman, but from television?
A. Yeah, yeah, from television. I saw him playing in Wimbledon.
Q. But now he was live in front of you.
SIMON GREUL: Yeah.
Q. Your ranking will go up quite a bit after this. Talk about that. It will go to at least 105.
SIMON GREUL: Yeah, that's fine (smiling). Yeah, it's good. I hope to, perhaps, get more points here, but I don't think about this at the moment, which will be my ranking next week.
Q. Would you say it's a surprise to have such a successful run here, or were you ready for that? Did you know that you were going better and better and better recently?
SIMON GREUL: Yeah. The last weeks I thought I'm getting better. I played a good challenger before this tournament.
Yeah, but I didn't thought that it could work like this now. I wanted to qualify for main draw, and then wanted to see what's happening. It's great.
Q. Did you think it would be a bigger step up from challenger to here?
SIMON GREUL: It's a big...?
Q. Bigger step up in quality and class.
SIMON GREUL: Yeah, it's different, but at some challengers there are almost the same players - not the top, but about 50 or 60, 70. So I thought I could play like this players.
But to play with, I don't know, Hrbaty or Srichaphan, I didn't knew because I never played them. I thought and I hoped that I could work it, but yeah.
Q. What is your schedule, tournament schedule, after this? Where do you go next?
SIMON GREUL: I entered some challengers in Mexico, but I don't know if I go there. Perhaps I'm going home and prepare for clay court, play then Monte-Carlo, stuff like this. I have to see.
Q. You will play the winner of the Verdasco-Roddick match. Have you played both of them?
SIMON GREUL: No.
Q. Will you stay and watch?
SIMON GREUL: Yeah, I will watch them a little bit. I saw them playing. I think they played in Indian Wells against each other, so I saw it on TV.
Yeah, I will watch them a little bit.
Q. Who would you rather play? Can you talk about each one and what you know.
SIMON GREUL: For me, it doesn't matter. It would be great to play against Andy here in Miami, but, yeah, if he loses...
Q. Why would it be great to play against Andy?
SIMON GREUL: You know, he's number, I don't know, 3 or 4 in the world. I think it would be a great experience for me, and I would like to play him.
Q. The other thing is, some of the players go and do different things during the week if they have time. Have you done anything other than tennis here this week?
SIMON GREUL: No, I didn't do anything. Yeah, when I had the day off, I came here to practice a little bit, be a little bit here around, go to the Internet, then I went to the hotel and, yeah, didn't do anything else.
Q. You speak excellent English.
SIMON GREUL: Yeah, perhaps I learned it from my father a little bit (smiling).
Q. Is your father...
SIMON GREUL: He's an English teacher (laughing).
Q. Have you ever played a first set where you have been that emphatically beaten? I know you had a Love-6 first set, but you won four points in that first set.
SIMON GREUL: Yeah (smiling).
Q. I mean, have you ever experienced anything like that before?
SIMON GREUL: No. I lost -- last year it was the same in another match, but I think I made more than four points there.
Yeah, I was nervous a little bit. He played good. I had no rhythm in my strokes and, yeah, I tried to make one game (smiling). It happened then in the beginning of the second set, and then it was a little bit easier for me.
Q. Your father being a teacher, what did he say when you told him you wanted to be a professional athlete? Did he say, "Yes, go," or did he say, "Be careful, you have to go to school before"?
SIMON GREUL: He said, "Yeah, you can try it, but then we have to see how it works", yeah. "Perhaps it's not working, you can study something," or, yeah.
Q. Last four years, he never told you to come back?
SIMON GREUL: We talked about it, especially when I was injured and dropped to, I don't know, 500 or like this. It's not easy.
But, yeah, we made the decision that we go on and, yeah, at the end now I'm very happy that it's like this at the moment.
Q. What was the injury?
SIMON GREUL: I had, I don't know, I cracked my ankle. I don't know how...
Q. Fractured, broken?
SIMON GREUL: Not broken.
Q. Stress fracture?
SIMON GREUL: Can be, I don't know what it's called in English.
Q. Say it in Deutch.
SIMON GREUL: (Speaking German).
Q. It's a torn ligament, but it's the ankle, not the knee.
SIMON GREUL: No, it's the ankle.
Q. Right or left?
SIMON GREUL: Right.
Q. Have you ever played any Bundes League?
SIMON GREUL: Yeah, I played -- last year I played second Bundes League for a club near Stuttgart, it's Reidling (phonetic spelling). We went up, so this year we playing first league.

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