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BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR FINALSNovember 26, 2009Mahesh BhupathiMark KnowlesLONDON, ENGLAND NESTOR-ZIMONJIC/Bhupathi-Knowles THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Does it change anything? MAHESH BHUPATHI: We've won our group, so actually just kind of practice tomorrow and wait to see who we play on Saturday. We're waiting to see who finishes second so we can prepare for our match. Q. Do you think the defeat will have any effect going into the semifinals or not? MARK KNOWLES: No, I don't think it's going to have any effect. We already won our group. We knew that coming in. Those guys were obviously playing with nothing to lose. I think they played that way. We played a good, solid match. We're real excited about the way we're playing. Like Mahesh said, we won our group. We've got a lot of confidence and we're looking forward to our match on Saturday. Q. Obviously both of you are so experienced after so many years in the doubles. Same with Nenad and Nestor. Then you have the younger guys. When you come to such a level, what is it, experience or... MAHESH BHUPATHI: I mean, experience helps at this level, for sure. At the end of the day, you've got to execute. The young teams have been playing some serious tennis over the last four, five days. The Polish guys, even Kubot/Marach, it's their first Masters, but they've had two big wins. When you're playing at a level at the Masters in front of 15,000 people every time, I think all of us get really excited, and it brings out the best tennis in all of us. Q. How is it going to help take the doubles to a different level? MARK KNOWLES: I think anytime we have a platform like this, it can only benefit the game of doubles. We've made tremendous strides on the ATP Tour to try to increase the awareness of the game of doubles. We have great doubles players playing, and we have great singles players playing every week on the ATP Tour. The top eight teams are here based on their results from the entire calendar year. We always hear that most fans love to watch doubles, most people play doubles. It's a good chance for them on a very big stage to watch the best teams in the world. There's little intricacies that are different about doubles. Singles is great. Doubles has its own greatness. It's nice to have them both on the same stage. Q. Would you like to see something change? MARK KNOWLES: I think they're doing a fantastic job here. We've petitioned for a long time to play the doubles first as kind of the lead-up to the main event, which is the singles matches. They've done that terrific here. Basically they've given us the same platform. We've seen the crowds respond. The people have come out. We always feel that during Wimbledon, obviously, whether it's doubles or mixed doubles, the fans love tennis here. They have a great understanding of the game of tennis and they appreciate singles, doubles, and all different types of games. Q. On Saturday, what is it going to be? Basically it will come down to who you're going to play. MAHESH BHUPATHI: Any of the three teams that come through, we've played them multiple times this year, if it's Kubot/Marach, the Bryans or Mirnyi/Ram. We've played them all many times this year. Like Knowlesy said, we're playing well, which is the most important thing. We have to look after ourselves and our games. If we execute like we have been the last three matches, I think we'll have a good shot to win on Saturday. Q. Should be a pretty big crowd for you. MAHESH BHUPATHI: Yeah, you know, it's very exciting. We're looking forward to it. End of FastScripts |
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