US OPEN

August 30, 1997

Jeff Tarango

Q. Was quite a wild atmosphere out there?

JEFF TARANGO: Yeah.

JEFF TARANGO: No. I think that's the way tennis should be played. I think every match in tennis should be like that. Unfortunately, there's not enough personalities to bring that out.

JEFF TARANGO: What antics would those be?

JEFF TARANGO: Okay.

JEFF TARANGO: Well, I didn't feel that that was an antic. The girl spilled All Sport all over my stuff, made my shoes sticky, threw away my banana. I didn't think that was an antic, maybe I'm misinterpreting it.

JEFF TARANGO: Well, I'm out there for four hours and some lady's telling me to hurry up and play and try harder. I think that's pretty ridiculous when I don't think she can run six blocks.

JEFF TARANGO: What?

JEFF TARANGO: I think they should show a certain amount of respect for an athlete that's out there trying their hardest. Pretty hypocritical for her to tell me to run more when she probably couldn't even make it down the street.

JEFF TARANGO: I didn't know exactly who it was. I asked them to watch because I've had some problems down at Lipton, and I didn't want those problems to happen again.

JEFF TARANGO: No. I would have liked to win.

JEFF TARANGO: Huh?

JEFF TARANGO: No. I would have liked to win. I think I should have beat him. If I wouldn't have played five sets yesterday and the five sets the day before that, I think I would have beaten him.

JEFF TARANGO: I'm pretty disappointed. I feel like I should have won the match. If I had won the first set, I probably would have won in straight sets. I thought I had a good chance to win the fourth. I thought I had a good chance to win the fifth. You know, he came up with some really good shots down the stretch, but I felt I shouldn't have let it get there.

JEFF TARANGO: Well, I just didn't hold my serve as well as I have the whole tournament. Actually the last three or four weeks, I've been serving pretty great. I didn't serve that well down the stretch. I probably served too much the last couple days playing five sets of doubles yesterday and five sets of singles the day before. I think my arm was a little heavy. I think that showed.

JEFF TARANGO: It's tough with the lights there in the middle of the day, spotlights shining in your eyes. It's pretty difficult. I thought I hit it pretty well. He jumped up and made a pretty miraculous shot, I thought, and made a good shot after that. I think you have to give him credit at that point.

JEFF TARANGO: Five o'clock.

JEFF TARANGO: Well, I think it's pretty ridiculous, five o'clock in the afternoon, to turn on lights just because Scott Draper requests it at the US Open. It's pretty strange to me.

JEFF TARANGO: He requested it before five and they got it at five. They said, "Oh, that's about what time we turn them on anyway." They never mentioned they were going to turn the lights on before the match, which they should do.

JEFF TARANGO: They didn't ask me. The chair umpire said, "Okay" flipped the lights on.

JEFF TARANGO: No. They said they start at about that time.

JEFF TARANGO: Yes. I think it's ridiculous to have lights on at five in the afternoon.

JEFF TARANGO: Well, no. I think at this point the press writes whatever the hell they want to write, they don't really take in consideration the hard work that goes into this. And I don't think you guys really see how hard we're trying out there. You don't see the day in, day out rigors of the Tour. I think you're a little bit critical of my matches, when, if you go watch the other matches a lot some, if not all, the same things are going on. I think the interpretation that you guys make is a slanted one. I really have no control over that. Then the people read that. Of course, most people on the earth believe whatever they read. That's just the way it is. I mean, I'm not affected by it at all.

JEFF TARANGO: No. I think that was a good article that I read there. Those were basically all my quotes. I thought I was pretty right. I don't understand your question.

JEFF TARANGO: Well, because my doubles partner and I the other night are out playing and we're both fighting our butts off out there; we're having a great time. The crowd is getting really into it. The press comes over and they immediately say, "Jeff Tarango and Guillaume Raoux are getting into it over there," trying to make a big hype that we're arguing, yelling at each other, when we're fully having one of the best matches played at the tournament, playing probably the highest quality of tennis that was played thus far. Instead of saying, "What a great match is going on over here, two great players are really fighting it out," it's all of a sudden some kind of hype to get some kind of controversy going. I don't see why that started. You guys have the freedom to do whatever you want. And I think you should be a little more careful.

JEFF TARANGO: Well, because I think the fans read what's in the press and they come into it based on what they read. I saw an article after the Raoux match, "Terrible Tarango." The next day. I think that's absolutely ridiculous.

JEFF TARANGO: You know, I don't know. I don't know what the initial thing is. I think that initially they hear that, yeah, Tarango is over there playing, so it's probably exciting.

JEFF TARANGO: Well, why would it be? It's good for me in the fact that I love to play exciting matches like that, yeah. But, you know, as far as the day in, day out, reading the BS in the press, no. That's not good for me. I'm out here just like any other player trying my hardest every day. I get bad press and all the other guys it's fine.

JEFF TARANGO: Well, it seems like the crowd, there's people in the crowd that are either diehards: They want me to win, and then there's people out there, doesn't matter what kind of effort you put in, no matter what kind of attitude you have on the court, don't like you because of what they've read before and have their mind made up. It just seems like over and over again these people come out with this idea already of me. I think that's a little ridiculous because they're given a wrong impression in the press.