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ROGERS CUP

July 23, 2008

Jesse Levine

TORONTO, ONTARIO

R. NADAL/J. Levine
6-4, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How did you play today?
JESSE LEVINE: I had a good start, I think. Went up a little bit. I think I was in that zone, not sure really where I was, and then I kind of came to my senses and realized that I'm playing Nadal on stadium court.
Obviously nerves got a little bit of me there. But I felt like I fought hard and played well and, you know, came up with some big shots at certain times. Just couldn't convert on a lot of breakpoints. Felt like I had a lot of chances. A lot of the games were 30-All, deuce, and he just played those points better.

Q. Do you think you were mentally or even physically tired?
JESSE LEVINE: Not gonna lie, a little bit physically tired. Mentally I was okay out there. Physically I was a little bit tired, you know, coming through quallies, having a tough match yesterday and not having any days off. But you know what, that's part of it. No excuses for that.

Q. What did you learn about what it takes to beat a player like that?
JESSE LEVINE: A lot of winners. You know, I think that, you know, you get that feeling playing against him that you got to do something bigger than normal. You know, it's not the right feeling to have because he is human.
You know, you try and come up with shots that are just out of your mind or out of your shorts, I don't know how to say it. There's no need for that. You just got to try and say solid and keep playing solid tennis.
The guy doesn't make too many mistakes, so it's pretty tough.

Q. You had him at 4-1. You had two breakpoints. From that point, after those points, the match seemed to kind of turn the other way. Is that one of the things where you flip the result of one of those points and maybe it changes?
JESSE LEVINE: I mean, definitely if I would have went up 5-1 I think it would have been a little bit of a different story in the first set maybe. But obviously he came up with some good shots there, and then I had a couple mistakes.
You know 5-1 would have been a nice start, but 4-1 I can't complain. I had some chances but couldn't convert.

Q. Did the weather play any factor? Did the constant delay play on your nerves at all?
JESSE LEVINE: Not really. If anything, it kind of calmed me down because I got to go in the lounge and hang out with my brother and play some PSP, hanging out.
I got notice about 30 minutes before the match, Hey, you're on in 30 minutes. Then I got going and wanted to really get my body ready to go out there. I think did I a good job.
Didn't hit any balls before going on the court and that was kind of weird. We get an extra long warmup so it was fine. Good thing we got had ten minutes. Had time to get used to his ball a little bit, so that was nice.

Q. Did you get the crowd support you were hoping for?
JESSE LEVINE: At times I definitely did. I tried to get the crowd into it at times. I think they really got behind me a lot of times, and that was helpful.
Obviously I can't complain. There was a lot Rafa supporters out there. I was trying to hold my own and hoping to get some support behind me, and I felt like there was.

Q. Did you to feel like you had home court?
JESSE LEVINE: I don't know about home court. Felt like I some fans behind me, a lot of support, a lot of friends from Ottawa were here. Family was here and coaching and all that. But, no, didn't feel like home.

Q. How does this help or even hurt you in regard to going into the US Open?
JESSE LEVINE: Nothing about US Open right now. I got an another couple tournaments before then. Definitely gives me some confidence that I can play with the big boys, you know, and I can hold my own out there.
That was definitely the highest ranked player I ever played against in a tournament, and I hung in there for I would say the first set for sure. Second set I had some chances to break back, but definitely a confidence booster. Hopefully I can keep it rolling after this.

Q. Your first set was a great set. For you it looked like your first serve was giving you some problems. Can you expand on that for us?
JESSE LEVINE. Yeah, I don't know why. It was a little bit windy out there. Maybe I got a little bit tired in the legs and started missing a lot of first serves. The first set, at the beginning, I was definitely getting a lot of free points on my first serve. There were some balls I could put a way.
But definitely something you want to keep up against him is trying to make some first serves, because he's not going to miss too many second serve returns. I think the first serve kind of let me down a little bit in the second set.

Q. Was what your game plan coming into this match?
JESSE LEVINE: I was trying to attack him. I wasn't going to try and stay back and go far back in the court. Because his ball is so heavy it would probably jump over my head if I tried to stay back. I'm not very tall.
My game plan was to try and take the ball early on top of the baseline and try to get in and put away some volleys when I got the chances. I felt like I did a pretty good job with the game plan, just didn't execute well at times.

Q. Can you talk about your forehand? It seemed late in the first match. A bitter erratic. Is that just the type of spin that Nadal puts on the ball?
JESSE LEVINE: I would say yeah, it definitely has something to do with it. Obviously a little bit of nerves and a little bit of his ball. I'm not -- the ball is so heavy.
But I think when I got a little bit nervous I slowed down my racquet head speed instead of speeding it up. I started getting it going again at the end, but it was a little too late.

Q. Can I you about the serve. You really did have him on the run early in the match. What was your plan in terms of attacking him coming in, and how did he adjust to it?
JESSE LEVINE: I think it was more about me not executing anymore. I think, you know, obviously he made a lot more balls and started putting a little bit more pressure. I think obviously he had all the pressure on him and I had no pressure.
Once he got that break back I think that he really got settled into the match. I came out kind of flying, and that's what I wanted to do, but I didn't want to let him back in like I did, obviously.
I kind of let him settle in and get into a groove, which I didn't want to let happen.

Q. You talked yesterday about trying to avoid Rafa's forehand. Might have worked for you a little bit early, but seemed like to maybe got away from you there. Was that a matter of you kind of losing that plan, or was he just running around it?
JESSE LEVINE: I think when you're hitting forehands in the backhand alley it's kind of tough to stay away from the forehand.
No, I mean, obviously that was the initial plan. Then I tried going to the forehand to get to the backhand, but it was kind of tough.
But, you know, the guy moves so well it's kind of tough to try and just get to one stroke. That wasn't the game plan after I saw that he wasn't going to let that happen.

Q. Given that you went from qualifying at Wimbledon right into the main draw and into the second round and did the same here, and you said yesterday about your goal being into the top 100 as soon as possible, so you think you basically succeed? Are you going to be in the top 100 and be able to avoid qualifying now in some of the major tournaments coming up?
JESSE LEVINE: I haven't really looked at the rankings. It will be interesting to see where I'm going to be after this week. I don't think it's quite top 100 yet, but it's borderline. It's getting close.
As far as other tournaments, I just received word that I got a wildcard into Cincinnati. I'm pretty excited about that.
Hopefully in some other tournaments I can maybe sneak in on my ranking. US Open hopefully I can get another wildcard there, because on the cut I wasn't in yet. Hopefully soon enough I'll be in the top 100 and get into these tournaments on my own without the wildcards.

End of FastScripts

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