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January 12, 2008

Dmitry Tursunov

SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. No breaks of serve. No breakpoints. Strange final, but good outcome for you.
DMITRY TURSUNOV: You're surprised that Chris didn't get broken this week? Well, no, I mean I think his main weapon is his serve, and that's what he relies mostly on.
If his groundstroke game was a bit better I think he would be a very difficult. He's already difficult to play against because you really have to rely on a lot of luck in tiebreakers.
God forbid he gets one ball in the court and you're not prepared to play it. You're really going to be having a difficult time getting one of his serves.
So I mean, I'm not really surprised that there were no breaks, because that's kind of his game. He doesn't really -- he goes for a lot of risky shots on the groundstroke on the returns, and he knows that he's not going to get broken too often. That's pretty much the scenario. That was very expected.

Q. You said yesterday you wanted to serve well, and you did that. Any adjustments that you did to your game just to take him on?
DMITRY TURSUNOV: No. I think the main concern was -- besides serving well, the main concern was for me to not give him any free points. Because if I give him a lot of unforced errors, there's very little chance that I will ever break him.
It's just really to limit my unforced errors and make him play and go for shots that he might not be able to make.

Q. What do you consider to be your biggest weapon, because service was important for you as well?
DMITRY TURSUNOV: Yeah, it's hard for me to tell because, again, I really don't see myself from the outside. But I would say that I'm fairly comfortable on the ground, more comfortable than at the net. I'm trying to work on my net game, but that's kind of limping along compared to groundstrokes and serve and the return.
Again, this week it's all been kind of put together in the package. Before one of the weapons was working and one was misfiring, so a lot times you go into the battle with a grenade launcher and kind of -- and you're in close quarters.
You really have to not only have good weapons, but also know how to use them. I think that was the problem in the past, and I'm slowly trying to put it all together. This week is, I think a result of work that I've been putting in on getting everything together.

Q. Have you ever had better preparation before a Grand Slam? Apart from get valuable court time, it's been hot here and it will be in Melbourne.
DMITRY TURSUNOV: Well, it's hard to say it's good preparation or bad preparation. You can look at it both ways: You can say the better preparation is when you're rested and not mentally drained from competition. At the same time, you can say that, well, you have all this confidence going into a tournament.
I think it's really best not to even look at it in anyway, but just to come out and -- this is what it is. I happen to do well in this tournament and go far and play all these matches, so I really can't complain about gaining points or being mentally or physically tired going into the Grand Slam.
You know, I think that, again, my first round match at the Australian Open is going to be a very difficult, Xavier Malisse. You know, every single player I think can do a lot of damage.
I think the main concern for a lot of players is going to be their fitness level. Depends how he's ready to play, because he's been injured for quite sometime. Hopefully he's not ready to play.

Q. What are your expectations next week?
DMITRY TURSUNOV: It's hard to expect. Just because I did well here it's not guaranteeing me an easy match in Melbourne. It's going to be probably hotter than it is here. I played a lot of night matches here, so from that point of view I'm not too physically tired.
If anything, I'm expecting myself to go into my matches with the same -- I don't know what the word is. You know, this week I've been doing -- what I've been doing really well is preparing for my matches and going out with a certain plan of what I want to achieve or what I want to do on the court.
I think that is been helping me to do well, so I'm hoping that I'm going to be able to do that as well in Melbourne. But, you know, every now and then you get a few brain farts, and hopefully it's not going to be on the day that I'm playing.
Basically, yeah, that's really the only thing that I'm trying to do. If I'm going to do that well, then I'm going to do well. If your opponent comes out playing great, there's really not much you can do. You can prepare all day and night and still come out and lose.

Q. What will you do you to recharge your batteries?
DMITRY TURSUNOV: Stick my fingers in the socket. There is no magic pill or no magic answer to that. I'm going to try to maximize whatever I have available to me. I'm traveling with a trainer, so if there's anything that needs to be done physically, prepare fitness-wise, he's there for me.
I think that's been a great asset for my game, more so than actually a coach. If your body is not able to do what you're asking it to do, then it doesn't really matter what kind of strategy you're applying if you're not capable of achieving it.
But, you know, I've got a 7:00 flight in the morning tomorrow. Not sure how much sleep I'm going to get today. Pretty much have to have in-room dining and, you know, pack and go to sleep early so that I can wake up in the morning.

Q. Are you going to take the trophy with you?
DMITRY TURSUNOV: No. It's overweight. You have no idea how much they're charging these days. $20 a kilo. You guys are insane. I guess if you pay more the planes fly better. I don't know.

End of FastScripts

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