U.S. OPEN

September 2, 1995

Vincent Spadea

VINCENT SPADEA: Terrible. I'm pretty pleased with what's happening at this point. I feel I went out and played -- you know, I handled the whole situation, you know, very well. And I was able to hit my shots and to go after the match the way I wanted to. I controlled the situation which was, you know, A very nice feeling and, you know, very confident and controlling feeling. So right now I'm very happy, to say the least and, you know, a little bit, you know, surprised with the -- with the outcome in terms of how I was able to go out and perform and how I did and handle everything.

VINCENT SPADEA: It looks like that now, but going out there, I certainly was trying to just, you know, stick with my game plan and trying to execute my shots as best as possible, stay within myself, and then, you know -- I had played him before this year and so I knew what to expect and, you know, I was able to really control a lot the whole match. And I served well; I served smart, and I played, you know, every point, you know, to the best of my ability and everything worked out.

VINCENT SPADEA: Well, basically, I was focusing on my own execution. You know, I was going, you know, making sure that I controlled the baseline rallies because he moves well, and he hits the ball heavy. And obviously, you know, he's got a good serve and, you know, so I needed to go out and sort of dictate what was happening out there and sort of make sure that I was attacking him, and getting my opportunities and, you know, really competing out there. And, you know, in terms of tactics, you know, I just, you know, when you're playing a player of this caliber, there aren't a lot of things that you want to go out and do that are obvious weaknesses. So I think I just needed to go out and hit my shots the way I wanted to hit them, and I knew that if I did that, that would be able to put anybody in a tough situation. But I think everything is coming together at the right time, and I felt the last few weeks I've been playing better and better. I'm really confident in what I'm doing, on my game and I think that's helped me a lot, especially going into a situation like this. If you lack any kind of sureness about one pick particular area or yourself or whatever, it's easy to break down. And I'm becoming stronger in that sense too, not to get into -- go off on a tangent. But that's basically it.

VINCENT SPADEA: Yes.

VINCENT SPADEA: Well, the feeling when I first walked on the court? Well, to tell you the truth, I didn't really look at anything above, you know, just the -- you know, the fence or whatever, the back. I didn't -- you know, I hardly, you know, made contact with anybody in the crowd, and I never, on the changeovers or at any time, looked up and, you know, got a good view of everything which I've done in the past when I haven't been on the court. And that was one of my goals, was to keep myself focused that way and concentrated on what I needed to accomplish. When I hit that winner, it was, you know, very satisfying. It, you know -- it's, you know, it was great. You know, sometimes the crowd and you can't hear them, it's just everything is like numb almost. But I knew that it was over, and I was extremely happy that I had, you know, won my first big match over a top player, and I knew it could happen and I was so, -- you know, I was very happy that it did -- especially tonight.

VINCENT SPADEA: Yes, absolutely. There were a lot of factors why I lost those particular matches. But I think in particular going against those types of players is definitely an experience that, you know, you can't match in terms of playing any other players. So you need to go out and have that experience. It's tough to go out and just think you're going to go out and beat those guys, I don't care how good and how confident you are about yourself. And, you know, coming close it was encouraging and, you know, it gave me, you know, a -- I don't know, I mean, it's like tonight I think it helped me in those matches because I went out and I wasn't really intimidated by the actual player whereas when you go out against the other top players you are, because, I mean, we're kind of the same age and, you know, we played a little bit in the juniors or whatever. So I think that helped me going in. But on the other hand, playing these top players and coming close, you know, it gave you that dissatisfaction that coming close was, you know, not even close really in a sense. I mean, it was not good enough. So the more those types of experiences happen, the more that you want to be out and going after and trying to win these matches, actually going over. And, I mean, it's just a complete different reaction for yourself and for everybody else.

VINCENT SPADEA: No, I didn't get that specific in his backhand. I knew that if I hit my backhand the way I could into his backhand, he wasn't going to be able to manipulate me around the court like -- you know, like he usually does. But he did -- you know, he mixed up the top spin and flat balls and down line and I had to make sure that I wasn't just hitting a ball cross court with not a lot of purpose or not a lot of, you know, stuff on the ball. So, you know, the backhand, you know, I just needed to go out. And I didn't worry too much about that, I just worried about my tactical goals.

VINCENT SPADEA: Right.

VINCENT SPADEA: I'm going to blame the lights on that one. You know, there's big lights right there and, you know, I just sort of felt that at the last minute I was going to go cross court, you know, I had the easy -- I think it's the same one we're talking about, and I decided to run with it at the last minute and I was indecisive. I mean, it wasn't that big of a point, I don't think, to where it was like I was getting tight. It wasn't that. It was just I lost my thought for a second and the lights and all that.

VINCENT SPADEA: Right. Yeah, I mean, you want to hurry up and get it over with and done and you want to be happy and, you know, these guys make you work and you have to go out and prove yourself and hit the right shots and big shots at the right time. And I was able to do that and, you know, I didn't get too anxious which was nice, I stayed calm and I stayed focused and I stayed aggressive for the most part. So that's what really won the match.

VINCENT SPADEA: I'm not totally deaf at this point. Yes, I was aware of that and it was -- you know, it was great. I mean, it was so encouraging and it was a great feeling and, you know, these New Yorkers, they are very outgoing and not afraid to speak up. So, you know, it was definitely a different experience. I mean, even playing in other parts of the U.S. I didn't totally have that playing top players or whatever, so that was definitely an experience and at times -- you know, it was a little bit hard sometimes when they got almost too into it when I was trying to serve, but it was great, you know. I mean, I'd rather have it that way than struggling with them or whatever. But that was a new experience and a positive one.

VINCENT SPADEA: I haven't seen them. My mom had her video camera out, so I'm sure she's got that going.

VINCENT SPADEA: Yeah.

VINCENT SPADEA: I'm probably going to call them tonight.

VINCENT SPADEA: What are they going to say? They're going to say congratulations probably, good match, keep it going. Who knows.

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