	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

ROGERS CUP MEN

August 10, 2010

Frank Dancevic

TORONTO, ONTARIO

S. WAWRINKA/F. Dancevic
6-1, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with opening remarks from Frank.
FRANK DANCEVIC: Hello. Yeah, basically I'll start off with, you know, my preparation to this event. It was a little bit difficult for me the last couple weeks, you know, with the incident that happened. I don't know you guys heard or not. I ran into a scoreboard a couple weeks ago in Atlanta. I slashed my leg open, so my preparation was a little bit off.
But I took a lot of time on the practice court the last five days, tried to get my game back, tried, you know, tried really hard, and it's been difficult for me. This week's been difficult for me and my comeback has been tough for me from my injury last year.
But, you know, it was my first match against a top player this year, and a comeback from my injury, and from the first set I felt it was tough for me to get into the match. I told myself keep pushing and keep fighting, and somehow I found a second wind in the second set and was starting to make it a match. And it was a life-and-death second set. A couple points made the difference. I had some opportunities to break in the second set. I didn't take advantage of that.
That's what made the difference in the match. I think if I would have won the second set, it would have been a whole different story.

Q. Where does your focus shift now? Are you going to take some time off and recuperate a little more and then look forward to the Davis Cup, or are you going to play in a couple small tournaments? Are you even going to play in the Davis Cup?
FRANK DANCEVIC: Davis Cup is like months from now.

Q. The tie in September?
FRANK DANCEVIC: Yeah, September. It's like -- I've got the US Open. I've got the US Open coming up next, so I'm going to take maybe a day or two to recuperate and get back on the practice court and head over to Montreal to the National Centre over there and try and hit a few balls before the girls come.

Q. You're completely healthy then?
FRANK DANCEVIC: I feel good. My back feels great. My leg feels good now. It's just a matter of having to get practice in and get back out on court and being able to, you know, go and get a solid three hours of practice in to start feeling my game again. Yeah, I'm getting back on a training regimen starting next week and preparing for the US Open.

Q. Seems like you always get a pretty tough draw at the Rogers Cup. How did you find Stan's level of play compared to some of the other big guys you played in the past few years here?
FRANK DANCEVIC: Yeah, I mean, he's a great player. I played him at the Olympics actually in Beijing and we had a tough match. I lost in three sets. He's a great player. I mean, he's 9 in the world. It's not easy to get to 9 in the world.
He seemed like he was on his game tonight. He was serving well on big points, and he played some really big shots on key times in the match, and, you know, that's what separates him from other guys.

Q. Tonight, no residual effects from your recent injury that played a part in the result?
FRANK DANCEVIC: Not tonight. I mean, it played a part in my preparation. I didn't feel any pain in the match today. I wasn't feeling, you know, hurt or disabled in the match.
It was just a matter of, you know, this guy came in. He was feeling really good going into the match, I was feeling -- I was struggling the last four or five days of my timing.
I spent so much time on the practice court. I spent three hours every day last five days trying to get my game back and trying to get as much time, pack it all in in the week and trying to feel good for tonight, and, you know, like I said, I was struggling a little bit from the beginning but I managed to find a way in the second set.

Q. What's missing right now? Is it precision, reaction time? Is it, you know, moving around on the court? What's missing if you compare it to what you had before your injury?
FRANK DANCEVIC: It's just a matter of getting out there and playing matches. I have very little matches this year. If you look at it, I played, you know, maybe a handful of tournaments, if that, in 12 months.
It's a matter of getting out there. I had a couple good runs this year. I have had a quarterfinal. I won some matches, and I have a semifinal a couple weeks allege in Granby.
It's just a matter of getting wins and getting confidence back. I think that's my main part right now is just to get out there and play, just play, play, play as much as I can. I feel good. I mean, my back feels great. Everything feels good. That's the key right now, just to play as many matches as I can, and, you know, hopefully get the opportunity to go deeper in tournaments and play top guys like this again and get used to playing at their level.

Q. There aren't any American players in the top 10 on the ATP Tour. There aren't any Canadians in the top 200. Are there any unique challenges facing the men's game on this continent right now?
FRANK DANCEVIC: Well, I can comment on that a little, I guess. I've been out for the last little while. I think that Canadian tennis has come a long way, as Pete has shown the other night. He's beaten a top 16 guy. We have a couple young guys coming up that I think definitely have the potential to be really good, in the top 50, top 100, top 50 in the world for sure.
I think we're coming a long ways, and we have a bright future going forward.

Q. Do you still have a protected injury ranking for the time being?
FRANK DANCEVIC: I do. Yeah, I have a protected ranking at 119.

Q. For how much longer?
FRANK DANCEVIC: Until February of next year. So I've used up -- I've only used up one so far for Newport this year. So I have another eight by February next year to use at 119.

Q. So is your plan for the rest of this year to try and get into some maybe 500 level tournaments or above, or what's your sort of schedule? What are you planning for the rest of the season?
FRANK DANCEVIC: Well, I think I have to sort of sit down with my coach and see. We've just been playing it by ear and see how I'm playing, this and that. I think my plan is to play more bigger Challengers and quallies of tour events and just either -- sometimes tour event quallies can drop a lot to where maybe I will get in on my original ranking now, which somebody here must know my current ranking, maybe --

Q. 207?
FRANK DANCEVIC: No, it's higher than that.

Q. 348.
FRANK DANCEVIC: Is it? So 340. Even with 340. I might get into the quallies of those events. If not, I use my protected ranking and work my way that way through the events.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297