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ROGERS CUP

July 22, 2008

Jesse Levine

TORONTO, ONTARIO

J. LEVINE/P. Polansky
6-2, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Can we just joke around a bit?
JESSE LEVINE: Yeah.

Q. So is Nadal dead meat tomorrow?
JESSE LEVINE: Hopefully.

Q. What would be the plan in making him dead meat?
JESSE LEVINE: I'm not sure about that one right now. Going to have to go and talk it over with the coach and see what he's got in mind and see what I can pull out of my shorts tomorrow.

Q. Must be kind of fun in away to play against somebody that good.
JESSE LEVINE: Obviously I'm looking forward to playing on the stadium court against Rafael Nadal. He's the No. 2 player in the world and a great player. I always watch him on TV, so it's going to be kind of good to play him on stadium tomorrow.
Looking forward to it.

Q. What made the difference today?
JESSE LEVINE: I think I came out with a little bit more firepower at the beginning. I got off to a really good start.
Peter definitely stepped it up. In the second set he had me on the ropes a little bit. Could have gone either way there at the end. Just came up with a couple big shots and got him on the run and was happy to get through.

Q. Wasn't too tough coming back after such a difficult match yesterday?
JESSE LEVINE: Obviously yesterday I was a little bit tired after the match. Mentally it was tough because it was so close. But I just kind of tried to think about it as a confidence boost and not think about it.
Physically I was fine this morning when I woke up. I hydrated well last night. Had a nice good meal, so I was ready to go.

Q. Talk a little bit about your level of play when you were 12, 13, or whenever you left, and what the United States experience, particularly in Boca Raton, what that did for your game?
JESSE LEVINE: I first moved when I was 13 and went to the Chris Evert Academy. That was a great start for me.
But I really didn't take tennis so seriously about until I was 14, 15. I was playing high school basketball, baseball, soccer for my school team in the State. I decided to try and take tennis because I was too short for basketball and not good enough for soccer.
It was definitely a good steppingstone there at Chris Evert's. I kind of grew out of the situation. I moved over to Bollettieri Academy in Bradenton, which is where I'm based out of now, and the USTA is in Boca.

Q. I gather from friends of mine in Ottawa that you return regularly so you've maintained contact with your school friends?
JESSE LEVINE: Definitely. I keep in contact with all my friends from Ottawa. Today a couple of them were in the crowd there today trying to roar over the Peter fans, but I don't think that was working.

Q. Your game plan for tomorrow against Rafa?
JESSE LEVINE: I haven't talked about it with coach yet.

Q. Do you retain both citizenships?
JESSE LEVINE: I did, but now I travel with an American passport. I could definitely get a Canadian passport if it was needed. I was born in Ottawa, so I don't think that would be a problem.

Q. Anything could happen tonight, but if Djokovic wins then you'll be the only Canadian-born player left in the tournament. Any satisfaction about that?
JESSE LEVINE: I haven't really thought about that. Maybe then I can get those fans cheering for me. I don't know. That would be nice to get them behind me.
Definitely I think helped Peter out a lot today. Getting fans behind you is a big thing. They always get behind Frank when Frank goes out there.
I watched his match last night. Obviously I'm playing doubles with him and we're good friends. It's definitely good to see the crowd get behind them, and hopefully I can get a little bit of that behind me when I play Rafa.

Q. Have you had a match against a guy sort of this good or close to this good that you'll be able to use as a helpful point in getting ready?
JESSE LEVINE: I played Davydenko as my first professional match to the US Open, and then just last week I played Tom Haas. But Tommy I train with all the time in Bradenton so we're kind of good friends. That was a little bit different.
Davydenko was definitely rough. That was over a year ago and my first match coming out of college. I think I've come a long way since then, and hopefully I can put up a good fight tomorrow.

Q. Is there any advantage to being a left hander playing a left hander?
JESSE LEVINE: I'm going to try and stay away from that forehand, that's for sure.

End of FastScripts

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