U.S. OPEN

August 31, 1994

MaliVai Washington

MaliVAI WASHINGTON: Who got them me or Michael.

MaliVAI WASHINGTON: I didn't get any?

MaliVAI WASHINGTON: Oh.

MaliVAI WASHINGTON: Is it frustrating? It makes it more interesting because you got to do a little more and you can't just bank on hitting one or two good shots to get the point over with, you know, that's one of his assets. He can get back a lot of balls, but, you know, when I go out there and play him I expect that, you know, and I'm ready for that. You know, he was just able to get one more ball back, you know, than I did.

MaliVAI WASHINGTON: Oh, I hate him-- no. I mean, it's a good rivalry. How could -- it's hard not to like a guy like Michael because he's a class act on the court and, you know, he just goes out and does his business and leaves. No BS'ing around with him and it's good to play a guy like that. And I'm the same way. I'm just out there to play tennis, and you know, the best man will win. He won today, I won a couple weeks ago. When you fight like that -- I thought it was a good match. When you fight as hard as you can, you don't -- you know, you go up and shake the guy's hand and wish him luck.

MaliVAI WASHINGTON: I could see that I had a lot of support. It was great. That's what was pulling me through the final set. I was having a few tough games on serves towards the end of the fourth and he was holding easy on his serve and a couple times I got down, I think, Love-40, Love-30 that kind of thing, and you know, I'd come up with a big serve and the crowd would really get into it. They would go nuts and that would spur me on a little more. So it was great to have all the -- you know, so many people just loving the tennis.

MaliVAI WASHINGTON: At what point was that?

MaliVAI WASHINGTON: Yeah, I think I went up 3-0 in the fourth.

MaliVAI WASHINGTON: When I was out there I was hoping to serve as good as I could throughout the whole match and my serve was bailing me out a lot, and it was working for me, which I was happy about. I think at that point, I was just putting that third set behind me and I wanted to get off to a good start in the fourth. It just so happened that, you know, I was able to get off to a good start in every set and -- you know, but I never sustained it. I went up a break in the second, third and fourth, and a break isn't any good if you're not going to hold all the way through the set, which obviously I didn't do.

MaliVAI WASHINGTON: I think he just played tough. I could see that he had cut down on some of his errors and he was just playing hard ball. I mean, that's all you can really say. I don't think I was doing anything wrong or differently. At that time, he was just playing a little better tennis.

MaliVAI WASHINGTON: Am I surprised at that?

MaliVAI WASHINGTON: No, I'm the kind of guy who's out there and I'm looking to run down a lot of balls too. We're not the type of players who are just going to rush the net a whole lot. I probably will so more than him, but even still, I know when I'm out there, I got to work the point around. I -- I'm not a serve and volleyer, so I'm not just going to be coming in on anything. I work the point around it until I get the shot I want or I create the shot to come in on, and when it's like that, you're going to have a lot of long points and a lot of running and a lot of great gets and a lot of great winners. It just makes for great tennis.

MaliVAI WASHINGTON: I thought the match point finished it for me when I hit that volley winner at 3-All -- to go 3-All, that was a good point and I felt good at that point. I was hoping -- I was hoping he would throw in an error or something like that, but he played a solid tiebreaker. I'm not so sure he made a single unforced error in the tiebreaker. That's how you got to play the breakers. I look forward to playing him again.

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