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WIMBLEDON

June 25, 2008

Chris Eaton

LONDON, ENGLAND

BRYAN-BRYAN/Eaton-Slabinsky
7-5, 6-1, 6-4

Q. If you win tomorrow, how are you going to cope with all this?
CHRIS EATON: We'll deal with that when it comes to it.

Q. Are you enjoying it?
CHRIS EATON: Yeah, very much so, very much so.

Q. What did you think this morning when you picked up the newspapers, flipped to the back page and saw pictures of yourself?
CHRIS EATON: It's brilliant. It's all good fun. In the newspapers it's cool, but I'm a tennis player and I'm just sort of focusing on my tennis.

Q. How determined are you to make sure that it's not just these few days that you're in the public eye?
CHRIS EATON: I mean, as I say, I'm a tennis player and this is what I do, so every time I step on the tennis court I want to win the match. It's not because it's Wimbledon that I want to win more, you know.
Of course it's special, but every single time I step on the tennis court I want to win the match.

Q. Does the grass suit you then?
CHRIS EATON: Yeah, very much so. Yeah, I mean, you can serve and volley on the grass and it's still soft enough. So, yeah, it's perfect.

Q. You've played seven matches so far?
CHRIS EATON: Seven matches so far.

Q. And the one tomorrow will be your eighth?
CHRIS EATON: Yeah.

Q. How confident are you?
CHRIS EATON: I'm feeling good, you know. I'm trying not to think about sort of the match in itself and who I'm playing. Just concentrate on my own game, and everything else will take care of itself.

Q. What will you do tonight to prepare?
CHRIS EATON: Not a lot. I think I'll just, you know, relax, maybe watch a film. Try to get a good early night and just try to relax.

Q. Could you tell me a bit about your training regime. What specific training have you done in the buildup to Wimbledon?
CHRIS EATON: Actually I've played a lot of matches in the buildup to Wimbledon. I mean, last year I had an injury after I played Wimbledon quallies, and I just wanted to make up for that with playing a lot of matches.

Q. But in your sort of daily routine, is it press-ups, sit-ups, sprints, that sort of thing? What's your daily routine?
CHRIS EATON: I'm doing -- at the moment, sort of during the tournament, I'm doing a lot of stuff. Obviously nothing straining, but I'm doing stuff to keep my shoulder intact, stuff with bands, resistance bands, that sort of stuff. Yeah, stretching a lot, physio treatment. The guy helping me out is fantastic.
Keeping everything intact, doing a lot of core stuff. Because you never know. You can slip, and everything has got to be as loose as it can be.

Q. How many hours a day would you do for that sort of training?
CHRIS EATON: I'm probably doing about an hour a day. They're long days here.

Q. And before you were doing that how many hours would you do if you're not in the middle of Wimbledon?
CHRIS EATON: If I'm not in a tournament?

Q. Yeah.
CHRIS EATON: I'm probably playing four hours tennis, maybe an hour and a half in the gym every day, something like that.

Q. Do you have any sort of superstitions or practices before you go into a match, especially big ones such as tomorrow?
CHRIS EATON: No superstitions as such. I like to throw a rugby ball around. I have a little rugby ball. I like to throw that around.
But that's more just to relax and warm the shoulder up and things like that. There's nothing that I can really think of.

Q. No music that you sort of cling onto?
CHRIS EATON: No. No, I'm quite a relaxed guy. I like to sort of stay relaxed on the court and just let my personality and my tennis deal with everything else.

Q. You seem fairly relaxed. Obviously going into a game tomorrow where the focus and attention will be on you, whereas perhaps your last match it wasn't. Are you the type of player who thrives on that type of atmosphere?
CHRIS EATON: Who knows? I mean, it hasn't...

Q. It's something you've never experienced before?
CHRIS EATON: Exactly. At the end of the day, I felt a bit of pressure when I was going out. I expected myself to put in a decent performance last time I played, and I handled that pretty well. I don't expect anything different from myself tomorrow.

Q. How can the spectators help you tomorrow?
CHRIS EATON: Oh, I mean, love a repeat performance. They were fantastic yesterday. There was so much noise and everybody was so excited, so happy. If they're enjoying themselves I'm going to enjoy myself, and if I'm enjoying myself I'm going to play some good tennis.

Q. You want them to call your name?
CHRIS EATON: Yeah, it's fantastic.

Q. We noticed at the end of your press conference last night you made a brief comment about Tursunov. Have you researched him today, looked into his form?
CHRIS EATON: No. I've seen him play a few times, and it's pretty obvious that he's a pretty explosive guy. He's got some good weapons.
But, again, I'm not too worried about sort of what he can do. Because if I can look after my own serve and look after my own game, then I think I'm in with a shout.

Q. Have you looked past that round in the draw?
CHRIS EATON: Not really. I mean, I know who's there.

Q. It's Andy Roddick.
CHRIS EATON: Yeah.

Q. Presumably if you got him, that would be a terrific...
CHRIS EATON: I think we'll worry about that when we need to.

Q. If your success continues, would you buying new wing mirror or a new car?
CHRIS EATON: I don't know. Maybe some better duct tape. No, I like it. I think it's cool.

Q. Were they dancing in the streets at East Horsely last night?
CHRIS EATON: I don't know. I think there were a lot of people from East Horsely watching yesterday. But, no, I was trying to get to bed. I only got home about 11:15 last night.

Q. I wasn't suggesting that you were there dancing.
CHRIS EATON: No, it's definitely good stuff.

Q. There's obviously a lot of interest in you and your background and stuff. You went to the same school as Tim Henman. Is much made of Tim being an ex-pupil while you were in school?
CHRIS EATON: Not really. Quite a few people were sort of -- quite a few people made the connections. There were still some teachers around from when he was there.
But the fact that he was there actually made the school fantastic for me, because they were pretty flexible with what I had to do. They let me go traveling and play tournaments when I needed to and they were fantastic with that.
So, yeah, it did help in a massive way.

Q. Can you use him as an inspiration, how close he was to you?
CHRIS EATON: Definitely. He's a phenomenal player and I love watching him play. I play pretty similarly. I love to get to the net and my volleys are pretty decent.
Yeah, I can use him. Hopefully I can have a decent relationship with him. I know I'm okay at the moment, and hopefully he can help me through my career.

Q. I know you're pretty studious and you get decent grades. Can you remember what your GCSE is?
CHRIS EATON: No, I mean, actually my GCSE is quite lucky because I didn't go to school very much. I was playing a lot of tennis tournaments. I think I was 30 days of 100 or something like that.
My mom is a teacher and she traveled with me for a bit and she helped me with that. I did okay, but I can't remember exactly what they were.

Q. What's the school called?
CHRIS EATON: Reeds, in Oxshott.

Q. Will they be erecting a big screen in their assembly hall tomorrow?
CHRIS EATON: Who knows. That would be fantastic, but I don't know.

Q. Who will be there tomorrow from your family and friends?
CHRIS EATON: I think everybody who witnessed it last time will want another piece. But I think my parents, my brother. Unfortunately one of them is traveling at the moment, so he can't be there.

Q. Which one will be there?
CHRIS EATON: The younger one. I think pretty much the same sort of people will be around.

Q. Will your girlfriend be there tomorrow?
CHRIS EATON: Probably, yeah, I think so.

Q. Did she manage to watch you today in the doubles?
CHRIS EATON: No, she went home.

Q. Is there any reason?
CHRIS EATON: No, I think she was just tired.

Q. Prior to Wimbledon and the quallies, what was your best result?
CHRIS EATON: Semifinals in a future, that sort of stuff.

Q. Where was that?
CHRIS EATON: In Israel, nothing great. No, this has been great. This has been fantastic, all my hard work sort of coming together.

Q. Have you been given any indication whether you're likely to be on a show court again?
CHRIS EATON: I don't know. I don't think you can know until the schedule is out.

Q. Can you tell us where your met your girlfriend?
CHRIS EATON: I met her on New Year's Eve, but I'd rather not talk about it.

Q. We've seen some great pictures on the internet. What kind of modeling does she do?
CHRIS EATON: She's just sort of floating around. She likes to -- she's got some pictures and she just has a bit of fun with it.

Q. Is it a career aspiration for her?
CHRIS EATON: No, I don't think so. You know, I'll let her do what she likes to do and I'll concentrate on my tennis.

Q. Did you notice a difference today with the crowd when you were playing your doubles match, because obviously with the amount of attention that's been on you today since your win last night?
CHRIS EATON: Not really. I mean, obviously it was a smaller court. But, no, it was a great experience to go out there against those two, best players in the world at doubles.
That was a fantastic experience, and it was good because I felt pretty comfortable again on the court. It's just building confidence, sort of playing in those surroundings, which I can bring into tomorrow.

Q. You sort of grinned quite a lot through the match even when you were sort of losing points. Are you sort of loving this experience? You seem to be.
CHRIS EATON: Yeah, I'm definitely loving the experience. When you play the world No. 1s it's fantastic, playing them with a good friend. You just have a great time out there.

Q. What are your thoughts for after Wimbledon? I know you spoke yesterday about you're determined to keep your performances up and your focus up. When you go from the All England Club, can you give us an idea what tournament you might be playing in next?
CHRIS EATON: Yeah, I'm having a look at the ATP in Newport. That's on the grass, as well.

Q. That will be your first in the States?
CHRIS EATON: I'll play quallies there if I can get in there, and then there's a challenger in Manchester on the grass. I'm going to keep to the surface as much as possible, because I'm obviously getting the results. Then after that, we'll see.

Q. Have you spoken to Henman, Rusedski, or Murray about their expectations of you now?
CHRIS EATON: No, not about that. Greg spoke to me earlier. He gave me a few little words on Tursunov. Andy said well done yesterday. Tim said well done this morning.
No, I'm just still trying to keep it low key, and I don't really feel the pressure at the moment. It's not like I'm expected to win the next match, but I expect myself to put in another great performance.

Q. Have you been approached by any more sponsors or anything like that?
CHRIS EATON: No, not that I know of. I'm just concentrating on my own tennis.

End of FastScripts

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