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THE STELLA ARTOIS CHAMPIONSHIPS

June 13, 2006

Jamie Baker

LONDON, ENGLAND

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Obviously, a really tough match to start with, wasn't it?
JAMIE BAKER: Yeah, I mean, not ideal. I think his game probably is best suited to grass, so I knew it was always going to be a hard match, especially I managed to watch him a bit at Surbiton last week. And the key thing for me I knew would be how I settled in, how quickly I was able to settle in to the match. That didn't get off to the best start.
I mean, after being 40-15 up on my first service game, to then lose that game, couldn't have been a worse start really. Because having had the chance to take that game, to then be a break down so early was quite unsettling.

Q. Obviously, it's your first match on the ATP Tour. How nervous were you?
JAMIE BAKER: Yeah, I was more excited than nervous, to be honest. I wasn't -- I mean, it felt different to play in the sort of ten, 15,000 and even some 25,000 challengers that I've played against. But the way I was looking at it was just how big an opportunity it is for me.

Q. How about playing in front of a crowd? They tried to get behind you.
JAMIE BAKER: Yeah, that was the worst thing, I couldn't play a bit better for them. The times when I was playing my best tennis in the match, the noise, even from what would be a relatively small crowd, was pretty vocal.

Q. You talked about Mardy's ability on grass. You haven't played much on grass yourself.
JAMIE BAKER: No, because like last year -- the last time I played was two years ago for the junior circuit in Roehampton, and then Wimbledon Juniors. Last year I was on a ranking-points mission to get my ranking into position, so I missed out on the grass.

Q. Did it feel unfamiliar to you?
JAMIE BAKER: I got quite a lot of time to practice beforehand, but obviously there's nothing quite like matches. Practice is practice; a match is a different thing.
But, no, it's not anything that crossed my mind really in the last -- today anyway.

Q. You seemed, in the first set, slightly hesitant coming forward into the net. As the match went on, when you came to the net, you hit a few good volleys.
JAMIE BAKER: Yeah, yeah. To be honest with you, I was surprised at how slow the court was at the start. I mean, even the practice courts here are quite fast.
Although I have -- I played in -- two years ago I played in a junior event here, but I couldn't remember them being that slow. I think they're probably slower since then. So that was, again, another thing I had to try and get used to.
And sort of with him, I was expecting him to actually come in a lot, a lot more than he did. That was obviously down to the pace of the court as well.
As you say, that was how I was gonna win more points and actually get into the match, is if I could take the initiative and points. Because on grass it's very hard to turn the point around after -- if you sort of get two, three, four feet behind the baseline, it's quite hard to turn it around.

Q. How much of a weight off your mind is it to get the Wimbledon wildcard?
JAMIE BAKER: Uhm, I mean, obviously, I was one of three players in contention for it, but wildcards is not something that I spend any time thinking about. I see them as absolute gifts really, and I don't think anybody's attitude should be that they expect one.
So when I got the call, obviously I was delighted that I'm going to get another opportunity like this. But it's not anything that -- it was something that was a weight off, but never -- nothing as big as you say, a weight off my mind.

Q. Do you agree with the slightly tougher attitude of the new regime of the LTA that you've got to earn these things?
JAMIE BAKER: Yeah, I think obviously the best way to get into these tournaments are by your own -- on your own accord with your own ranking. And, you know, there's only four countries in the world that have Grand Slam tournaments, so these are opportunities that we're getting which players from countries that don't have Grand Slam tournaments don't even get. So I think it's an absolute privilege to be given a leg up into these tournaments.

Q. Where do you go to prepare from here? Nottingham?
JAMIE BAKER: I'll be playing Nottingham next week, qualifying. Then I'll get as much practice as I can, I think. Probably practice a few best-of-five-set matches. I've done one already in preparation for it.

Q. Obviously, today Fish's serve was a big difference. But once you were actually in the rallies, you were giving him a good game definitely.
JAMIE BAKER: Yeah.

Q. How much confidence does that give you, knowing you can kind of match the best players?
JAMIE BAKER: Yeah, I think -- I don't think there's a big difference between players of -- from about 300 to players who are in the sort of -- obviously the top 20, I would sort of single out. But players who are in the top hundred and players at 300, I don't think the difference is actually that big. I think there's actually, within certain matches, just lots of fine-tuning to do with decision-making.
And I would say that, as you say, if somebody's walking by who doesn't know the score, if we were having a baseline rally, nobody would be able to tell who was the higher ranked. But when you get into a match and you have decisions and, as you say, I was a bit hesitant coming forward, he wasn't, and those little things can turn matches.
All these guys that are hanging around the locker room upstairs, you know, ranked, I mean, there's six of the top 10 players in the world, they're all just the fastest learners. It's as simple as that really.
I don't see why if I can get myself into more opportunities like this, why I can't adapt just as quickly as I have done from 10,000 events, 15,000 events. It's the same thing. The process is exactly the same.

Q. Did you enjoy the crowd? You said they were noisy. Did that inspire you, or did it make you a little nervous?
JAMIE BAKER: No, it's totally a hundred percent inspiring. I was just disappointed I couldn't, as you see, get into it a bit more. His serve was the biggest factor in that. I only had two breakpoints in the whole match, and he had, what, an ace in one of them, and the first one I just missed the return.
So they were trying their best, but I just couldn't quite get into it enough.

Q. Does it whet your appetite for Wimbledon, though? You'll have more crowd support there.
JAMIE BAKER: Yeah, even playing the Juniors there last year, I just find it brilliant to be on the court and you don't know people and they're shouting your name for you. You think, Who's that? I just find that -- it's just another privileged thing to have such big tournaments in this country, to have home support.

Q. Who was here today? Your dad was here?
JAMIE BAKER: Yeah, my dad, Martin and Keith, coaches.

Q. Who's your coach at the moment?
JAMIE BAKER: Two coaches, Martin Weston and Keith Reynolds. I do most of my traveling with Keith. He'd be at sort of 90% of the tournaments with me, and Martin spends most of his time in Nottingham. He's a head coach there.

End of FastScripts...

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