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THE LIPTON CHAMPIONSHIPS


March 22, 1998


Marcelo Rios


KEY BISCAYNE, FLORIDA

GREG SHARKO: Marcelo Rios, he improves his match record to 21 and 3 on the season, which is tied with Andre Agassi for best record on the ATP Tour. First question for Marcelo.

Q. What are you reading today?

MARCELO RIOS: This?

Q. Yes.

MARCELO RIOS: Playboy. Just kidding.

GREG SHARKO: It was a German magazine, just given to him.

MARCELO RIOS: This guy just gave it to me.

Q. I thought it might be Sports Illustrated.

MARCELO RIOS: No, I don't think so.

Q. Tommy has said he thought the difference in the match was your experience of playing big points against a player like him who is still growing in his game. What do you think?

MARCELO RIOS: I think he doesn't -- I don't have, like, more years than him on the Tour, just a couple of years. I don't know if his experience, only third round, like, maybe he talk about tough points or important points. But I think I played really good, like I played good from baseline, and he missed a lot. Like I make him miss a lot. I was serving really good and taking my chances. Like even when I was Love-40, taking my chances coming in. I think I played a smart match, played really, really good.

Q. How good do you think he can become, Tommy Haas? Do you think he has a lot of potential or not?

MARCELO RIOS: Well, it is tough to say if he is going to be a top player. He is already, like, what, he's ranking 40, 50. He is a great player. He is 21 or 20.

GREG SHARKO: 19. He will be 20.

MARCELO RIOS: He is 20 or 19 and he have a good shots. He can play really good matches. Sometimes he is a little bit out of it. But, yeah, he have a lot of good serve, good groundstrokes, and I think he have a lot of potential to be pretty good.

Q. The typical player today is about 6 foot 2. He was about 175 pounds and hits serves about 125 miles an hour. You are not 6 foot 2, considerably shorter, like Michael Chang. What, in your opinion, does a shorter, smaller player, what special skills does he have to have in today's tennis to be successful?

MARCELO RIOS: He have to have a bigger serve. You are talking about Tommy?

Q. Talking about shorter players.

MARCELO RIOS: Well, I think you have got to be fast. I think you have got to be really, really fast and play good from baseline, return, be more complete, and try to play more long points. You don't have many free points, but I think it is not a bad advantage.

End of FastScripts....

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