TELECOM ITALIA MASTERS

May 7, 2004

Vincent Spadea

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

VINCENT SPADEA: I don't know. I just didn't have it today, didn't move well. It wasn't feeling, you know -- I was just -- I just lost those points, and that was a crucial time of the match. It was a good chance to go to the third set if I could win one of those points, and here I went and lost six straight games, which is really the most disappointing part about the match. But I just, you know, I didn't combine, you know, enough offense with the right amount of grinding. I don't think I had my legs with me today. My left hamstring has really been bothering me the last two days. I felt like I had to be too offensive today to win, when normally I would have waited for more chances. I think I kind of pressed too much. That's what happened in those games - in those points, actually. He had a good serve on one of them, and the other ones... One, I over-hit a ball. But, you know, it's just...

VINCENT SPADEA: I went to bed around one o'clock in the morning. I thought I was -- I didn't even realize what time I was playing. I thought I was playing earlier, so I got up earlier. Kind of just become a little disoriented at that point. But he went to bed probably later than me, because I saw him getting a massage when I left.

VINCENT SPADEA: But it was just a bad, bad day at the office.

VINCENT SPADEA: It's just -- it just marks up as a week with three good wins and one bad, you know -- you know, not rising to the occasion, and that's it. Those things are gonna happen when you're playing a Top 10 player. You know, I'm playing No. 5 in the first round, and playing a guy who hadn't lost a match in, you know, twelve days yesterday until 10:30 at night. It's a good challenge, especially on this surface, as an American. So, you know, unless it's a final or a win, you don't look at it as glorious as the outcome's been. But it's just another solid, hopefully progressive week.

VINCENT SPADEA: I'm going to the German Open, then I'm playing in the World Team Cup, I suppose - I haven't heard the final word on that. But, obviously, everything is culminating to Roland Garros, and that's where I'd want to play my best.