TMS - INDIAN WELLS

March 17, 2000

Alex Corretja

GREG SHARKO: This is Alex's seventh career Tennis Masters Series semifinal and the second in North America. He takes a 2-1 lifetime head-to-head advantage into tomorrow's match against Lapentti.

ALEX CORRETJA: That's difficult to say. Of course, there's always a beginning. When I won Hannover, I start winning Dubai that year, then I play the finals in Hannover, Gstaad, Lyon, Indianapolis. It's always nice to see that you can come through, come back and play good tennis. You never know, if I win here, it would be again big news for me, big breakthrough. As we said, it's a long ways to go. I still have to play really tough matches. Tomorrow is not going to be easy for me.

ALEX CORRETJA: Yes. It seems that again I'm fit, I'm strong on the court. I believe I'm smart on the court again, which last year I didn't think about it. I was like not able to continue my game because I was the whole time tired. I didn't give up, but I didn't have any more energy. That's why now I can go on the court and just fight again, fight everybody. It makes difficult for the opponent to see that the guy you have in front is running the whole match. No matter if he makes 20 aces or 20 double-faults, I'm there focused the whole time. So that's why now I feel better. At the end, it seems like I didn't make any mistakes, I was playing even better. He was just making more mistakes.

ALEX CORRETJA: Lapentti, you mean?

ALEX CORRETJA: I believe it's going to be interesting because both players like to play from the baseline. He has a good serve. He has a good forehand, a lot of topspin. I have a lot of topspin, as well. We like to play long matches. I don't know if it's going to be long, but for sure none of us want to finish early unless you win. It's good when you finish early like Nicolas did today, because he won. If you lose, you like to keep on going and try to do it longer, no?

ALEX CORRETJA: I don't know. For me is not difficult because I am like this. I'm acting like I am. If they give me this trophy or this award, it's an honor for me, especially because it has the name from Stefan Edberg, one of the biggest guys we ever have in tennis. Then because my parents always try to teach me to be polite or to be a person before a player. You just came up with your brothers and with all your family, you got some education, it's normal that you just can continue. What I mean is you don't need to change because you won the World Championships or something. I believe if you have a regular life, you can just go in the same way. You don't need to change. The people maybe change behind you, no, but not you, why? I'm no different than before. I may be more happy because I already have a World Championships in my pocket, but not because I'm the world champion, or I was the world champion. At that time, I didn't feel like this anyway. I felt really like amazing, like flying or whatever because it was a special moment for me. Nothing changed. I like when they give me this trophy, honestly. They give it to me in the ATP like twice. It's good to see that, even if you are in the top or you're not, they give you the trophy anyway. There are many good guys on the tour.

ALEX CORRETJA: I don't know that. When he was at his best, I liked the way he played. I liked the way he focused on the court. He was serious. He was professional. I liked his groundstrokes, especially his running forehands and backhands and his passing shots. I don't know. I wish I could be like him. I know it's going to be impossible, no? It's strange, but I like the way he was, at least on the court.

ALEX CORRETJA: In Spain it's big. It's the biggest thing we have in sports. We all like to play soccer and we all like to watch soccer. I'm a member of Barca because I live in Barcelona, which is normal. If I live in Madrid, I would support Madrid. Since I live there all my life, I believe it's kind of normal.

ALEX CORRETJA: A member from the club.

ALEX CORRETJA: Yeah. We have like 100,000 members. This tournament is like 105,000. You don't know the stadium?

ALEX CORRETJA: It's amazing. It's like a good atmosphere when they have really good matches, European Cup, or Barca-Madrid, good rivalry.

ALEX CORRETJA: Yes.

ALEX CORRETJA: Real Madrid. Barcelona is called Barca.

ALEX CORRETJA: No, no, no. My brothers and my really good friends, they enjoy the night in Barcelona. Actually, my girlfriend is here. She called them to Barcelona on the mobile phone. They were in the night club. They said, "Hello, how are you?" I was talking to them. They were excited, knew I won. They wanted to talk with me. That's why I spent some time with them. It's difficult to catch them because of the time. On a regular day, they would be sleeping. Since it's a Friday night, it's Friday night in Barcelona, it's a party.

ALEX CORRETJA: I don't know. Regular ones that we go. Nothing special. Something we feel comfortable.

ALEX CORRETJA: I'm a bad dancer, but sometimes I dance.

ALEX CORRETJA: Yes. You need to rest. As a human being, you cannot just keep on going the whole time. Sometimes you need to enjoy your life. Especially for us, we are from a different country, we live in Spain, we live in Barcelona. We have a living there. We like to go to the cinema, then go to Barca stadium. We have dinner like 11 o'clock on Saturday, then go out. We spend the whole night with our friends, with your family, with your girlfriend. The next day, you wake up like three or four in the afternoon, you don't care. You just enjoy. That's why sometimes you like to do that, not because you want to go out, but sometimes you like to be home because we have family and friends. Sometimes tennis is really important, but it's not the main thing. For me, tennis is huge, it's really important in my life, it's the best thing I ever had, but I also like to enjoy my life with my family, my girlfriend, my friends.

ALEX CORRETJA: Just rest. It's a difficult thing to came back. You see that you're having a lot of fun, it's difficult to come back. Because you love tennis, you just made the effort again.

ALEX CORRETJA: No. It was kind of fatigue, physically and mentally. Everything, it's difficult. I mean, we have to do a lot of things in Spain. Tennis, it becomes really popular. Fortunately for us, we have to do a lot of things. That's why we spend a lot of time with interviews, with TV shows, photograph sessions, everything, commercials I did. Everything is great, you enjoy that. At the same time, you like to have some time for you. You never find the time. That's why it was difficult for me to keep on going last year. Even as I said yesterday, I didn't drop to 200. I stay like Top 30, which -- I don't know if it's a good ranking, but it's still Top 30.

ALEX CORRETJA: Semis at Super Masters Series in Rome, quarters at the French Open. Even if it was a bad year. If you compare from '98, which I finished No. 3, maybe it was a bad year. But you cannot compare just by the ranking. Maybe last year I was even happier because I have much time off.

ALEX CORRETJA: No, no. No problems. The only problem is to try to win. That's the only problem you find on the court, that everybody likes to win. Of course, you need to fight every game and every point. You see at the draw, when you come to play at this tournament, you cannot say, "These guys." You just want to go match-by-match. It's always the same, but it's the only way to win. You can ask any player from this tournament. I believe none of them will say, "Yeah, I see that my draw, this guy lost." That doesn't exist.

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