PACIFIC LIFE OPEN

March 17, 2004

Taylor Dent

TAYLOR DENT: Yeah, absolutely. I think the match against Lapentti and the match against Kuerten were both, you know, very good serving matches for me. I thought I still could have served better. But today was, you know, a shocker. It was kind of like how I was playing before with the serves. Even when I'd hit them in, I wasn't making a move. I was putting them right in the honey hole. He was hitting winners. If I served well, if I hit the spots like I should, it doesn't happen. So it's a bit disappointing. But, you know, again, that's the reason why I've been losing other matches. Just reconfirming what I have to work on.

TAYLOR DENT: I wish I knew. You know, I just lose a little bit of rhythm. That's just the way it goes, unfortunately for me. Other guys have to work on other things. But I've got to, you know, keep grinding away every day on my serve to make sure that I've got nice rhythm and good placement.

TAYLOR DENT: No, I mean, I got broken twice in the first set. You know, once in the second. If I'm serving well, I normally go fine.

TAYLOR DENT: I was down 5-Love all of a sudden. Like I said, it was really no different in the first set. I just didn't break him in the third set. He came out on fire. Like I said, I was putting serves right in his strike zone. He didn't have to move at all. He was hot and he hit a few winners, he hit some lines. That's all it took to get up.

TAYLOR DENT: That was so frustrating today. I don't know, whatever it was, I just felt like he was definitely painting some lines, and some balls that I thought were, you know, going out seemed to drop in. But, you know, that's my fault.

TAYLOR DENT: Unfortunately, no. Like I said, same thing in the first set. I just was putting serves right in his honey hole. I didn't break. He was serving better. He was hitting aces by me. I couldn't get, you know, my teeth in any of his service games. Kind of the same story, except I wasn't breaking.

TAYLOR DENT: I was pretty frustrated. At the end of the day, there's not much I can do. I can't say time out, go work on my serve, go work on my returns or anything like that. I got to just keep plugging away. Hopefully I either find some rhythm, get some lucky breaks, or he gets tight. None of those happened. So it was unfortunate.

TAYLOR DENT: That's a very interesting question. I always feel like I beat myself in one way or another. But he played good. I mean, you know, he's hitting the shots out there. It's not like I hit 80 double-faults, he never had to hit a return, or I missed every return. He played and he won. But I feel like if I play like I should play, hitting the spots on my serves, it might have been a different story.

TAYLOR DENT: Yeah, no. Today I started hitting seconds for firsts. My second normally goes around 115, in the one-teens. I started getting more in. Unfortunately, it's right in his strike zone. I may as well be hitting them out because they're going to go by me or at my feet faster than they're going.

TAYLOR DENT: The only reason I'm concentrating so much on it is because it's just so clear in my mind that that's why I'm losing matches. If it wasn't having anything to do with my serve, if it was my foot speed or my volleys or whatever it is, I'd be putting all my attention there. But the one constant of me losing matches is really my serve. That's why it's getting a lot more attention than any other shots.

TAYLOR DENT: I don't know. I don't serve and stay back too often. I don't know what else I'd be considered.

TAYLOR DENT: Yeah, I don't know.

TAYLOR DENT: Yeah, I mean, I think if you ask every other player on tour, they'd pretty much say I'm a serve-and-volleyer. I didn't hear or read his comments. If he said that, I don't know, that's pretty surprising.

TAYLOR DENT: All right. I'll go see him today, pick up my hundred.

TAYLOR DENT: Because, you know, all the reasons we've gone over. You can't rely on just having a nice, solid forehand or a nice, solid backhand. You have to have every shot. It's a lot tougher to work on. That's kind of why it's frustrating. If you're not serving well, it makes you fall to pieces. If you're serving well, not volleying well, same thing happens. You're going to get broken so easy (snapping fingers). The name of the game in men's tennis is to hold serve. If you're a baseliner, you know, you don't really need to have a great serve. You can just kick it in, stay out the trouble, you know, work your wway into the baseline points. I think it's a more precise art. You know, you really need to be hitting the spots and being solid up at the net for it to be successful. It's tough to do.

TAYLOR DENT: I mean, yes and no. You probably are going to lose more the 50/50 points than you should in today's game as opposed to years past. But, you know, again, I feel like serve-and-volley tennis is such a dominating game, if you are playing how it should be played, then it doesn't matter too much. But it's tough to execute.

TAYLOR DENT: Yes, that was one of the worst returns I hit all match, too (smiling).

TAYLOR DENT: What I've been working on this week, which has kind of paid off a little bit, is trying to get a little more extension with my right arm. I tend to let the ball drop a little bit on the toss, hit it too flat. It catches the tape a lot, just goes over the service line. I'm trying to get the extension like an Andy Roddick has to where you can really get that jump off the court. I think I'm doing that better - obviously not good enough. You know, that's only half the battle. Once I get that down, then I really have to start working on hitting the spots again.