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2003 TENNIS MASTERS SERIES MONTREAL
An interview with: MAX MIRNYI Tour Official: Okay. Questions for Max?
Reporter:
Okay, Max, how would you describe your first set this afternoon, what happened?
Max Mirnyi: Well, I thought it was a little bit flat,
but on the other hand, Roger made a few great guesses and he passed me
right off the bat, and that sort of set the tone for the beginning of
the match. And it was a lot tougher being the follower rather than the
leader in this match.
Reporter: Did you expect anything different from him?
Max Mirnyi: Not really. We know each other long enough
and played with each other many doubles matches against each other several
times and in the singles court. So I knew exactly what he's capable of.
I'm sure he did the same thing about my game. And it was just a matter
of really coming out and I thought I hung on to him pretty well in the
second set and I had a few opportunities, that one game at love?30, where
I had a chance to maybe go up a breakpoint, but it didn't happen. But
anyway, he deserves to be where he is right now and he's playing according
to his ranking.
Reporter: Max, is it tough to play your style of
serve and volley on these courts because they're a little slow?
Max Mirnyi: Well, if anything, it's a lot easier than
being on clay courts, let's put it that way. But I guess the whole idea
behind the Masters Series tournaments was to make them identical and even
the colour of the courts speaks for itself. Sure, it's not the same Canadian
Open as it was four or five years ago where there was red and green courts
here, the balls were different and conditions were much faster, but now
it's been already three years into this Masters Series idea and I guess
we're all used to it. Just got to take what you get.
Reporter: Tonight you're going to celebrate with Roger
for his birthday, that's what he told us, so are you going to pay for
him for the meal?
Max Mirnyi: Well, at least on the last couple of occasions
we were out to dinner, he would always pay for dinner, because he was
celebrating his, you know, great tournament in Rome earlier this year
in Europe and then the Wimbledon dinner we had only a couple of weeks
ago. So, you know, today I wanted to make sure that I'll congratulate
him with his birthday and I'll take care for the dinner.
Reporter: Max, you know Roger's game as well as anybody
playing with him so much. Do you see that he's even got more in him, that
he can be even a better player than he is right now?
Max Mirnyi: Well, certainly the fact that he's won the
biggest tournament we have gives him a lot of confidence. Because he's
much more relaxed, much more within himself under pressure situations.
And that makes him a different player from where he was two years ago.
So he's proven that he's able to win grand slams and now he's just sort
of, I think, much more relieved and playing much more relaxed and he's
got a great game. I'm a big fan of his game. It was a pleasure to play
against him today.
Reporter: Max, what was it that was working for you
so well against Hewitt the other night that wasn't working today?
Max Mirnyi: Well, Roger and Hewitt are completely different
players. There are some things that Hewitt allows me to do that Roger
doesn't and vice versa. So it was a little bit of a different match up
to start with and in different conditions. I played Hewitt at night. Today
it was a much warmer day. You know, I thought Roger served really well
from the history of the matches in the past. He struggled on his serve,
unlike today it was, I think, a great service game for him. And just in
general I think Roger is the type of Hewitt was two years ago where Hewitt
was winning a lot of matches and very confident. Now Roger's sort of riding
the wave and Hewitt is the one that's struggling a bit, playing less matches
this year. So it was great to capitalize on that.
Reporter: Agassi at 33 is not going to be around forever,
obviously. Do you see Roger as the leading person to move into that role
as the number one player in tennis, or is there someone else better equipped?
Max Mirnyi: I would certainly like to see that happen,
because besides the fact that we're friends, I think he's a great ambassador
for the game. He would be a great number one for the sport and he's a
great person, great player. But besides him, I'm sure there are players
of Roddick caliber, or Ferrero, who are proving to be on top of their
game now and I'm sure they're going to be the ones that are fighting for
the contention of number one spot in the next year or so.
Reporter: How did you become friends, you and Roger?
How come you're so close?
Max Mirnyi: We've played several lower ranked tournaments,
Challengers, and practiced together many times, and our coaches thought
we would make a good doubles team. Every time we play we have a lot of
fun. We like to compete. And at the end of the days we win a lot of matches.
So it makes us feel good around one another and I like his sort of entourage.
You know, we're friends with his coach and his family and our families
stay together. So I was very happy to see him win Wimbledon and continue
to do well.
Reporter: For this week in Montreal, did you expect
this kind of tournament? What were your goals and having beat Hewitt and
Srichaphan, how do you expect now the coming weeks?
Max Mirnyi: I always felt like I enjoy, even though the
conditions are rough with the heat and the humidity, I always enjoyed
playing in North America. I've been raised in Florida since I was 13 and
all these tournaments there are very big and important tournaments like
Montreal and Cincinnati, these other tournaments, Indianapolis, Washington,
leading up to the U.S. Open. I always felt like this was maybe my best
part of the year and I've shown good results during this time of the year.
Coming here I played a week in Washington, won two good matches there,
lost to Gonzales in the quarter final. I felt like I was ready to play
good tennis here. And then the draw came out, Philippoussis pulled out,
you know, I was ready to play him because I thought that was going to
be an exciting match. But then I had to play Nicolas Massu, which was
a tough match. And Hewitt, any time you play a player of that caliber,
you better be up for the match and ready to play. So I've played Hewitt
before. I knew that I could beat him. I beat him at the Olympics, he beat
me the other time in Cincinnati, so I knew that this was going to be an
interesting match. I knew what I had to do. You know, just kept on going.
Yesterday was a good match against Paradorn because I've also beaten him
before. It's good to string a few good matches together here at this tournament.
Reporter: Today's match, does it disappoint you or
if you put it in the whole perspective with the whole week, are you pretty
satisfied?
Max Mirnyi: Well, any loss is a disappointment. But at
the end of the day you've got to ask yourself if you did everything you
could on that given day. I felt like today I've done everything I could.
I played well. I persisted with my game plan and I'm sure it's a winning
game plan for me. And, you know, I lost to the best player this year so
far and, you know, that's the way it comes down to. I have things that
I have to improve upon and hopefully I can take these couple wins this
week to the next week and continue the good form.
Reporter: Things are going very well for you in doubles
this year, how is it playing with Mahesh?
Max Mirnyi: Oh, it's very good because doubles game is
a big part of my career. I've always played at a very low level whenever
I started to think about turning professional at the satellite level,
I was playing both singles and doubles and I've continued doing that throughout
my career. And it's been a big part of my upcoming with my service and
volley game. It helps me stay in shape, it helps me stay alert, match
fit. I think it is a great combination to develop new shots throughout
the career to play both events. It's just sometimes a bit enduring physically,
but I try to stay disciplined, look after myself and you know, I manage.
Reporter: How did you and Bhupathi get together?
Max Mirnyi: Also in a way similar with Roger. Mahesh
and I got close playing some Challengers over in Asia seven or eight years
ago. And just being under rough conditions so far away from home you just
sort of tend to blend in. And just stayed friends. You know, I've admired
his success with Leander and then they had for different reasons a falling
out. And when he asked me to play doubles two years ago, I was thrilled,
because he's proven to be a very good player. He's won a number of grand
slams in mixed doubles and doubles. He's a great partner to have with
great experience and great skills.
Tour Official: Anything else for Max? Thanks, Max.
By the way, he's the number one doubles player in the doubles rankings
right now. |