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An Interview With Spain Davis Cup Team
4/4/02 6:48 PM |
Q. How is the Team feeling about the court?
Alex Corettja: The courts are in pretty good shape. We have been
improving our game in the last few days. Of coarse, we have a lot of
practice time and it's good to have one court for the entire day. I
think we started slowly the first day, but already we have been practicing
a lot of sets, a lot of matches and I think right now we are pretty
optimistic.
Q. What happened in 2000, does that have any
implication on this week? Are the Americans looking for revenge?
JUAN BALCELLS: We had a great success in 2000. We beat the US
at home and we tried to play our best. We played on clay and that was
the best thing for us. Now we are playing the US and they want to play
on grass. They know that is not a good surface for us. That is why we
are trying so hard and playing 100%.
Q. What is the team confidence and moral like?
ALEX CORRETJA: That is an interesting question. When you play
Davis Cup, anything can happen. Right now we feel like we are going
into Friday knowing that, of coarse, grass is not our best surface,
but in a one-day match, you can beat anybody, anywhere. You have to
try to do that. I believe, for us, it would be ridiculous for us to
win Wimbledon, the whole tournament, but there is no reason to think
that any of us cant win a single match. We feel like on Friday we can
go up 2-0 or we can go 0-2. We have to forget about the grass and just
focus on the grass.
Q. Do you feel like the pressure is on your team
(Spain) more than their team (US)?
ALEX CORRETJA: I always say that I like to be on the pressure
side, but they have the pressure in the part that they are playing at
home and on grass. I would rather have the pressure of playing on clay
and playing in Spain. I understand that they want to play on grass,
but we have some more chances to practice and be ready.
Q. Alex, there is a suggestion that you will
be playing all three days. How do you feel about that?
ALEX CORRETJA: I feel confident in myself, because I have been
doing that for the past few years. We will have to see how I feel after
the tournament of coarse, if I'm sore on my back or low back. Physically
I am fit and I believe I can play all three days so that won't be a
problem for me. I hope we can play all three days. That would mean that
we have a chance on Sunday.
Q. Tommy, Do you think the crowd will be a factor?
TOMMY ROBREDO: For sure, if we were in Spain, the crowd would
be with us for sure. Here, I think most of the crowd will be with the
USA, but on the tour I know that we play some matches where the crowd
is with us and others where the crowd is against us. We are going to
try to do our best.
Q. Have you had a chance to play on the clay
courts here?
ALEX CORRETJA: There is no reason to play on grass right now.
We want to focus on grass for this week. We love grass for this week.
This week we just love grass (laughter). We will try to eat, even grass
for lunch to get used to it. The team is fully focused on grass.
Q. Are there any match-up concerns at all?
ALEX CORRETJA: No. We try to go at every day one point at a time.
It is always nice to start with the first point. We believe that every
point will be difficult and tough for us to win. We don't feel like
one point is going to be more important than another. When you are out
there, you just try to win one match at a time.
Q. Tommy, how are you feeling about this as someone
so young and inexperienced in the Davis Cup?
TOMMY ROBREDO: For me it is one dream to play for the team. If
I have the chance to play, it will also be a dream. The next dream is
to, maybe win a match. To be with the team against the US on grass is
a really nice experience.
