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U.S. OPEN

September 1, 2009

Jesse Witten

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

J. WITTEN/I. Andreev
6-4, 6-0, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Biggest win of your career?
JESSE WITTEN: You could probably say that. I think it's my first ATP victory, too. It's been a lot of years. I'm pretty sure it's my first ATP victory at that level.

Q. What happened?
JESSE WITTEN: Actually, I don't know.

Q. That guy is seeded. He's a good player.
JESSE WITTEN: I don't know what's happening. Last couple weeks I've been playing well, and I'm not even sure why. I'm just going to roll with it. I'm hitting the ball well. I'm kind of dictating play well without making a lot of errors.
Everything is bugging a lot of guys, even a guy like him who is so good. I really don't know what to say about it. I'm not going to argue it.

Q. We talked to Devin Britton yesterday; similar response. First time out. He was sort of amazed. He was in awe of Roger Federer, et cetera.
JESSE WITTEN: Right.

Q. What was your mindset taking the court?
JESSE WITTEN: Well, I mean, I've been here before. I've played three quallies matches now. We're on the outside-courts. I feel comfortable out there. It was a good crowd. I mean, I feel like I had a lot of support, a lot of friends and a lot of family.
So, I mean, I felt comfortable. I didn't feel overwhelmed at all. Usually I'm kind of nervous when you walk out there. But from the first point on, I didn't feel too many nerves. I was comfortable. Helped me get right into it rather than lose a few games early in order to get into the match. So that probably helped, a quick start.

Q. Were you surprised?
JESSE WITTEN: I was trying not to think about it. I mean, when I was up in the first set 5-2 serving for it, I kind of let a bad game go by and it got a little close. I started to think about it a little bit.
I was able to rebound. A lot of times that's when I struggled, is rebounding from a bad game or a game that kind of slipped away where you should have closed it out.
I think that's the big thing this week I did.

Q. We saw John Isner yesterday. Is this an argument to go to college?
JESSE WITTEN: I mean, you're not going to find me saying don't go to - I love -- I'd go back to college right now if I could. I loved college and everything about it. I feel like the team aspect of it is great. I love having the team, having friends that you live with and play and practice and do everything together.
It's just a great atmosphere. I got a lot better at college. I had a lot of offers to kind of bypass college and go right into playing and traveling, but I didn't want to do that 30-some weeks a year. I mean, I was 18 or 17, whatever. I just -- it wasn't me.
So I kind of just stuck it, graduated, and went that path. I'm glad I did.

Q. How is that kinesiology?
JESSE WITTEN: Yeah, you know, it's doing great for me. (laughter.)
No, it was actually good at the time, if you're getting injured. I mean, it's a lot of like exercise science basically. So if you're getting injured and you know how the body is working and what you need to do if you're getting fatigued and stuff like that, I mean, it's a broad spectrum. It's great for athletes because it kind of shows and teaches you what's going on with your body when you're playing sports at a high level.

Q. Are you at all surprised? He mentioned John Isner. There were many college athletes here yesterday. A lot of them won yesterday. Does that surprise you at all?
JESSE WITTEN: No, I mean, I think -- I think it's -- I don't know. There's a couple of guys, obviously, that can skip college and get away with it. But, I mean, there are so many guys that are at the mediocre level, or where we're at, the 200 to the whatever. I know there's a lot of them, but 200 to 300 or 400 realistically.
There are so many guys that kind of skipped college, and I know 'em now and they kind of regret it. Actually there are a couple of my friends going back. I think it's great. I was in the SEC, so we were playing top 10 guys every week, every other day. So I mean, you had to be ready.

Q. In this tournament, there's all these college people -- do you guys talk about this at all?
JESSE WITTEN: Right, SEC. We don't, but...
Unless there's football games on. We leave the tennis out of it. More basketball.

Q. It's like 30 Gs getting to the second round. What are you going to do with it?
JESSE WITTEN: That's more than I made all year. Is that right? With the team tennis though, I always do the team tennis here. I play for the New York team, which is always fun. Ever since that, I guess we'll have to give that the credit. I've been on a roll. I played with Kendrick, and we had Abigail Spears feel and Fusano on our team.
There as a lot of good practices. You play a lot of guys. It's kind of like this atmosphere: they're loud, you get some rowdy fans, and they get behind you.
Anything like that with a college atmosphere, rowdy people, New York, it's fun.

Q. Were there some folks from Kentucky up there?
JESSE WITTEN: I had some of my teammates, actually. They came up. They kind of follow me whenever I can. Whenever I get to a big show, they're definitely there. They're always supporting me.

Q. Are they sticking around now?
JESSE WITTEN: If I let them stay in my room, (laughter) which they have been. So I mean...
We had like five people -- I mean, don't tell the hotel, but...
No, yeah, I'd be glad for them to stick around, do whatever I can to keep them around. I need as many fans as I can at this point.

Q. You can get them another hotel room?
JESSE WITTEN: I don't want to waste my money. (laughter.) Just because I have some for once.

Q. Do you have any ideas what to do with it? That's a chunk of change.
JESSE WITTEN: It's expensive to play tennis. I lost -- I had a sponsor. I don't really have any sponsors this year. I was with -- I had a couple people from Naples where I'm from helping me with expenses. This year I've kind of been on my own.
At the beginning of the year it was, Am I going to keep playing? Is it worth it? I was kind debating at the beginning of the year, and then I started winning a couple of tournaments and got going.
Because I was coming back from injuries last year, as well last year. I was ranked about 500 at the beginning of the year, and then it was -- I wasn't sure it was worth it, especially on my own dime.

Q. How close did you come...
JESSE WITTEN: You always talk about it, but when you're hurt, I was at the futures, playing a 10-K future. I mean, you win the tournament, you get a thousand dollars or something like that. So I did win a few. I got my ranking -- got going again. I was playing well.
I'm just fortunate to be where I am. I guess a couple of lucky breaks this year.

Q. What do you do if you don't play tennis?
JESSE WITTEN: We don't know. We'll see what that kinesiology does for me.

Q. Seriously, do you have a backup plan?
JESSE WITTEN: I try not to think about that. I don't know how close I want to be to doing that yet. We'll try to milk this as long as I can, the 30 grand.

Q. A lot of guys go to college and stop after a year or two years. You stayed four; got your degree. Was there ever a point in your time there where you thought about leaving?
JESSE WITTEN: Um, there were good -- after the first year I got to the finals, NCAA's my first year, and they were kind of strong on that one. You get older, and they kind of tend to weaken the deal to go play.
Actually, they offered me a coach and offered me some help and expenses to play and travel, but I just -- I loved college too much. I just -- I didn't want to let the team down. Just had too much fun, and I was playing well, and I wanted to finish out and get my degree because you never know what's going to happen with tennis. One ankle injury, you're done.

Q. When you say that, you're talking about like an agency?
JESSE WITTEN: No, well just the USTA, majors, whoever. Doesn't really matter who, but there were some offers, and I didn't -- I wasn't ready. Just wasn't ready to travel by myself for that long every week, different city. Just wasn't ready.

Q. Any concern keeping the nerves in check? You have a day or two to think about this heading into the next round.
JESSE WITTEN: No, I think if I got through that one I'll be all right. That was the seed. I got my first ATP win, so I can't go backwards.

Q. Is there anybody you sought out advice from about Andreev in particular, playing him, what would work against him, what to watch out for?
JESSE WITTEN: Yeah, it's funny, everybody seemed to be my coach the last few days, but I hit with John McEnroe the other day, and he was really being helpful. He's on my team tennis team, as well. Plays five or six matches with us.
We've gotten closer over the last five or six years. He was trying to give me pointers, helping me out. He usually doesn't say too much when it comes to somebody else's game or coaching like that. That meant a lot, just to know that he was -- and he called me after I qualified, you know.
So I mean, just for them to take the time out of their busy schedule, which I know is busy, I mean, it means a lot to you. Makes you feel appreciated and what you're doing maybe is worth it. I take the little things out of it, I guess.

End of FastScripts

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