TMS - ROME

May 12, 2001

Nicolas Lapentti

NICOLAS LAPENTTI: Well, he's -- his game has improved a lot in many different aspects. I think his serve, it's more deeper, and I think what the most -- what impressed me the most was the way he was returning. I was serving pretty well on certain points of the match and he was just coming with big returns. And he's definitely playing great tennis. He's solid from both sides. He's not a player that, for example, you hit a ball to his backhand and then you take a deep breath and, "Okay, I'm back in the point." He's always putting pressure on you. And I think to beat Juan Carlos I just needed to be 100 percent. The one thing I'm happy about this match is that I feel like I'm hitting the ball well again, my timing is there, my confidence is getting back. But when we had some long rallies, just my legs couldn't keep up with him and that was the difference. He's a strong player, and you need to be fit to beat him.

NICOLAS LAPENTTI: It's very important. After the Ericsson Open, I started working really hard because I knew that it was a very important season for me, this clay court season. Last year my clay court season wasn't as expected, so I knew I could take advantage of it. And then in Monte-Carlo I got injured so I kind of -- I was a bit depressed. But the good thing is that mentally I kept high, I kept tough and I think I came back stronger. So definitely after having three first-round losses in the clay court season, to come here and reach the semis is great. So hopefully I can be ready for Tuesday and just start all over again.

NICOLAS LAPENTTI: Yeah. I would put those two names up there. They are definitely playing at their best level right now and, well, together I think they won almost every week - well three tournaments out of four I think. So probably if things go the way everybody thinks, and Guga reaches the final, I think it's the top two players on the clay court season playing in the finals. So it probably could be, but Roland Garros is a completely different tournament. It's a long week and five-set matches, so you never know what's going to happen.

NICOLAS LAPENTTI: Well, the nice thing is that we're playing at home. There was like four or five ties in a row that we were playing away, so it's nice to be back home. Well, it's funny, we beat Great Britain on grass, now we play on clay courts. And I wouldn't say we're the favorites, but for sure we have more chances than we had back at Wimbledon. We also have to be ready, because they're gonna come to take revenge; they're gonna be 100 percent. They are not gonna -- they're not gonna say anything , any comments like they did last time, like they're gonna beat us with their eyes closed, things like that. So they're gonna be prepared.

NICOLAS LAPENTTI: Well, I wouldn't say is the safest place in the world, but you also have to know where to go. And what happened with the soccer manager, it's a long story. I don't know if you follow it, but --.

NICOLAS LAPENTTI: Yeah, it come from way back. It just -- I don't want to make any comments about it.

NICOLAS LAPENTTI: It's just... Well, it's just one person that his son was on the team and he kind of came back and got revenge, which I think it could happen anywhere in the world. But it was just something that is not gonna happen every day. I mean, you have to be careful where to go, but if you stay safe, is no problem.

NICOLAS LAPENTTI: Yeah, the crowd is pretty tough. I'm sure it's gonna be -- they're gonna be on top of the players, and we're trying to build a stadium for around 7,000 people. So hopefully we can sold it out and we can have all the people behind us.

NICOLAS LAPENTTI: He's been on and off. He's been having some little bit of an injury in his back. He just started playing a few weeks ago again. He just started playing some Futures. At the beginning, he just wanted to play the big tournaments, but I think now he realize that he has to start from lower levels to get some confidence and win a few matches. But he's doing better.

NICOLAS LAPENTTI: It was just a drop shot I hit on Juan Carlos. When he got to the ball, he kind of -- kind of missed. He hit it twice. So I just asked -- and he missed the shot. So I just kind of asked the umpire what would have happened if the ball would have come over the net, if it would have counted or not. It's just a matter of he told me, "What did I do," or something like that. It was just nothing.

NICOLAS LAPENTTI: Because yesterday I said like a thousand times molte bene.