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PILOT PEN TENNIS AT YALE

August 28, 2010

Sergiy Stakhovsky

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT

S. STAKHOVSKY/D. Istomin
3-6, 6-3, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You are 4-0 in ATP Finals. Talk about why it is you think you do so well in championship matches.
SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: I have no idea. I mean, I'm really happy to keep the score this way, to be able to be the winner of this match today. It was definitely not easy. As I believe everybody saw, it was really more playing on nerves. There were a lot of unforced errors. There were really a lot of good rallies, and I hope it was really enjoyable tennis we played.
I have to say it definitely wasn't our best tennis from both of us. But we were trying as hard as we could. Definitely we were fighting for everything.

Q. Several very hard matches during this tournament, short times between matches. How do you like it? Maybe it will help you to be in good form.
SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: I hardly can say that I like to have a small amount of time in between matches because usually when you start to lose a match, you start thinking that it's definitely because you had a short break.
It was a long week. It was really an exhausting week for me. A lot of three sets. A lot of tiebreaks. Just a lot of time on court. Just now I have to get myself together and get ready for the US Open.
I'm really glad to win this title. It pushed me to another level again. But I just need to think forward again and get ready.

Q. Only three breaks in the entire match. Talk about the two that you won and how important those were.
SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Well, I mean, break a player like Istomin is more or less the key. He's serving very well. It's not his first serve. His second serve, he's placing it very well. He's moving the ball around. It's not easy to guess. I've done a lot of mistakes from his second serve because he was placing the ball differently.
I can say the first break more or less I was trying to take every chance he gave me a chance to. There were not very many. He had a lot of love games, and he played well today, except those two games where I broke him.

Q. What do you think will remain today to help you win? Maybe the experience of a final or something else?
SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Maybe I was a little more relaxed than he was. After winning the first set, maybe he felt he could close it down. It didn't really help him a lot.
I don't know. I really wasn't thinking about winning a tournament, a title. I was thinking, how can I come back in the match, how can I win a point, a game, or just hold my serve.

Q. You look with more confidence than half a year ago. Is it a new team or...
SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: I wouldn't say it's a new team. I just make a small adjustment in my team who is traveling with me. I'm more traveling now with a fitness coach which give me a little more, let me say, comfort during the matches that I'm more fit and I don't really feel any pain in my body.
But I can't really say that the confidence -- the confidence come from the semis. As soon as I get to the semis, there's a different me, or quarters. But the first rounds I really struggle a lot.

Q. First Ukrainian to win since Medvedev 16 years ago. Is that significant for you?
SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: It is significant. But unfortunately I have to catch so many things that he done that I have quite a work to do because he won I think three Masters, final of a Grand Slam. Not easy. Not easy task, but I'll try.

Q. Have you ever had a week like this where you've had to play so much, had matches suspended?
SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: I don't remember. I don't think so. I don't really think so, no.

Q. What part of this tournament was the most interesting for you and then the most hard and fun?
SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Fun was definitely Marcos Baghdatis because, well, I never played him. We played in challenger when I was just starting and he was just starting.
I have to say that he showed me how people should be really playing tennis or how they could enjoy being on court. Not really many of us can say that they really enjoying what they doing. Some of them, it's really emotional. For some of them, it's really hard.
But he's really there and he really loves what he does. And playing against him, no matter if you win or lose, you really enjoy the tennis being there.

Q. When you decided to come to this tournament, what were you hoping to get out of it? Was it preparation for the US Open, more hard court matches? Was winning a title in the back of your mind or not?
SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Well, winning a title is never in the back of your mind. You just want to do good in the tournament.
I was coming here to do a result. For me it was important to get some points, to win some matches on hard court before the US Open or before the Asian trip. For me winning matches is the most important thing of all. It doesn't matter whether I win matches here or in the Grand Slam. They're the same value for me.
I'm really happy to win five matches here and win title. There's more matches to come, but it's always a great pleasure to close five in a row which means that you get a title and you can say that you've done something.

End of FastScripts

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