REPUBLIC NATIONAL MONTE CARLO OPEN

April 20, 1999

Fernando Meligeni

FERNANDO MELIGENI: No, I don't think like a surprise. I think when you play a guy like Tim, you have to play a very good tennis. He's Top 10. I know that clay is not his favorite court, but he show me today he played very good on clay and he fight a lot. He tries his best. I'm doing the better job I can do. I'm playing good. Last week I did a quarterfinals. I had victories from the Top 10, three Top 10s in my career. I think is not normal you beat a Top 10, but is not a surprise also.

FERNANDO MELIGENI: A few? A lot (laughter). Yeah, I think you improving everything. If you try to improve every year, you keep going, every year you going to play better. I'm 28 right now, but I feel like I can do a lot of more results in my career. I'm very happy to play, keep playing, like today, running a lot. I feel like my physic, my body is very good, and my mind is getting better every day. So until I feel like this, I'll keep going.

FERNANDO MELIGENI: You don't think a lot at this time. You don't think like is match point. It's very fast the moment, the point. I just try to serve wide and hit with my forehand. I had luck. Last week I had almost the same, and I just put the ball away, try to the guy make a mistake. Sometimes when you have a lot of pressure in the match, and both players are very tired like today, you have to try to be aggressive. I tried to be aggressive, and this time I could win the point.

FERNANDO MELIGENI: It's going to be tough, huh? Well, I don't think a lot about the Davis Cup. We have a lot of time to play, but it's going to be amazing match. I'm very happy to play in France. I like to much play in France. I love Roland Garros, is my favorite tournament. We know France is a very good shape. France has a very good Davis Cup team. Maybe in the paper, there's a lot of teams can beat France in a lot of surface, but when you talk about Davis Cup, you know France is like Brazil, what's the name, union, there's a lot of union inside the team. We know is very tough, but we have to try our best. We're going to play not our favorite surface. I don't want to say I love to play in carpet, but we're going to try our best. Everybody said that we going to lose to Spain, we couldn't win. You never know. Davis Cup is Davis Cup.

FERNANDO MELIGENI: It's a tough match. If Gustavo beats Ulihrach tomorrow, it's going to be a very good match. Is not easy to play against a friend, a very good friend. But you have to do it, you have to try to play your best. He know me a lot. I know him a lot. Is like a classic in football, in soccer. You never know what's going to happen. The guy could put his mind better into the match, probably going to win. He's playing a very good tennis. What he did in Davis Cup this year was unbelievable. If he play like he play over there, is very tough to beat him. But, well, I will try my best and finish the match. Keep the same, is your friend, keep going.