PILOT PEN INTERNATIONAL

August 14, 1996

Leander Paes

LEANDER PAES: Played last evening and I was feeling awake, feeling a lot more comfortable playing an evening match. At the end of last evening's match, I felt a little tired physically, but this morning when I woke up, I was really sleepy. I tried to get out and do some running, get my body to be awake, but got on the court and I was not there. My whole rhythm was disorientated. I was feeling very tired physically. When you play a player like Rios, who is as talented as he is, you give him the upper hand, it's going to be really tough to come back.

LEANDER PAES: He's a very talented player. I've played him three times including today. The one thing that you don't realize about him is if he starts well, if you give him a lead early, he starts hitting out. On any given day, he can play very, very well or he can have an off day. I love playing someone like that, love playing someone who hits passing shots and down the baseline and stuff like that. Today my feet weren't quite there, so I was struggling today.

LEANDER PAES: No, not today, I couldn't.

LEANDER PAES: It's going to be tough to express and relate as to what the feeling was. At the same time, just to give you a certain example, when I won Juniors Wimbledon I had a welcome of about 1,500 people at the airport. When I went back after the Olympics this time, I arrived at four o'clock in the morning, there was the only tennis federation president, vice president and 5,000 other people waiting for me, including press, reporters, TV, camera. I mean, that's not including the security guards. We had about a good 500 security men there. They were just getting bowled over.

LEANDER PAES: India's tennis president. I mean, at the airport at four o'clock in the morning, I thought it would be quiet and peaceful. I thought, Yes, I can go home and get some sleep. Little did I know. I went into a little room to try to finish with the pictures and the media, and the camera men who were outside, they took a brick and they threw it through the glass pane, broke the glass pane to put the cameras in. That's when it started getting dangerous for me and I got up and had to take off. I promised the media some other time. I said, I'll be at the hotel, do it this evening when we don't have any glass panes around. It was something else.

LEANDER PAES: It was so close to my heart. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to get my own Olympics medal. There's something about the Olympics rings that I just wanted my own. I wanted it so badly. I worked really hard for it. Ever since I've been a kid, it's been one of my biggest goals. Playing Agassi in the semifinal, having two set points was a special moment. He played really well and won that match. Playing for the bronze medal, after the first set, I was reminded of my goal. This is your chance, you've worked your whole life for this, let's get on with it. You're tired, but let's go. I came out fighting, and the whole second set I broke twice, had a chance to break again. Even in the third set, I broke, but lost. It's a dream, living in the position of achieving something you dreamed of. Sometimes you go over hurdles that a lot of human beings don't. It's an attitude that was with me that whole Olympics two weeks.

LEANDER PAES: A lot of press coverage. I was on the front page of about four national papers every single day, pictures, mini article on the front page, another big article about the match and the write-up, how the games went on the sports page. They gave me like about a minute and a half every day on the news, which is a lot of time. I mean, I've got all the recordings and all the paper cuttings and stuff. My dad is preparing his own scrapbook now, Olympics scrapbook. It's a lot of fun. I really enjoy what I do. I love playing tennis. Even today, I mean I was beaten really badly, but at the same time I was out there to have the most fun as I could. Some days you have tough days like this. Some days you lose, some days you win. You've got to a keep a smile on your face and be realistic with what's going on.

LEANDER PAES: That's right.

LEANDER PAES: I hit an ace on the last point. One ace (laughter).

LEANDER PAES: Correct. Basically took me 20 hours to get to India, and all through that flight I was trying to get prepared for what was happening at home. Basically the hour before I left, got the fax sent to me about what was happening during the day I was in New Delhi, during the day when I was in Calcutta. My dad and captain were with me on the flight. They simply went through the whole I continue rather. I met the president at 10:45, president of India at 10:45, had to meet a whole bunch of kids at 11:30, I had to meet -- maybe a little off with my times, but after that I had to meet a major sponsor of the Indian Olympics team, Citibank, oil company which is a sponsor of the Indian Olympic team. Basically I had 15 meetings that whole day, 15 functions. I'm getting a pro at giving speeches now. That was the first day in New Delhi. I got to bed at 12:30 that night after dinner function that the Indian Olympics president and the Indian tennis association president gave for me. I finished that and got to bed at 12:30. Woke up the next morning at 6 and took a flight to Calcutta. Got there at about 9:30. I was greeted by about another 4,000 odd people there. The cops were really warned, told what to do. We had about a thousand cops outside. They learned what happened in New Delhi. They came out. I had out riders, guys in the front with machine guns, guys in the back with machine guns. Not even a fly came to hurt me. That was neat.

LEANDER PAES: Yes.

LEANDER PAES: Yes.

LEANDER PAES: Yes.

LEANDER PAES: Calcutta-Bombay, Bombay-Frankfurt, Frankfurt-New York, New York I took the ferry from JFK to Long Island, took the ferry over here.

LEANDER PAES: That's right.

LEANDER PAES: First time I played I won, second time I played, last year, I lost in 6-1 in the third. I was up a break in the third 3-1 or something like that.

LEANDER PAES: Then here last year.

LEANDER PAES: I found one thing. I didn't test him too much. One area I found got a lot better with him is his first serve. He's a lefty, so that gives him an advantage when he's playing because he can slice that ball out wide. When he's playing a shot, I'm looking to come in, punish it. I felt he got a lot of first serves in. I don't know his statistics today, but he got a lot of first serves. He kind of pulled me wide, pulled me out. He was varying his serve a lot. That's something that I was struggling with today. I think I had two breakpoints all day today. He missed a forehand winner up the line.

LEANDER PAES: I'm not going to make that mistake again.

LEANDER PAES: I think it's physically to get in shape. The reason is I'm tired. I need to take a few days off to let my body recover, training, running, weights, getting back to my routine. Going to India, I got off my routine. That kind of threw me off balance for a while. It really showed out there today. I'm going to do from now to when the US Open starts for me, which would either give me about a week. If I get the wildcard at the US Open, would give me about ten days. That's what I'm looking at.

LEANDER PAES: The first time I've been in this position. I'm going to ask on Friday, call the USTA and ask on Friday. I will definitely know by Tuesday evening because the quallies start on Wednesday.

LEANDER PAES: That's right.