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MEDIBANK INTERNATIONAL

January 11, 2011

Chris Guccione

SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES

G. GARCIA-LOPEZ/C. Guccione
7-6, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How did you feel about that?
CHRIS GUCCIONE: It was a tough match. He's a really good player, ranked 30-something in the world. It was a battle out there. I was always fighting to hold my serve. He made my play a lot of first volleys.
He played a solid match. Could have gone either way. I got a pretty good lead in the first set tiebreak up 5-1, and I played one bad point and he played a few good points in the end. We both had chances in the second set to break. He got one.

Q. Is that positive considering where you've come from, sort of a long injury layoff?
CHRIS GUCCIONE: Yeah, for sure. Last few months I've been feeling great. Been able to train as hard as I used to. To get three top-100 wins in a row here, it's probably one of the toughest qualifying events throughout the year. It's definitely a positive.

Q. You usually do pretty good here. Are you disappointed this time round you couldn't go through?
CHRIS GUCCIONE: Yeah, I mean, disappointed, but it was a good result qualifying. I'll take some positives out of it. I'll fly to Melbourne tonight. I'm able to make qualifying there now, so I guess that's one positive out of a loss.

Q. Are you able to make qualifying just by making the main draw here?
CHRIS GUCCIONE: No. If I won my match today I would have been pulled out of qualifying for the Australian Open because it starts tomorrow, so I had to be out by today.

Q. What was that like, knowing that?
CHRIS GUCCIONE: Um, I wanted to win the match. Winning a tour event match here, I would have taken that over the qualifying. But definitely a consolation prize.

Q. A wildcard wasn't a possibility for you heading to the Australian Open?
CHRIS GUCCIONE: No. Apparently all been given out.

Q. You weren't on the list. Was that surprising at all?
CHRIS GUCCIONE: I don't know.

Q. What's the goal for this year? Former top 100 player.
CHRIS GUCCIONE: Yeah. Obviously to get back in the top 100, whether it happens this year or takes a little longer. I would like to reasonably close by the end of the year.

Q. What is your goal for the year?
CHRIS GUCCIONE: Well, to play tennis like I did this week. If I play like that, I'll win a lot of matches out there and get my ranking up pretty quickly.

Q. What have you liked most about the way you've played this week, the main positive?
CHRIS GUCCIONE: Um, I think I've played a pretty good all-round game. Saturday was a tough day. Played six tough sets of tennis, which is great for me considering I haven't played a lot tennis. Came through it well.
Played another three tough sets on Sunday. So the physical aspect of it was great for me, but also the wins and winning those tight matches is a great feeling.

Q. What about Davis Cup? Has Pat spoken to you since he took over?
CHRIS GUCCIONE: Not about that.

Q. Still a goal, though?
CHRIS GUCCIONE: Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

Q. Overall heading into Australian Open, how do you rate your preparations?
CHRIS GUCCIONE: Pretty good. Um, you know, unfortunately I missed out on a qualifying spot in Brisbane. Would have been nice to get some matches up there.
But, you know, you couldn't really ask for a better preparation than winning three tough matches here and losing a tight one today.
Going to be a little bit tough. I got to fly there tonight and play tomorrow. That's the only issue. I'm playing well, so hopefully I can get through.

End of FastScripts

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