TMS - ROME

May 10, 2001

Harel Levy

HAREL LEVY: Well, actually it's my first tournament on clay which I've been doing well. But I mean also in the Juniors I've played a couple of good matches on clay. I played on the South American, like, tour, like five or six tournaments I've played there and I did pretty well. In the men's so far, I didn't do so well but this is the first time. But I'm not surprised because I've been practicing on clay with Kuerten.

HAREL LEVY: Yeah, with Guga, and I've been playing pretty well. So I'm not really surprised.

HAREL LEVY: Well, just by watching him you can learn a lot. And by practicing with him, even more. And Larri, his coach, is helping me a lot all the time when he's with us in the tournaments.

HAREL LEVY: That's difficult thing to say because if I'm gonna tell you yes and I lose tomorrow, so it's not good. (Laughter.) You never know. I just looking forward for the next match.

HAREL LEVY: Well, my coach and his coach are very good friends. I know Larri for eight years now, since the Juniors. He's been traveling and I've been traveling with my coach, and we knew each other. And I think three years ago my coach invited him and Guga to come over to Israel and practice. They said, "No, no, we're not gonna come to Israel. We're gonna stay in Brazil and you're gonna come to Brazil and practice with us." That's how we got closer.

HAREL LEVY: I live in Israel.

HAREL LEVY: In what Ramat-Hasharon. Ask this guy. He knows. (Pointing.) It's a suburb of Tel Aviv. It's like, 10, 15 minutes from Tel Aviv.

HAREL LEVY: Actually, I started with soccer, it's football. I still like soccer much better than tennis. (Laughter.) Yeah. And my team just lost yesterday in the semifinal cup, so I was depressed all day even though I won.

HAREL LEVY: Midfield.

HAREL LEVY: Yes. Following closely, my team in Israel.

HAREL LEVY: It's Macabi Haifa.

HAREL LEVY: Well, this is from experience. Beating good players and not getting too excited, because it happened to me before which I beat good players, not like Pete, but good players and I got too excited and the next match I played like I don't want to tell you who. I mean, I really lost my concentration. So this is from experience. I tried not to get too excited and keep the focus as long as I'm still in the tournament.

HAREL LEVY: Well, so far my best results was on hardcourts and I grew up on hardcourts. But here I'm playing also well on clay. So I think my best surface is still hardcourt. I grew on hardcourt, and most of my life I've played on hardcourt.

HAREL LEVY: First we'll have to -- I mean on the court if we play each other, everyone's gonna try to do the best he can and try to win, of course. But I mean, it depend. At the end, we gonna be friends again. You just have to put it aside while you're on the court, all the friendship and the respect or whatever you have for your opponent.

HAREL LEVY: Right now is the Davis Cup captain, so, I mean, we just had Davis Cup two weeks ago. I mean, last weekend we finished Davis Cup. So we have a very good relationship between us, and we haven't been close while he was playing, I was still young and he quit like seven years ago.

HAREL LEVY: He's now 36, yes.

HAREL LEVY: In practice?

HAREL LEVY: Never. (Laughter.)

HAREL LEVY: Like I said, football and listening to music. I love music.

HAREL LEVY: Israeli. I like soft rock. I like -- depends. Go out dancing, I like techno.

HAREL LEVY: No. No.

HAREL LEVY: No, I live with my family. Who's gonna make my laundry? (Laughter.)

HAREL LEVY: I have two sisters younger than me. One is 19, almost 20, and the other one is 12.

HAREL LEVY: They tried. They didn't do so well.

HAREL LEVY: No, there's no problem. I mean, practicing, there's no problem. I mean in Tel Aviv everything is pretty quiet. But the problem is I don't have anybody to practice with, so I try to find -- because you always look to practice with better players than practice with players that are not as good as you because you want to improve all the time.

HAREL LEVY: In Israel right now. But maybe some day somebody's gonna be better than me. Then I'll have the chance of practicing in Israel. Sometimes we have some good players in Israel, but, you know, it's better always to practice with some guys that are playing the Tour and usually they know what's going on on the Tour and they're better than you. I think that's the most professional thing to do.

HAREL LEVY: After Rome?

HAREL LEVY: Hamburg, then French Open, then who knows?

HAREL LEVY: Until last year, it was bad. And we talked a little bit, and now it's better. No, I mean last year I qualified and I won, I beat Stoltenberg in the first round which was a great win on grass. Then I lost to (Inaudible). So I played a couple of good matches on grass. I surprised myself. But hope -- I just played a couple of matches, you play on grass only maybe three tournaments a year or two tournaments a year so it's not that much. Last year I played only Wimbledon. I didn't play any tournament on grass before.

HAREL LEVY: Yes, I am. I'm gonna play probably two tournaments on grass before Wimbledon: Queen's and Nottingham.

HAREL LEVY: With my serve, we'll see. I don't know.

HAREL LEVY: No, it's not right.

HAREL LEVY: In jewelry, yes. He is but that doesn't mean that we are rich.

HAREL LEVY: That's true.

HAREL LEVY: Maybe. I mean everybody, men and women in Israel, they have to go to the Army when they are 18, men for three years and women for almost two years. So maybe it makes you more mature, I mean younger. When you go into the Army when you're 18, you have no choice, it's not like you go to college and you have fun with your friends. I mean, you are in -- you're in a special group and you do what you're told and you not do whatever you want to do. So maybe it helps you.

HAREL LEVY: Right, discipline maybe. Also the discipline.

HAREL LEVY: She had to go back to the Army.

HAREL LEVY: Well, I was very lucky with the Army. I served very close to my house, and I had a very good relationship with my commanders so they let me travel a lot. Every time I came back, I brought them some chocolates, you know.

HAREL LEVY: Ramat-Hasharon, that's where I live. It's the biggest tennis center in Israel.