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U.S. OPENAugust 30, 2013Tim SmyczekNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK T. SMYCZEK/A. Bogomolov THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. On the delay, same sort of issues as last time? TIM SMYCZEK: Yeah. Four hours is a long time to be on a tennis court. Q. How was it? Your second five‑setter after Reynolds here last year. 2‑0, not bad. TIM SMYCZEK: Yeah, yeah. Uhm, it was good. I knew coming into the match he had to be a little bit tired after the first round he had, 7‑6 in the fifth. But, I mean, he sure didn't show it in the first set. Then after I won the second, I thought he seemed like he was maybe running out of gas at the end of the second set. He just came at me full power in the beginning of the third and broke me right away. He's got a lot in reserves. You know, it was a long one. Luckily today I was getting some free points on my serve which, you know, helped. But, yeah, it was a grind. Q. First time at this stage of a major. TIM SMYCZEK: Yeah. Q. How does it feel? TIM SMYCZEK: So far so good. Uhm, I still got to, you know, sleep on it maybe. Probably get a good 12 hours tonight (smiling). Q. That was going to be my question. You just played four hours on a Friday night in New York. What are your plans after this? TIM SMYCZEK: Recovery mode. I'll go see the trainers, get a massage, probably get some take‑out. If I'm able to stay awake until the take‑out gets to my room, then I'll eat some. Q. What does it mean to you to make it to the third round of a slam? You're not young. TIM SMYCZEK: Yeah, it has been a long road. You know, it's great. Like I said, so far so good. Maybe I'll have more for you tomorrow. Q. Are you still in disbelief or what? TIM SMYCZEK: No. I mean, I've had chances. I've played in several main draws. You know, I've always thought I could. It makes me really happy. Obviously it's been a long time for it to happen the first time now when I'm 25. But, you know, I'm just looking ahead and looking at the next match, and I'm really excited. Q. You have Granollers. Do you know him? TIM SMYCZEK: I don't know him. Have to get a good scouting report. Q. You've seen him play, obviously. TIM SMYCZEK: Yeah. But don't know much about him. Q.  Good serve. TIM SMYCZEK: I think he comes in a fair amount. Q. Loud grunter. TIM SMYCZEK: Loud grunter? I'll grunt back. Q. It's just you and Sock and Isner left. TIM SMYCZEK: Is that right? I know Sock plays Tipsarevic. Do you know who Isner plays? Q. Kohlschreiber. TIM SMYCZEK: Yeah, I mean, I know all of us Americans have a pretty good rapport, and we're all pulling for each other. Even Rajeev. Saw him in the locker room. He came up to me and said he was really happy for me. I think it's pretty cool the way we all get along pretty well. Q. Planning on running out of gas at more majors? TIM SMYCZEK: If that's what it takes, yeah. The guy that rescued us has been walking me to and from matches, so I'm going to keep that going. Q. He was the guy driving the car that rescued you? TIM SMYCZEK: Yeah. He doesn't work for transportation. He's the one that picked us up on the side of the road. So then after my first‑round match, I don't think this is his job, but he escorted me from the court back to the locker room. Then he did the same thing to the court and from the court today. Hopefully we can keep that going. Q. He's worried about you. TIM SMYCZEK: Yeah, he's looking after me. I got to get him something nice at the end of the week. Q. There's some chatter that maybe the car broke down. TIM SMYCZEK: No, no, it was just gas. We were coasting for a good mile or so. It wasn't engine trouble. Q. It was not mechanical? TIM SMYCZEK: Right, no. I got a couple of tweets, too, that people were like telling me, Maybe you can fill up your gas tank now. I don't think they know that it wasn't my car. Q. All these prize money increases, not a bad payday for you. TIM SMYCZEK: It's a good day. Q. Do you have your sights on anything? TIM SMYCZEK: I made a deal with my coach Billy if I made the third round of a slam this year I was going to buy him a set of golf clubs. That's going to be my major purchase. Q. Could you bring us up to speed on your Wisconsin connections, background. TIM SMYCZEK: Yeah, I was born outside of Milwaukee. Q. What town? TIM SMYCZEK: I guess I was born in Milwaukee. I lived in Franklin. Then when I was maybe eight or nine we moved to Hales Corners. My parents are still there. My sister is in grad school at Madison. My brother is a lawyer in Milwaukee. Still try and go back there as often as possible. I'll probably head home right after here. Q. Did you play much in the tennis center there? Are you a Badger fan? TIM SMYCZEK: No, not much up in Madison. We were all Milwaukee. I follow the Badgers because of my sister. There's a little riff in the family because my brother went to Notre Dame. Kind of torn. Q. When you saw your draw here, Duckworth, Bogomolov, not seeds, did you feel like you had more of an opportunity here? TIM SMYCZEK: Yeah, when the draw came out I saw I played Duckworth. You know, he's really dangerous. He's had some good wins this year already. You know, I didn't by any means take him lightly. When I saw it, my first reaction was, That's a little bit more pressure on me. But, you know, I was lucky to get through that one. Then Paire I think was serving 5‑4 in the fifth. I was expecting to play him. Then I saw I was going to play Bogey. You know, I know Bogey so well, and I know that I don't usually like to play him. He kind of does a lot of the same things I do on the court. I knew it was going to be a battle. I didn't really feel fortunate at all walking out on the court. On paper it's a good draw, but there aren't too many good draws here. Q. It sort of continues. Another unseeded guy next round. TIM SMYCZEK: Yeah. But he took out Rajeev, who beat Fognini. Killed Fognini. For me, I'm ranked a hundred something in the world. Pretty much everyone I face from here on in is going to be ranked ahead of me. Yeah, I don't have to play Roger or Rafa, but they're all tough draws. Q. What do you want to do in the next year or two? Talk about your hopes. TIM SMYCZEK: Yeah, I set a goal at the beginning of this year to break into the top 100. I got to 101 and still haven't made it, so that's still the main one for me. Then just, you know, cementing myself inside there, setting myself up for getting into all the Grand Slams next year. You know, can't really set new goals until you've reached the last one, so... Q. Will you play a bunch of challengers after the Open? Go out to California? TIM SMYCZEK: That's the plan right now. Q. Do you know what you're playing? Tiburon? TIM SMYCZEK: It starts in Napa. I'm not sure if Tiburon is first or Sacramento. One of the two. I don't know which order they go in. Q. For top 100, I think you're projected at 100. TIM SMYCZEK: Really? Q. But the rankings don't come out for another week. TIM SMYCZEK: I was talking with Denis Kudla about this in the locker room. He's trying to do his schedule. He was talking about there's several guys still in the draw that are in between 115 and 90. It will be a lot of shuffling around, I'm sure. Q. You get into slams directly at 105. TIM SMYCZEK: Yeah, 100 is the goal. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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