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U.S. OPEN

September 5, 2009

Jesse Witten

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

N. DJOKOVIC/J. Witten
6-7, 6-3, 7-6, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Novak said after, on court, that it was hard to tell by your match who was No. 4 out there. Did you ever feel that way?
JESSE WITTEN: I don't know. I don't think I played my best, and I'm sure he didn't play his best. I mean, that's why we play tennis. Nobody's the best every day.

Q. Were there moments where you were thinking, I'm with this guy? You forget he's No. 4?
JESSE WITTEN: Yeah, I mean, once I started playing, I mean, we're having rallies, and you don't really think of the rankings. You're playing the guy, what he does, how he plays. You're thinking strategy more than numbers.
Once we got there in there, I felt pretty comfortable. I wasn't getting outplayed too much. I felt like I was right at home a little bit.

Q. Wonderful adventure is over. How do you reflect on it?
JESSE WITTEN: Oh, jeez. I don't know. I've been off the court for seven minutes. (laughter.)

Q. These are always unfair questions.
JESSE WITTEN: That's a tough one. I mean, I'm ready for a day off. I feel like -- usually when people put in 14 days they're almost done with the tournament. Usually don't play five matches just to end in week one.
But I'm happy to be a part of week one, and especially here in New York at the Open. It's a great experience, and hopefully I can keep it going and get back to where I am now.

Q. Understanding that you haven't had a whole lot of time to reflect, but is this a potential career changer for you?
JESSE WITTEN: I mean, I don't know if one or two matches really does that. I hope it is, because I mean, I don't want to deal with being ranked 200, 300 anymore. It would be nice to be able to use this. I mean, it kind of helps to see where I am, playing with some guys that are in the top 100 and top 10 a little bit.
Just being comfortable -- that was my biggest thing usually is I feel like I don't belong was my mindset, I mean. I never really said it or tell people that. Just in my mind I don't know how good I am, so it's good to kind of see that I can play with these guys and I kind of belong a little bit here on the stage.
Hopefully I can stay a little longer.

Q. What were those people yelling in the stands? We were all trying to figure it out.
JESSE WITTEN: The crazy ones?

Q. Sounded like J something?
JESSE WITTEN: J-Dub. Those were college friends. They started that then and they haven't stopped, so...
It's nice to have.

Q. Do you have any idea how many college friends, family members all were here today?
JESSE WITTEN: I had 22 tickets and that wasn't enough, so I don't even know. I tried not to deal with it today, because usually I'm getting texts the morning of. I'm like, Okay, I can't do it. I put one of them in charge of it. 25, 30, maybe.
I had some other random friends that had to buy tickets. It was nice to have them. I'm glad they came and supported me. It helps a lot. It's just a great, great tournament and great experience.

Q. When you talk about measuring yourself against these top guys for a couple of matches and feeling like you can hang in there, does it also help you identify, Hey, I've got to work on this specifically?
JESSE WITTEN: Yeah, there's always something, I mean, you need to work on. But for me, it was -- it's playing smarter tennis. Everybody can hit most of the shots these days and they're pretty quick, so it's a matter of hitting them at the right times and playing the right ball at the right times, which is the biggest thing, I think, for me.
These guys have already figured that out. I'm a late bloomer, I guess. I should have figured this out a few years ago. Better now than ever.

Q. You said even on the court that you were talking about retirement earlier this year. Now is that completely out the window, or are you thinking, Now that I've done this, this proves that I should keep going?
JESSE WITTEN: It makes me want to keep playing. It gives me some money to keep playing. So now I can afford to keep playing for the rest of the year, at least.
Yeah, hopefully it gives me some opportunities to keep playing. I love tennis. I love competing. It's a tough lifestyle obviously when you're in the lower levels. Traveling you're by yourself a lot. You're in random places usually alone. Sometimes a coach, some guys you know.
It's a lonely sport when you're down there trying to grind your way up. It's mentally very challenging. I think it's helped me out this week being a long week and a half or whatnot with all the fans and all the adversity. I hope that helps me. I hope I can keep playing.

Q. Can you tell us just a little bit on the financial piece, do you have like a clothing sponsor? A shoe sponsor? A racquet provider and all that?
JESSE WITTEN: Yeah, I have racquets. I got Wilson. I've had them since I was 13, 14. They've helped me out tremendously. I was with Nike and actually right -- the week before I got here -- actually the day before qualifying started I got cut, because -- well, my contract was up, so I knew it was kind of coming with the times.
A lot of people kind of got cut back. That never feels very good. But, I mean, it makes me try to prove to some people that I could wear some clothes.

Q. So Nike contract was both shoes and clothes?
JESSE WITTEN: Yeah, yeah, it was everything to play.

Q. May I ask your shirt? I can't see a logo.
JESSE WITTEN: This is just a white T-shirt. (laughter.)

Q. It is?
JESSE WITTEN: Yeah. I bought this.

Q. Bought it like at Sports Authority or something?
JESSE WITTEN: This one? Somewhere in the mall. I think it was like 10 bucks, but it's comfortable. I go for comfort. Doesn't matter where it's from.

Q. Was there ever any football in your background?
JESSE WITTEN: You know, you're not the first person to ask. Nope. No, I mean, I've played with friends and grew up playing every sport. Nothing organized. Nothing -- I wasn't a running back. Wasn't a lineman. Didn't play rugby.
No, it's just who I am.

Q. Has adidas or K Swiss or Fila...
JESSE WITTEN: I've kind of stayed out of it. I mean, I have an agent. I actually just picked up a new one with Kaybee Sports, a new company. Hopefully they're taking care of something. Hopefully something can come out of it.
If not, I got enough Nike stuff lying around to get me through the year. I'll be all right on way or another.

Q. You had double faults at a couple crucial points.
JESSE WITTEN: Couple? Like every time?
I don't know what's happening. I think I went a string there with like 20 misserves in a row it felt like. I don't know what happened. It's been good. I've had a little left leg trouble. I don't know if that's the reason. I'm not making excuses. It's the only thing I can think of. My toss was all over the place.
The consistency has just been terrible. It really let me down. Let me down today. It's kind of been struggling the whole tournament, and somehow I've been able to overcome that till now. You can't do that when you're playing a guy like Novak. You can't give him free points and loose errors like that. It ended up costing me.

Q. Is it hard to keep your enthusiasm when those points, had to surrender the points like that?
JESSE WITTEN: Doesn't feel good to hit a couple of serves. I don't think it was anything to do with the crowd or the situation. I think it was fundamentals, and I didn't have it.
I don't know. Last week it was great. This week it wasn't.

Q. What's your next tournament that you're scheduled to be in?
JESSE WITTEN: Supposed to play a challenger in Tulsa next weekend.

Q. How do you think that will be? To go from this, from Louis Armstrong, to that?
JESSE WITTEN: Well, I've been doing it for six years now, so this is new to me. The challengers aren't, which unfortunately that's the case, because I really would like to do this a lot more often. This is fun. This makes tennis fun.

Q. Did you hear you're a YouTube sensation now? You are tangentially involved because it was a match with Bruno.
JESSE WITTEN: In the challenger? Yeah, I didn't do anything. I just felt bad. They called it a foot fault on match point, second serve against him. I guess it happens. I wasn't happy to take the point, but I definitely was going to at 7-6 in the third.

Q. Was there like a best perk of playing in this tournament for you that you're going to miss, you know, back on the challengers?
JESSE WITTEN: The new laundry every day.

Q. That doesn't happen elsewhere?
JESSE WITTEN: I don't have to worry about conserving one shirt. I can just go through them and just throw them in the laundry bag. No, it's nice.
You get chauffeured around with the cars. Everything is nice here. This is the best tournament in the world. You can't beat this.

Q. Is this your first visit here?
JESSE WITTEN: No, I've played qualifying a few times, and I qualified once back in '06, I think, someone told me. This is my first time winning a match. And definitely playing on a court like that, it's exciting.

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