Agassi第四輪賽後訪問 - 網球

THE MODERATOR: First question.

Q. Do you think you were able to settle into a rhythm?

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, not as much as I certainly would have liked for a
couple reasons. Obviously, the conditions play a major factor in a match,
sort of establishing itself.

Also the way Taylor was playing. He's a guy that can really take you out
of your rhythm. He's a difficult guy to play against.


Q. At 4-3, I think it was, in the third, his coach said on TV he thought
Taylor should just come off the court. Did you have a sense the injury
was as great as it apparently is?

ANDRE AGASSI: No, I didn't. Well, I know that he was getting some
treatment, you know, you never know what a guy is getting treatment for.
Sometimes you're sitting around, your legs get a little stiff. You're
trying to warm up, trying to get them to relax a little bit.

You know, I've seen a lot of guys get rubbed out there and continue at a
high standard. So for it to sort of abruptly come to an end was
definitely a surprise to me.


Q. Did you see, though, his serve - which obviously the first set, he
served great. He served well in the second set. Third, his speed
seemed to go down a little bit?

ANDRE AGASSI: Yeah, yeah, it did. No question about it. Again, you're
never quite sure what the reason is for anything, as far as you're not
inside a guy's head.

I was returning his second pretty well at that stage. I didn't know if
he was trying to take a little bit off of it or what have you. It started
to become apparent he was struggling with his leg. I was just surprised
that he was unable to continue.


Q. What makes him so difficult to play against?

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, the whole match, really. First of all, the serve
speaks for itself, it's a big serve. He has real good hands up at net,
covers the net really well. But he was getting, you know, great length
on his returns today. If I missed a first serve, he was sort of charging
forward. Not just coming forward on a bluff, he was coming forward on a
real quality shot that, you know, he didn't have to move a step to cover
the passing shot, because I was in such trouble off his approach shot.

You know, it was just he was playing close to the lines. He was playing
really well. It was just hard to deal with.


Q. Is he playing any better than when you played him before?

ANDRE AGASSI: Yeah, no question about it.


Q. What kind of things did you do to stay loose during the long rain
delays or short rain delays, too?

ANDRE AGASSI: I mean, you just sit around and tell stories and, you know...


Q. You don't stretch or...?

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, you know, you warm up when you sort of get the idea
that you're within 30 minutes of going out there. But the rest of the
time you try not to -- you try not to fatigue yourself, you know,
thinking about the match too much because there's nothing you can do
about it and you got a long day. You're gonna have to concentrate long
enough when you're out there.


Q. You've been talking about this for years, but you hit a couple critical
volleys out there tonight. Are you doing that more with Darren now, or
are you comfortable, is it just a change in tactic for you?

ANDRE AGASSI: As of right now, I only really want to be coming to net on
my terms, which means if I'm just coming in to really finish something
off. You know, I think there will come a stage of my career where sort
of it's harder for me to get things done from the back of the court and
I need to start implementing that more just because it becomes about
winning points as opposed to breaking guys down.

But, you know, as of right now, I stick to my guns, I stick to my
strengths. Certainly try to be confident when I come in. But if I'm
coming in, having to play two volleys, I'm doing something pretty
drastically wrong.


Q. You seem to deal with these conditions well, your stamina, strength.
Rain delays don't seem to faze you. Can you talk about that?

ANDRE AGASSI: I'd be a good poker player then 'cause, you know, these
conditions affect everybody. It's just a question of trying to get the
most out of yourself. A lot of years of experience, but it's still
difficult to do.


Q. French Open, after you lost to Coria, you expressed the desire to
play him on a hard court. Are you hoping he beats Bjorkman so you get
that opportunity?

ANDRE AGASSI: Actually, my quote was to play him at Wimbledon.


Q. He's up a set and a break. Just talk about playing him on a hard
court, because it's obviously not grass but it's definitely different
than clay.

ANDRE AGASSI: Yeah, well, yeah. I'd rather play him here than in Paris,
that's for sure. He played a great match that day against me in Paris.

You know, not to say that he's not effective on the hard courts. He's
been doing a lot better on the other surfaces now, too. He's a great
mover, a great ball striker. I'll have to have a lot of conviction in my
game. You know, should be a good match.


Q. The first rain delay in particular, did that unnerve you more? You
were coming off a break, seemed to find momentum after the first one?

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, it's always hard to sort of get the engines going
again. When there's sort of so much riding on that first opening game,
sometimes you think more about closing out the set than you do about
playing quality tennis.

You know, when you start a match, you just let your game happen, you
know. When you go out there and it's 5-4 and you know if you can get up
a set lead, four points -- you know, I just played a bit of a tentative
game, but he came up with a few real good shots. So it was a bit of both.

You know, but he earned that first set. There was a lot of tennis left,
but I think the second rain delay was more frustrating being down 7-6.


Q. What are your thoughts on the compressed schedule the next few days,
given the rain-outs?

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, they have the option of going Thursday, Saturday,
Sunday, so I don't know what the conclusion's gonna be on the scheduling.
But, you know, it's a tough situation for everybody. It's tough for the
players, tough for the fans, tough for the tournament to sort of make
all the calls and sort of the, you know, audibles at the line. It's hard
to make those calls.

They have a lot of experience doing it. So there's a lot of variables to
consider. I wish it was only my match they were worried about, but it's
unfortunately the rest of the tournament.


Q. How would you like to see it handled based on what you've experienced
in the last couple days?

ANDRE AGASSI: (Smiling). Well, listen, I have full confidence in Jim
Curley and Brian Earley and all the folks that are responsible for trying
to handle a difficult situation.

So you wouldn't want me making those decisions.


Q. How tough would it be for you to play if you had to play three matches
in three days, best-of-five?

ANDRE AGASSI: It would be really tough. Be tough on everybody.

But that's sort of what makes tennis so special, is regardless of what
the circumstances are, two guys usually have to deal with it, have to
find a way.

(This is a partial transcript)

FastScripts by ASAP Sports...

--