DAVIS CUP FIRST ROUND: FRANCE v U.S.A.

February 4, 1995

Olivier Delaitre

Guy Forget

Yannick Noah

GUY FORGET: With Olivier, yes, but in the past, I was playing ad court. Olivier plays really well; usually that is always where he used to play, so when we started playing he says, no way, I am playing the deuce court. I said, okay, fine. I moved to the deuce court. We had a few good wins together playing that way, and. . .

GUY FORGET: Yeah. I was -- Henri always-- I played the left side.

GUY FORGET: No, I do.

GUY FORGET: Well, sometimes the guy has a good slice; he moves me all the way out, it is a little difficult, but there are always some good sides to it; especially when you want to -- at the net you want to get across, you have more room playing on the deuce court. Eventually at some stage on the returns, I felt it very difficult. They were serving well; couldn't get my returns together; especially in the third and fourth set, so it was because -- I served really well, I thought, but if I would have returned just a bit better on that side, I think that could have made a bit of a difference.

GUY FORGET: Well, you know, like we said in French, we had a few key points in the third set, one breakpoint; Jared hit an unbelievable backhand volley on the line, I think that was really lucky, but, you know, he played a great shot. And then I had another, you know, high forehand volley on another breakpoint. I mean, these two points right there, you know, I think the way -- they were the key; especially in the third set, I mean, we had two chances there, and we didn't make them.

GUY FORGET: I played a few with Olivier; not as much as he has, but I have played a few.

GUY FORGET: I wouldn't find an excuse by not playing enough. No matter if you play a lot or you don't play a lot, when you are out there on the court, you have to play your best, and I tried my best today. It was not good enough.

GUY FORGET: It is tough to answer when you lose two matches in a row. In practice I am hitting the ball well; hopefully I can play in singles a bit better tomorrow and hopefully have a win, we will see.

GUY FORGET: Not at all. I think at the moment I ^ don't play as good as I did in '91. That is a the main thing. But, you know, overall, Yannick picked me because he thought that I had the most chance of doing well. I think I could have done better, but, you know, hopefully I can still raise my level of play tomorrow, but. . .

GUY FORGET: Someone has to do it and I was very aware of what the problem would be, and unfortunately, it didn't turn out the way I wanted things to happen, but...

OLIVIER DELAITRE: Well, I don't know, it is, yeah, it is one point during the match.

CAPTAIN NOAH: It is the wind.

OLIVIER DELAITRE: It is the sun and the wind. Maybe the chance was already gone, you know, we had two break points and three breakpoints and we didn't make it, so, yeah, maybe at the key point, we didn't play so well, so I made a doublefault. It's the worst thing to do, but if it is 15-All, it didn't matter, it was a breakpoint.

CAPTAIN NOAH: I think we all had a feeling that the linesman was very nervous.

CAPTAIN NOAH: Well, from the first point we can see it, the guy was very nervous. He made a bad call, doesn't really matter which side it is, but we just said, you know, it is a good idea if we changed it. We didn't have any problem after that from that side. He was nervous. He didn't make a call and overruled in middle of the point while he was -- he was totally, like, nervous; you could see he was nervous and people started to like talk to him behind him and it is not a very easy situation for him, so I could feel that this guy, he is young, he got nervous and we changed him.

CAPTAIN NOAH: What do I tell them? I tell them that in the history of Davis Cup we have seen a team be down 2-1 and winning, we respected the opponents from the beginning, but from what I see and from what I saw, I still believe we have a chance. It is not as good as if we had won this doubles. I think we could have won this match. That was a very important match and it just slipped away. Now, we flew here to play and we are down 2-1 and we are just going to have to fight to the last point. You don't give up; especially before the match; of course, we have to still believe and go on. Jim played great yesterday. Hopefully he is not going to play as well. Maybe Guy is going to feel his game better. Hopefully Todd is going to play worse than yesterday and I think we have a chance. I think we can still play.

CAPTAIN NOAH: For me or for him?

OLIVIER DELAITRE: Can I answer?

CAPTAIN NOAH: Physically, as you remember, I said the fact of being injured was physically a problem. On the other hand, it made him feel better and that is why he made the quarterfinals at Wimbledon just because he knows how, I mean, tell me if I am saying something stupid. Guy knows and thinks that it is -- he is just happy to be on the court. That is a plus, because when you have been on the Tour for like ten years, yes, many times you feel like it is a tough thing to -- you get a little bit spoiled and being out for a while being on the court, it is a plus because you enjoy playing, but physically, of course, he doesn't do certain things that he used to do.

CAPTAIN NOAH: Well, I don't think so. I just think this match, for example, was just a matter of 1 or 2 points, big points. There were some big, big points that just, I think, Jared made a volley that was a miracle, I think he can thank God for this one with all the respect. It was a great return and he hit his ball and we all looked at each other and looked at the American team and went"oh" and the French were"oh" and Jared was like, "was it me?" It wasn't him. It was somebody else. It was on the line. It was a great shot. It was a breakpoint. The third set, the match was starting to turnaround and he came up with this unbelievable point and that was a very big point in terms for us, I think at that time felt more confident, but then they made these points. We had many breakpoints in this game and this was the turning point from then on they were ahead of us.

GUY FORGET: Well, I think physically even being 100%, I think that would have made the difference against Jim because Jim was really playing too well yesterday. In the doubles, you always find you can be a little quicker; jump a little bit higher; be a little bit more ready at the NET, but, you know, as Yannick said, once again, what I have today, you know, we had the chances of, you know, winning the match and winnings these key points that we didn't make. So, you know, I don't want to look at what I have done in the past. I rather look at what I missed today and what we didn't do as well, because they are still enough things that I can improve today, you know, sometimes I don't move as quickly as I used to do, but I can still improve that fitness and that is all what I want to think about now.

OLIVIER DELAITRE: Well, it is not enough to be the best. I mean, it doesn't matter. You have to win, and I don't know. It is good for me that I played a good match, but when I think about the match, I lost and that is the only thing I think about.

CAPTAIN NOAH: I see two on the team. Doubles is more like a chess thing compared to singles. It's the positions you have; like some positions that are more intimidating. It is a lot of things. It is not just hitting balls, and I see -- I don't see Guy, how he plays. I don't see Olivier, how he plays. Of course once in awhile I tell them -- we try to talk about specifics, you know, what to do; one after the other, but I see them as a team. I see Forget/Delaitre. I don't see Olivier playing well; Forget playing bad, and then Forget playing well. I just see them playing as a whole. And I think there is a lot of things that we can improve in doubles. I think we are as good as these guys losing in four sets, we are just as good.

GUY FORGET: Well, it is playing Davis Cup and it is the biggest challenge of all, as the Grand Slams. If there is one day in the year that I want to play my best tennis, that means tomorrow. Especially now that I have lost my two matches, more than ever I want now to win that match tomorrow, but I know Todd is going to go out there and he is in a bit of the same position, he lost in straight sets against Cedric, so maybe he doesn't feel too good either, but tonight we both going to have to think about what is going to happen tomorrow and to prove who is the best on the court tomorrow. We will see what is going to happen. Certainly I look forward to this match.

GUY FORGET: Yeah, but it is not really important.