TMS MONTE CARLO

April 21, 2000

Dominik Hrbaty

Q. What happened to your knee? That was on the last point when you were on the knee or before?

DOMINIK HRBATY: I did it already in Brazil when I beat Kuerten and that was a really hard clay court, so this time I had already it was okay, but now it is bad again. But I am not worried because if I win more time I do it more time.

DOMINIK HRBATY: Yes.

DOMINIK HRBATY: Yeah, for sure. It is a very good victory. I am happy for that, but I am trying to get my best for the Roland Garros so I think it is not still not my best tennis I can do. I am saving it for -- to make it like step by step to Roland Garros and then to play best at Roland Garros.

DOMINIK HRBATY: It is different kind of game because Kuerten is playing more fast, more aggressive than Alex. Also it is a different atmosphere. There I play for a team and for my country and here is tournament. I usually play better in Davis Cups than normal tournament. I usually give my best games in Davis Cup games. So it is a different game also, different story.

DOMINIK HRBATY: No, I never feel tired. I like especially to do physical work when I am home. I do it everyday for two hours, everyday when I am home and it is one I think one of the best - I don't know how to say - the game you have the shots, but this is the best of the game and my physical work is one of the best altogether if you count it. So I can say that I feel that I have one of the best physicals in the world from the tennis players. I like to do it sometimes more than tennis to play.

DOMINIK HRBATY: No, I do it the same way like last year, I am trying to practice a lot, playing a lot of hours of tennis on the clay and just to see the game, I mean, to start to feel the game better because it is also beginning of the clay court season so I am trying to make it that I will feel the ball the best way on Roland Garros; so that is also a lot of hours of tennis in practice and also the matches.

DOMINIK HRBATY: Also because it is one of the first tournaments on the clay. It is different running, if you play, let's say, I don't know the last tournament on the clay was in September, Mallorca and or -- Palermo, in the beginning of October, then you have six months of the hard court season, so it is different running, different movements on the clay. It is also different game, so, that is -- maybe that is why.

DOMINIK HRBATY: No, I don't think so. He is playing all the year well, so he deserve to be seeded here. Doesn't matter. It is like me if I beat Top-10 I would be seeded in Wimbledon. I mean, I would be happy but I never won a set on the grass court. So I mean, it is not a question of one tournament or the surface. If you are playing well all the year, you deserve it to be seeded also.

DOMINIK HRBATY: It is tough question because if you want to be the best player in the world you have to know how to play in all the other surfaces, so it can happen, but that is the game. You are never -- you never ask in the soccer if the teams in the National League they can meet in the beginning of the season or in the end of the season. It is a tough question. I mean, it can be maybe better for the public but you never know it could also be bad match. Everybody of us can win 6-1, 6-0 and you would never ask this question, so, it is tough to answer it. This is the game and that is why it is nice because you never know if you play good match in the beginning of the tournament or in the end of the tournament.

DOMINIK HRBATY: I think it is one of the most important things in the tennis. You have to be -- you have to believe your coach what you are doing or if he is saying that you played this bad or this good, you have to believe him that it was really like that because otherwise if you don't believe him, then I don't think it is good for your tennis. You have to be like one man also during the game, I mean, if I look sometimes to him, he always support me and he show me that I have to fight and he never let me go down. I think it is like a marriage because you are also travelling with him all the year like I travel with him for maybe 25 weeks a year, so it is like almost a half of the year. You have to be good friends and you have to understand each other, so that is, I think, a long period of the year.

DOMINIK HRBATY: Like what do you mean?

DOMINIK HRBATY: I don't know, sometimes I would give my first serve like a 9 and sometimes I would give 0 because I can serve really well, I can serve really bad also, depends because I have a high toss and sometimes I don't have a feeling for the ball, so let's say this tournament I started to serve like not so good and -- but it is going -- improving every match, I am serving better, so hopefully tomorrow will be again better. But my serve is sometimes -- also let us say like this, my game depends on my serve sometimes because if I serve well, I play also the game very well. If I let go of the serve bad, then my game is also not so good. So that is about the serve. Groundstrokes, it is also tough because usually I have a better forehand but sometimes I can do more mistakes from the forehand because I want to make more winners and I want to attack more on the forehand side. Sometimes I play better backhand than the forehand. But also depends on the match. So I would say the groundstrokes, it would be like 7 and 8. Then the volleys was like in the beginning when I start to be pro was like maybe 2 or 3, it was very bad. I wanted to shake only the hands in the beginning and the end of the match and make the toss in the beginning of the match. But I am playing doubles. I am trying to improve volleys in doubles. It is getting better. I am going there more often now and I am not afraid to play a volley even if I miss sometimes. So now it is like maybe 5. Drop shot is like minus 1. So that is why I never -- almost never play drop shot and overheads, yeah, it is also -- I can miss very easy ones. Now it is getting better. I think it is about 6, 7.

DOMINIK HRBATY: About Jimmy Connors?

DOMINIK HRBATY: I never saw him play. When I was younger I never watched the tennis on the TV because I hate it on the TV because it is not in the TV not really like -- like it is in real because you don't see the balls. If you have a camera very high you don't see the balls to see it in the real way they are playing because you can play a high ball and on the TV you still see it is the same level. I never watched Connors. But the only one I watched was Miloslav and that was only one rally I watched in his game. He played Lendl, I guess, Lendl in Key Biscayne and it was the one he played around the net. That rally I saw 20 times. I put it forward and back and forward and back so I was watching it because I think it was the most beautiful rally I have ever seen.

DOMINIK HRBATY: Yeah, it has improved a lot now, these days tennis on television, I think sometimes more nice than it looks real because of so many cameras and so many views, and that is the difference than it used to be like 15 years ago. Now you have, when we were talking at ATP meeting, they were saying like 16 cameras; you can see it from every angle, see it from different angles so it is unbelievable.

DOMINIK HRBATY: I don't know, ask Lendl. He was the one that started and then they teach us like Lendl because he was the best one, so that is the school. Also we don't have too much wind in Slovakia.