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WIMBLEDON

June 26, 2008

Chris Eaton

LONDON, ENGLAND

D. TURSUNOV/C. Eaton
7-6, 6-2, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Chris.

Q. What are you going to do tonight? Celebrate?
CHRIS EATON: I don't know. I mean, I don't feel great right now. You know, who knows. Hopefully I'll feel a little better later, but I just lost a tennis match and it hurts.

Q. Quite an achievement to get as far as you did, though.
CHRIS EATON: Yeah. It's quite difficult to look at it like that right now, you know, because at the end of the day I did lose. I'm pretty upset that I lost.

Q. Do you think you did yourself justice in that game?
CHRIS EATON: To be honest with you, I did what I could do out there. I didn't serve as well as I know I can serve, which makes it difficult, because that's the biggest part of my game, you know.
But what I had on the day I put out there, and I don't know if I could do any more.

Q. How did you feel about the support on Court 1?
CHRIS EATON: That was amazing. I mean, those guys were making so much noise. No, it was absolutely fantastic. They were with me every step of the way. You know, they did a hell of a job.

Q. Did you see some of the T-shirts people were wearing?
CHRIS EATON: Yeah. I mean, unfortunately one of them was my brother's best friend (smiling).

Q. Which one was that?
CHRIS EATON: Something like, "Team Eaton, got serve?"
No, it's good that everybody is getting involved. That I got so much support it was amazing.

Q. Did you notice that some of the support seemed more female-dominated than male?
CHRIS EATON: I wasn't counting. No, you know, I was trying to concentrate on what was going on on the court, trying to win a tennis match.

Q. A bit of a consolation, quite a good paycheck to take home with you tonight.
CHRIS EATON: I'm not thinking about that. Yeah, I get some money, but I'm still disappointed that I lost. I felt I had a decent chance today and couldn't quite deliver.

Q. How did you feel when you stepped out onto Court 1 with everyone cheering for you?
CHRIS EATON: That was an interesting one, because I didn't know how I would feel. I was hoping that it wouldn't just hit me and hit me hard. But, no, it didn't at all.
Luckily I sort of got out there -- I don't know why, but I saw a few empty seats and that sort of helped me a little bit. I don't know really know why.
No, everybody was loving it. They were all getting behind me. I just had to sort of embrace it and give 'em a show.

Q. It looked like you were deep in thought in some of the breaks. What was going through your mind at that time?
CHRIS EATON: You know, I was just trying to figure out a way of stopping him doing what he was doing, trying to find -- you know, just trying to tell myself, Keep believing in your serve. It will come back. It will come back. It was pretty swirly down there.
He gave me a few chances to sneak a break. If I sneaked a break I thought I had a decent chance, but it didn't happen.

Q. How important is it for you to come back and build on this? Every year there's normally one Brit who does well for a while and then disappears. We never hear of him again. It's obviously important for you to come back and show you're not a one-year wonder sort of thing.
CHRIS EATON: Yeah, of course. But at the end of the day it's not just about Wimbledon. I can go and win like three or four challengers now, not do well at Wimbledon next year, and it's not going to be horrendous. You know, I'm just going to try to use this.
I'd obviously love to do well at Wimbledon again. It's the best tournament, but it's not the only tournament. I'm just going to try to take every match as it comes and keep playing how I played in quallies and the first round.

Q. How will your success here affect your schedule? Are you going to try to get into some different tournaments you haven't maybe considered?
CHRIS EATON: Yeah. I mean, I'm looking at a few tour events, maybe play some quallies there, 'cause at the moment I tend to raise my game when I play better players. You know, I think it's best for me. It will improve my tennis more if I get out there with the greater players, yeah, you know, test myself, see if I can mix it with them.

Q. Are you going to take any kind of break between now and your next games?
CHRIS EATON: I don't know. I haven't decided yet. I might go to Dublin tomorrow. We'll see. We'll see. Physically I'm feeling pretty good, but I don't know how I feel mentally right now. So, yeah, we'll see.

Q. You seemed to follow your serve in a bit less than your first-round game. Was that right?
CHRIS EATON: No, I'm pretty sure I serve and volleyed most of it, yeah. I got smoked a few times. He hits pretty hard. The problem was he hits it pretty hard sort of to corners.
If I didn't hit a perfect spot on my serve, I didn't even get a chance, didn't get a half volley, he's just smoke it past me. So I had to be pretty accurate, which wasn't quite good enough.
But I kept to my game plan, because I don't think I've got the tools to beat him from the back.

Q. Does getting experience playing at the highest level increase your appetite to succeed?
CHRIS EATON: Yeah, of course. It's a dream to play Wimbledon. It's a dream to play on a court like that. Obviously, all it can do is raise my dreams, raise my standards, and raise my expectations in myself.
From now on there's new goals and new standards that have just been set.

Q. How would you sum up your two matches at Wimbledon, your Wimbledon experience this year?
CHRIS EATON: I mean, again, it's pretty difficult to reflect on a whole week when you've just lost. I suppose I've got to say that the first match was fantastic. I played really good, and, you know, I took it to him.
Again, I gave everything today. I put what tennis I had on the court. I tried every single point. There's not much more I can do than that.
I can take quite a few positives from this tournament, you know, from quallies, from the first few matches. But, you know, I can't really take them right now.

Q. Have you spoken to Tim or Greg or Andy?
CHRIS EATON: I spoke to them this morning, but obviously not since my match.

Q. Do you have a message for the fans who cheered you on today or Tuesday? What would that message be?
CHRIS EATON: Thank you so much. They've been absolutely phenomenal. You know, they've made my matches here. They're so enjoyable anyway, but, I mean, those guys just made it absolutely fantastic. Yeah, they deserve a hell of a lot of credit.

Q. Did you hear any particular calls that slightly distracted you?
CHRIS EATON: Not really. I mean, to me it was just noise, and there was a lot of it, so it was good.

Q. Has this given you a taste for Wimbledon? Will you be back next year?
CHRIS EATON: Yeah, of course. This is the biggest tournament in the tennis calendar. Of couse I'm going to do everything in my power to be back next year. Yeah, hopefully.

Q. What about a new car? Have you had a chance to think about a new set of wheels?
CHRIS EATON: Everybody says that. But, no, I really do like my car, so I doubt it.

Q. Get the wing mirror fixed maybe?
CHRIS EATON: Maybe. We'll see.

End of FastScripts

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