	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

U.S. OPEN

September 2, 2011

Alex Bogomolov

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

A. BOGOMOLOV/R. Dutra Da Silva
6-4, 6-3, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. It keeps happening. How do you explain that? Five years without winning in a major, and now you've four out of five like you did it all your life.
ALEX BOGOMOLOV, JR.: I thought today was high-level tennis since the beginning till the end. I spoke to his coach, and my coach said the same thing. There was never a drop of the intensity, the level of the tennis.
And so when you're in that kind of a zone, and I've done this this whole year, you can't get away from it. I served for the match. Even though I lost my serve, there was not a bad thought in my mind. It was great tennis I thought for the fans, for us both guys to be out there on Court 17, which is a new court, great atmosphere, and the ball just felt good all around.

Q. Did it surprise you because he was a lucky loser in qualifying that the level was so high?
ALEX BOGOMOLOV, JR.: No. I've seen him before, how he plays, but I think he was more inspired today. I think it was his first second round and he had nothing to lose.
Yeah, he surprised me at the beginning. But once he kept on doing it over and over again, I kind of accepted that's how he's going to play, and he did.

Q. Are you surprising yourself here or are you ready for this, you felt this coming?
ALEX BOGOMOLOV, JR.: I was ready. I was ready mentally, physically for this. You never know with tennis, especially with how my life was.
Yeah, you know, I got a little bit fortunate that Soderling pulled out. I played him only once in juniors, so we were figuring out if he was going to play or not. We saw him, he came, then withdrew.
But, yeah, to play Dutra instead of Soderling, that's fortunate a little bit.

Q. In terms of your level, you obviously brought it, as well, responded.
ALEX BOGOMOLOV, JR.: No, yeah, I played much better than the first match. Hopefully that's sort of the pattern that I'm going to set for the remainder of the tournament, that I can get better and better.

Q. John was here with a Georgia Bulldogs cap, north of the cap you're wearing. What is your relationship with John, and how would you compare your games?
ALEX BOGOMOLOV, JR.: Up to this point John has been a dream crusher for me, because I played him third round in the Nasdaq; he beat me. Then I played him in quarterfinals of Newport; he beat me.
So it's been sort of anytime I'm close to making a really big run he's kind of stood in the way. I've known John ever since he first came out from college. We played one time in a Waco, Texas, challenger. I broke him for the first time in the third set at 5-All, then tried to serve out the match, couldn't, and he won the match. So I've never beaten him.
As far as a personal relationship, I think he's a great guy. I mean, he's very well-liked. I like the guy. But tennis-wise, he's been very painful for me.

Q. Why do you think that is? What is so difficult about him for you?
ALEX BOGOMOLOV, JR.: Well, I mean, I think he's difficult to play no matter who you are. He's got a one-of-a-kind style of game. Sometimes it's a coin toss. If you have a breakpoint, he hits an ace; it sort of takes the wind out of you.
But, you know, with him, he can make a run at any point. And with me I have to fight for every point, every match. So it's a different feel.
I know he works hard. But his serve is a huge weapon, which I don't possess such a weapon.

Q. You said last time you commuted from Long Branch into Long Island. Did you ever think of taking a shorter route to where you were working or finding something closer?
ALEX BOGOMOLOV, JR.: At the time I couldn't afford to live in the city when I was working in Harlem. I was living with my parents in-law. She was pregnant. They helped. She had the baby and they were a huge help, as well. I was training. She was a full-time mom.
Now we just moved to Boca Raton for tennis purposes and for the little guy to be able to go outside during winters.

Q. How is that, you're trying to get your career back up and running, and now you're living with your parents in-law?
ALEX BOGOMOLOV, JR.: I think it was the greatest thing for us just because her parents were so helpful in every way. You know, they accepted me as one of their family members and I hadn't even proven anything to them.
I think it was more stressful for my fiancÃ©e because, you know, she was a first-time mom, and her parents felt like they've done it three times because they have three children. They would tell her, you know, sort of how to change a diaper or whatever. So it was more of a stress for her.
For me, I just tried to keep the peace between everyone. I wanted everybody happy. And with me traveling, whenever I came back, if there was an issue, I wanted to solve it right away.

Q. You said you were basically working every day. You had no days off. Were you able to help her out through that process while working and training?
ALEX BOGOMOLOV, JR.: I think that's a question for her. But I hope I was, you know, because it was my first time as an expecting dad and her first time. I mean, we did everything together. She was pregnant. We went to Europe together when I was playing French Open quallies. We did all the challengers there and she was pregnant.
You know, I did the best I can, but I think she did even more for me while she was pregnant, for my tennis, than I did for her when she was pregnant.

Q. What are your thoughts on what Donald Young has been able to do here, given the struggles he's had in his career?
ALEX BOGOMOLOV, JR.: Well, today I followed the match. We watched all of it basically in the locker room. I think it's because he switched to my racquet (smiling).
No, I think Donald, he's always been talented; he's always been a fighter; he hates to lose. Sometimes he's been, you know, childish on the court or whatever, but that's just his intensity. He wants to win bad.
I feel like now he's sort of at a point where he can relax a little bit and sort of not put so much pressure as winning a Grand Slam eight times in a row, like how he said in the past that he wants to do. If he becomes a little bit more realistic, I think it will be better for him. That way he can relax and enjoy tennis instead of every match, every point has to be the last thing.
But as far as his US Open run, it is what it is. He beat Wawrinka. It's amazing.

Q. Watching that match, when he goes into the tiebreaker, how pressure-packed is that moment?
ALEX BOGOMOLOV, JR.: Well, you know, I was watching that. Me and my coach were watching that. I was warming up. Obviously Donald from the U.S. I've played with him, played against him many times. But I kind of got goosebumps, as I would have any other player, because he was so pumped up. To be able to win a fifth-set tiebreaker, I don't care who you are, it inspires other players, you know.
I loved his emotion. It got me going right away. You saw him when he was walking out of the court. He was still giving high fives. Amazing. I personally loved it.

Q. How good do you think he can be?
ALEX BOGOMOLOV, JR.: I think a lot of things still haven't been put into place, you know. I think he's still sort of figuring out his coaching situation. I feel like if everything goes right and he doesn't have any setbacks, no injuries, I think he can be a good top 35, top 40 player hopefully.
But at the same time I think if he wins an ATP event, something might happen where his confidence takes off. But, you know, it's tough. It's a tough game. I mean, you sort of can't predict.
Same with Harrison. Everybody is saying he's going to be top 10. But who knows. Might be the next guy. Might be the next generation.
But with Donald, he's lefty, so it helps him.

Q. So much about what Djokovic has done is he's sort of set up all the aspects of his life, not just the tennis, but everything around him, the training, the food, all those other elements in a career that most of us don't talk about that much. It seems with every player there's a lot more than just tennis to have a successful career.
ALEX BOGOMOLOV, JR.: Definitely. I've talked about it also. I feel like everything with me personally, my whole team got better. My diet got better. My off-court training got better. Everything sort of picked up a notch and everything fell into place.
I'm not saying Donald should have a kid anytime soon, but I think there's some things that might influence his career a little bit more.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297