DAVIS CUP - SLOVAK REPUBLIC vs USA

February 8, 2002

Miroslav Mecir

Jan Kroslak

CAPTAIN MECIR: I am surprised pretty nicely. I think they, especially Beck, I didn't expect as much from him and it was pretty close to be a five-setter. As I said, I didn't expect he is going to hold so well with Sampras. That's good. I knew he was a talented player. I knew he can play top guys and I am very happy that this experience for him could help and he could be a good really good member of the Davis Cup team and also in individual tournaments. It is a pity that first two guys didn't come because I think we would have bigger chance but I am happy that both of the matches were very nice to watch and boys were fighting and even Jan was very close after the comeback from 1-5 in the third set. The match really started to be very even and it could go either way.

CAPTAIN MECIR: It is so difficult to count on any match; especially in Davis Cup, you never know how it is going to go. It is five-set match, there are ups-and-downs, and you just have to go there and fight and put up your best, so I was not really prepared of winning one or another match. I am glad that the boys were fighting.

JAN KROSLAK: Yeah, after first two sets I was (INAUDIBLE) tight. I played really soft from the baseline. I really didn't have much from the game because on his serve we didn't play much and on my serve I was struggling all the time. But then I start to feel the weight in the balls and I start to have more confidence and I came back in the tiebreaker, like Milos said then I was really confident about going into the fifth set. I think I was -- in the fourth set I was winning my serve, I think much easier than him. He was -- he had to fight more on his serve than me. I was expecting some break during the set and then I made some really silly mistakes and he broke me. But then he did the same. He just gave it back to me. Except the return on the bagel (sic) because that was my ball. But the balls before he gave me. It was even then everything open again and, you know, maybe he was more aggressive in the tiebreaker that's why he won. I was disappointed, you know, because I should have lost maybe in three sets, but then when I came back and start to feel a chance, so, I was a little disappointed.

JAN KROSLAK: We'll see tomorrow. I am sure we both have four sets already in our legs. But doubles we don't have to run so much and it is more on the percentage of the first serve and not making mistakes. So we'll see how it goes. I think we can both return well; and those guys, they are good doubles players, so we'll see. Sometimes the singles players they beat doubles players so we'll see.

JAN KROSLAK: It is completely different game doubles and singles. It is good for us that we didn't lose easily and that we played really good matches, so of course, it is better for us for confidence to play the doubles, but it is completely different game, so we'll see.

JAN KROSLAK: I don't understand.

JAN KROSLAK: No. No, because he served fast but it is not very close to the lines. I think I had more aces than him in the match, so I stepped a little bit more further back and I hit some returns back, so I mean, he's a very aggressive server but you could see during the game that first set he was serving every first set 132 miles and more, and then he was going down and down all the time. So he was losing the power. I think there are many guys like him serving so good because some guys they are serving fast, some guys they serving very close to the lines, so, the percentage of the winning the points it's the same.