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BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR FINALSNovember 25, 2010Lukas DlouchyLeander PaesLONDON, ENGLAND BRYAN-BRYAN/Dlouhy-Paes THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. The first set when you lost, you knew you were out of the tournament. Did that affect the way you approached the rest of the match? LEANDER PAES: I've been a little under the weather the last 48 hours. I was playing with a fever and a sore throat. I rolled an ankle a couple days ago. For me, it was about being solid today, getting through it. I knew I couldn't do as much as I normally do today. It was about being simple and solid. It's always tough playing the Bryans. They're No. 1 in the world. They're one of the best teams ever. Their synergy amongst them makes it that much harder to play against. I think that was the difference really. Q. You've obviously had a great partnership. You won your Grand Slam titles. In your three qualifications for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, you just haven't seemed to win a match and things haven't seemed to click together. Is there a reason for that? LEANDER PAES: He's the reason, right there (pointing to Bob and Mike Bryan) (laughter). That's the reason. Q. You would have hoped to end this partnership on a good note this season at least. LEANDER PAES: It's a good note that we're still talking to each other (laughter). We've had a bit of a rough run the last five months. Winning a match in Paris was nice. But really all in all, looking at the partnership, it's been a great partnership. I've really enjoyed playing with Lukas. We've won two Grand Slams, been in a final, won a Masters Series. Traveled two and a half years together. It's been a great run. Also it's not just the end of the run. I'm sure we'll get to play again together, like I keep saying this whole week. As of right now, I just feel like we've had a wonderful partnership. I've made a superb brother, a friend in Lukas. I look forward to the next times we can play together. I still feel we can win a Grand Slam, we just need to get our heads together a bit. Q. You were just saying about playing against the Bryans, one of the greatest teams ever. You also played against Mark and Todd, the Woodies. Who would you put ahead? LEANDER PAES: You know, Todd Woodbridge was a phenomenal doubles player. I'm going to break it down into individuals. Todd Woodbridge was really a fabulous doubles player. He had every shot in the book, was very aggressive, creative. Woodforde on the other hand was not that creative. Woodforde was just solid, he made balls. To me the Bryans are more aggressive than the Woodies based on that. I would say that for the way that tennis has evolved, obviously Bryans are the new age. Having played against both the teams, I find the Bryans are a better team than the Woodies in my opinion, because of their firepower. They both have big serves. Woodforde's serve, you always knew you could break, you knew you could get on his serve a bit more. The Bryans' serve, both are over six feet, both have big serves, both volley excellently. It's hard to compare eras, but I would say the Bryans are a nudge ahead in terms of more completeness, in terms of more firepower. Q. How do you see the health of doubles in the future given that most of you guys are over 30, except Lukas maybe? LUKAS DLOUHY: Thank you. LEANDER PAES: 'Maybe' she said (laughter). The competition this week is phenomenal. If you actually look at, you have a singles team, Petzschner/Melzer, who won Wimbledon, you got the Bryans, Nestor/Zimonjic, and us, who have won multiple Grand Slams. You have Bhupathi and Mirnyi who haven't won a Grand Slam this time, but they won a while ago, 2000-and-something, no? Something like that. Then you got the rest. The other boys haven't come close. Kubot/Marach haven't come close to winning a Grand Slam yet. I think the best they've done is the quarters finals. Moody/Norman are also very strong. They were up against us in the quarter finals of the French Open. On their day, they're two twin towers, they've tough to break. So really if you look at the competition this week, it's phenomenal. When you get into a Masters Series, the competition is that much more fierce because you got a lot more singles players playing doubles. Have you Nadal, López, Verdasco, López. Federer sometimes with somebody. You have so many singles guys that have changed the game of doubles. Before doubles was just angles, sharp shots, dinks, the rallies would be like serve, volley, game. The game would be first serve, volley, game. Now the rallies are phenomenal. Sometimes you have seven, eight, 10-shot rallies. I think doubles is in a healthy position right now because you've got a lot more singles guys playing the game. The new format they've done encourages the singles guys to play. Nadal won Indian Wells this year. Federer has won Miami. He beat me in the finals of Miami a couple years ago with Max Mirnyi. So if you see the way that the singles guys are playing doubles nowadays, you see the doubles teams very potent. I think it's very good. Q. Are there any youngsters playing doubles? LEANDER PAES: He's 27, but he's still a teenager coming up (laughter). I think guys like Lukas are the next generation of doubles players. When we are done in the next two, three years, I think that he's going to dominate. I think if you look at someone like Lukas Dlouhy, Lucasz Kubot, the Bryans will still be around three years from now, you would think. Guys like that are still good. You got a lot more singles guys playing the game. I haven't seen Djokovic playing much doubles, but I think he'll be very good, in my opinion. But, yeah, the new rules help. Q. The Bryans had the same opinion that singles players would come into doubles, but they say there will be more baseline tennis than the serve and volley that we see. He wasn't very happy with that. Are you unhappy about it, too, or do you think that I will adapt and play doubles? LEANDER PAES: That hasn't come about because of the change in the score format. That's come about because the slowness of the court. That's come about because the heaviness of the tennis ball. If you look at how tennis courts are now, in the game of singles, you don't even have one serve-and-volleyer. Even Roger Federer, who is probably one of the most complete players of all time, in the first week of Wimbledon, he doesn't serve and volley that much. So if you think about it, that has happened because of the slowness of the court, slowness of the ball. This week, the court's really slow. It's very grainy. So serve-and-volley tennis is not that prevalent on the tour anymore. Q. Do you think faster courts would help like Bercy? LEANDER PAES: Do you think fast courts would help? LUKAS DLOUHY: I didn't like that so much. It was like lightning speed. I think something in the middle would be best. LEANDER PAES: I think he's right on that, something in the middle, you know, which is a little more fair for everybody to play. I'm not complaining because I can adapt on any surface. I've won tons of times on the clay. To answer your question, why singles guys are playing the game more, it's because of the slowness of the courts. Q. Lukas, what are your plans now? How much time will you take off? When will you start working again? What are your thoughts on a doubles partner for next year, putting Leander to one side? LUKAS DLOUHY: Okay, when I start from the beginning, I'm leaving tomorrow. I have few days off. Then at the beginning of the December, I'm going to start to preparation for the next year. I'm starting I guess in Brisbane with my new partner, Paul Hanley. So I play Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne with him. Then we will figure out what's good for the team or if we keep going or how we do that. Except him, I really didn't think about who would be the best for me. But I have Paul now, so I play with him. Then, like I said, I will play with somebody else. I have many options to get some singles guys to the team. So we will see. End of FastScripts |
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