DAVIS CUP - RUSSIA vs USA

April 3, 1998

Tom Gullikson

PAGE CROSLAND: Let's begin.

TOM GULLIKSON: Yeah. Mr. Mills will give you all the details.

TOM GULLIKSON: You need to clarify that with him. I wasn't quite sure. We were originally maybe going to try to play all three matches tomorrow. You know, possibly the doubles situation needs to be looked at.

TOM GULLIKSON: I'm not in his shoes.

TOM GULLIKSON: They wouldn't be Nike.

TOM GULLIKSON: Sure. Realistically, they might have both their singles players playing doubles. That's a long day for them, no question.

TOM GULLIKSON: No. We know for sure that two singles will be played tomorrow. I don't know. We'll have to sort that out with Mr. Mills. We were feeling good in the warm-up, I will say that.

TOM GULLIKSON: (Laughter).

TOM GULLIKSON: Especially yesterday, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, absolutely beautiful day. We had a very good day in practice. After a really good day in practice, you really like to get started. There's only so much practice you can do, then it's time to tee it up and play. So our guys were really eager to play today. Obviously, getting up this morning, seeing the rain, we went down early to Georgia Tech, they all hit indoors. Some of us are going back, you know, after this interview to hit a few more balls. At least we're hitting a few balls. It's frustrating to just kind of wait around. It's the same for both teams. I guess it's a little harder on the away team. At least we're at home, which is nice.

TOM GULLIKSON: You know, he plays singles and doubles every week, you know. He's used to playing singles and doubles on the same day, but not five sets, except in a Grand Slam situation. He's done it a lot.

TOM GULLIKSON: Well, we had agreed at the captain's meeting that we wouldn't start a singles match under the lights. That was the original agreement in the captain's meeting. We kind of wanted to stick to that really, because I don't think -- nobody hit one practice ball at night under the lights. I'm sure the lights are good here. I've been assured that they are. I remember from the Olympics that the lights were pretty good here. But, you know, the guys like to acclimate to the conditions. If they knew they were playing at night, they probably would have practiced at night once or twice.

TOM GULLIKSON: Can I tell you after the match (laughter)? I think we wanted to play today, obviously. Our guys are ready to play. They were ready to play, I'm sure. You're always disappointed when you can't start when you want to. But, you know, these guys are all professionals. They go through this every week, getting rained out. We'll regroup and try to get ready for tomorrow.

TOM GULLIKSON: This is my first rain-out.

TOM GULLIKSON: Yes.

TOM GULLIKSON: I'll be here all day tomorrow.

TOM GULLIKSON: Sure, I would, just because it probably gives us a little advantage. I would prefer it. I'm not the referee.