TMS - STUTTGART

October 16, 2001

Max Mirnyi

MAX MIRNYI: What do I do so well?

MAX MIRNYI: I'm not sure. I think the styles match that way where he doesn't really hurt me as much. It's up to me almost whether I win or lose the match, to the amount of errors that I make. I feel that if I am in control of what I do with my serve, with my return, with my coming forward, then the odds are with me. You know, the three times I've played this year, it seemed to be the case.

MAX MIRNYI: Oh, I feel very lucky considering the fact that I was two match points down in the first round of qualifying, so... This is second life to me.

MAX MIRNYI: Yeah. I felt like I had my chances early in the tiebreaker, being up 4-1, then not really utilizing there, committing a few errors. You know, I guess that's the way it came back to me with him missing that on top of the net.

MAX MIRNYI: I think it produces good tennis because it's fairly medium, probably closer to a slower-paced surface. It's kind of medium bounce. As we see, there are a lot of long matches, good rallies. Even myself, you know, I've been forced to stay back. I'm actually hitting a few balls in. I'm pretty surprised.

MAX MIRNYI: I think it was a little bit different today. Like I said, I felt I was dictating actually quite a few points from the back. I was mixing up my serve a little more, staying back with the second serve, coming forward with my groundies. You know, having done that, it gives me a lot of confidence going into my upcoming matches because I know, you know, I'm able to do that. I was winning a lot of baseline points against Guga today. You know, he's one of the better guys from the back of the court. You know, I felt comfortable moving around the baseline today, bringing my game forward, rather than the other two matches where I was moving more up and down rather than laterally.