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U.S. OPEN

September 6, 2009

Taylor Dent

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

A. MURRAY/T. Dent
6-3, 6-2, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: He won a couple very quick games and then you came back at him quite successfully for a time.
TAYLOR DENT: Yeah.

Q. Is that what you wanted to do?
TAYLOR DENT: You know, like I said yesterday or the day before, I mean, I'm not executing well enough to feel like I have an outstanding shot to beat a quality player like Murray.
Right now my serve isn't quite as accurate. I'm missing a few too many forehands. What kept the games reactively close on my serve and game me a few chances to get tight was, again, my fighting. I was battling for every point.
He's a quality player. There's no way around it. And if your execution isn't matching his, it's gonna go like that.

Q. You picked his passes a bit. You stuck your racquet in the right position for the rally.
TAYLOR DENT: Yeah, that's part of the deal being a net rusher, being an aggressive player. You gotta cover the net well and read some passing shots. I was able to do that for, I would say, a lot of the match. You know, not all the match. He tended to get a few by me on some big points.
But that's all part of the deal.

Q. Can you sum up what you're gonna take from this week or so here and your feelings about playing on Arthur Ashe tonight?
TAYLOR DENT: It's nothing but positive for me. This is a huge step forward in my progression. What I'm gonna take from it? Again, I hate losing. I'm glad to be back, but I'm sorry I'm not sticking around.
So what I'm again take from it, is if I want to serve and volley against some of best returners in the world, then I'm gonna need to be a little more accurate with my first serve. Get that percentage up a little bit higher.
He was making it really tough for me to hold. I didn't feel like I was hurting him at all with my first serve in some games. He just didn't have to move and was able to get it right at my feet. If you have to play low volleys against someone like Andy Murray on a consistent basis, it's not gonna go well. That's No. 1.
And No. 2 is I actually felt comfortable from the baseline points. I didn't feel like I was being pushed around too much. My speed felt fine. I actually recovered unbelievably well from my five-set match. I felt like million bucks out there today.
The only thing that let me down a little bit from the baseline was a few forehand approaches. I felt like I had a lot of opportunities to get control of the point with my forehand, and I either didn't hit it effectively or missed the ball.
The third thing was my returns. Normally my returns are pretty solid, but he was serving well and I wasn't able to put my normal high-volume amount of returns in play. He was getting a lot of easy service games, and that bums me out.

Q. You lost the first eight points really quickly. Was that nerves at all?
TAYLOR DENT: You know, it's all a combination. It's not one factor. It's been a while since I played on a huge stage like that, that's No. 1. No. 2 is I'm not a 100% confident with the way I'm executing right now. That factors into it.
Then you've got a guy like Andy Murray at the other end, and that factors into it. So, you know, it's wasn't down to one thing.

Q. What are you gonna do now?
TAYLOR DENT: I don't know. I haven't really thought too much about my schedule. I have two choices: play some challengers in the States, which I'm okay with, or I go over to Asia and play some probably qualifying there.
I don't really know. I'll have to do the best case/worst case scenario and then decide.

Q. Do you have a chance to be in the main draw in Australian Open? Is that kind of a goal?
TAYLOR DENT: Again, yeah, it's nice to have that as a goal. It's not something I can really control. I can set my schedule to give myself an opportunity to achieve that. But, you know, if I don't have wins, it's not gonna happen whether I play qualifying ATPs or challengers.
So, you know, my goal is just to get my game solid. I feel once I do that, being in the main draw will take care of itself.

Q. What is it about Murray's game that makes him No. 2 in the world?
TAYLOR DENT: He doesn't miss. He really doesn't miss. I don't think that I served, you know, great tonight, but I don't think I served poorly either. I think I served, you know, probably below average for me, but he made it look and feel like I served, you know, underhanded out there at times.
He was just able to put stuff by my. I tried to mix up my spins, mix up my paces, and give him different looks. You know, I think he's No. 1 in the world at breaking guys, so that makes sense.

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