	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

INTERNAZIONALI D'ITALIA

May 10, 2006

Greg Rusedski

ROME, ITALY

GREG RUSEDSKI: I'm back (laughter).
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. Are you as thrilled as you were the last time you came in? Still very happy?
GREG RUSEDSKI: I'm really happy about it. I think today was harder because the expectations were to win today, you know. I think the attitude was good out there because I didn't panic about losing serve when he served for the first set and getting behind an early break.
Clay is sort of a different state of mind you have to bring out there. You have to kind of think just one point at a time, don't worry about losing serve. If I was playing on a hard court or grass, it would have been a different perception out there. That was the key for me. 5-1 up, as you saw on clay, it's never over till it's over. Played two loose points, he played a great passing shot on the backhand to save a matchpoint 5-3.
Pleased about it. Can't complain, winning two matches back-to-back. I think it was the last century I won two matches on clay (smiling). It's kind of nice. Someone reminded me that I was British No. 1 and that that was in the last century, too. It's nice to say for two centuries I was British No. 1. That was positive (smiling).
Q. (Inaudible question regarding a specific point.)
GREG RUSEDSKI: That was a great point. It was a great rally. I kept it up. Had either a good dropshot, came in, hit a good volley. That was key.
The next point after that, had that long rally where I had that loud grunt like he does. It's funny, he hits the ball and all of a sudden grunts after it. That was the key to get that early break back, the other break. I was really pleased about that.
Q. And your patience as well in the rallies from the back of the court.
GREG RUSEDSKI: Yeah, you have no choice. Today was a lot slower than Monday's conditions, so you have to kind of be willing to stay back. Plus, he takes the return so, so early that if you serve and volley, you better really hit a good, accurate serve where you can get a volley on it.
Little different tactics, but paid off for me today.
Q. Why do you think it's clicked particularly this week?
GREG RUSEDSKI: I think just freshness. I think I just felt -- you just get a feeling sometimes. Can't really explain it. It just feels good again. Your serve starts coming good, your mind feels fresh. Just seems to click. When it clicks, you just try to go with it.
Last year it was after Wimbledon when it clicked for me. May it continue to click for me from here on for the rest of the year because it really hasn't started for me until this week where I've gotten back-to-back wins. This is a bonus, and may it continue.
Q. Does the British No. 1 thing still have any resonance with you? At the end of last year when you went off to the Ukraine, it was something you really wanted.
GREG RUSEDSKI: It's come more of a surprise for me now. That's the way life works sometimes. You try for something so hard, and sometimes when you take a back seat on it, not focusing on it as much, things work out better for you.
That's what happened. I had Scarlet in the beginning of the year, and my life and thought process had changed quite a bit. So it just changes the way you think about things. I think that was the key for me, was just relaxing, enjoying my tennis, not putting pressure on it.
You know, I think Andy is going to still be British No. 1 for a long time, but it's nice to get it back for a few weeks. Hopefully, I can continue to play good tennis.
Q. What chance do you have for getting seeded for Wimbledon?
GREG RUSEDSKI: Not even looking that far. The less I think about those things, the better I do. So I'm not going to put the pressure on myself. I'm just going to enjoy my run. If I can continue to play good tennis like this in Rome and continue here and maybe a good run in Hamburg and French Open, anything can happen. But I'm not really specifically setting that as a goal right now. You know, you need a little bit of luck here and there for those things to happen. Right now I think it's something like two or three hundred points away, so it's not even in the equation yet.
Q. Is it easier to have that mindset now that you've become a dad and your life has kind of moved on in a different direction?
GREG RUSEDSKI: Yeah, I think so. Plus, the other thing is, you know, I'm going to be 33 this year. I didn't think I'd be here all the time. I thought I'd be retired by the time I was 30 (laughing).
But, you know, I had a lot of ups and downs. You kind of reflect on your career. You know, in the late '90s, from '97 to about '99, I was nearly three years in a row in the top 10. Then 2000 I had injuries. Came back, 2002, where I felt like, Okay, I'm knocking on the Top 20, on the door. Then I was about to get there when I lost to Sampras in five sets at the Open. Then I had foot surgery, knee surgery. Then I had the court case with the ATP.
So then after that, you make your comeback, you're nearly out of 165 in the world, then you come back. So your perspective is always changing all the time with it.
I think being a father, you know, you have more priorities in life. You know, your second now. It's as simple as that. Your daughter is the first thing and the most important thing. It kind of takes that sort of edge off it. But it's also time, for the first few months, is learning how to adjust to that sort of thing. You don't know what you're going to be like or how you're going to deal with kids when you grow up because you've never had them. I think it just gives you more respect for your parents, so it's a nice thing.
Q. How is she sleeping? How are you sleeping?
GREG RUSEDSKI: Oh, I'm sleeping great. I've got --
Q. Ear plugs?
GREG RUSEDSKI: No, no, no. I've got Lucy and Lucy's mum is helping out. I'm getting my rest for the matches. But it's great. I get to see her in the mornings, in the evenings, in the afternoons. She's watched two tennis matches, and every match she's watched so far, I've won. She's been pretty lucky for me.
We got a few pictures. So when she gets older, she can see she was at daddy's tennis matches when she gets older and say, you know, This is what your father used to do, if she doesn't remember.
Q. Could you just speak a little bit about perhaps your prospective opponents, Roddick and Baghdatis?
GREG RUSEDSKI: Well, I think Roddick, the key is going to be keeping the same mentality, serving well and making sure I make all the returns because I feel like I'm returning better.
Baghdatis is obviously going to be a tough match because he's very flashy, hits big ground strokes. But on the serve, you can get a little bit more into his second serve and maybe attack a little more than you can with Roddick.
So, you know, it's two different matches. You're either playing the massive serve or you're playing a guy who's really flashy from the back. Whoever it is, it's going to be a tough match. But I'm just going to keep the same approach like I did with Robredo and today and, you know, anything can happen. I can kind of have a go at it.
Q. And patience, certainly dodgy bounces out there as well. You've got to keep not worried about those things as well. He got a bit miffed and got his time violation because he was talking about the court surface. You didn't let any of that --
GREG RUSEDSKI: No, I'm not going to let it bother me. I remember, somebody reminded me, I played him four years ago and I got angry supposedly. I wasn't going to let it happen this time. I spoke to Jonas and he told me the way he kind of grunts late after the ball. After he's hit it, he kind of grunts while you're hitting it. It's all things that happen that I was prepared for.
Plus, a large Italian crowd which always loves to get behind an Italian. Whether he's ranked 200 or whether he's ranked 30 in the world, it's always tough to play because they're so passionate for their players here. I just wanted to keep it as quiet as I could out there.
Q. A year after Andy's emergence, are you enjoying having two main rivals? Does it give you more motivation?
GREG RUSEDSKI: Well, I don't think I need motivation. I'm pretty motivated with all the comebacks I've had, I think I've been written off about five times now. I've kind of got that motivation always inside of me. Once it goes, then I know it's time to hang it up and do something else.
But I'm really happy that Andy is here. We want to see young players doing well. Andy has had a phenomenal start to the year, beating Roddick and then beating Hewitt. So if it's Roddick, I'd better ask him a few helpful tips for the match.
But, no, it's great. I mean, to have three players in the top hundred is wonderful. If we could get more, that would be even better.
Q. Have you had your chat with Mr. Draper yet?
GREG RUSEDSKI: Yeah, I had a conversation with him a few weeks back, so we sat down and he asked my opinion on what I thought needed to be done at the LTA, certain way I thought things should be going. We had a nice chat for about half an hour. He's taken on board what I had to say. He's going to get back to me once he starts putting his plans in place.
I think it's a positive he's come to talk to me, talking to Tim, I think probably going to talk to Andy if he hasn't talked to him already. I think that's a positive step forward.

End of FastScripts...

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297