Re: Day 14 - Mariano Puerta Interview
THE MODERATOR: Questions in Spanish, please.
Q. In your last statement on the court, you said that it was a good match.
Was it a relief for you? Did you take away the weight you had on your
shoulders? Is it still a victory compared to the fight you were carrying
on lately?
MARIANO PUERTA: Yes. As I said, I won a very difficult fight against myself.
I wanted to be considered as a very good tennis player, and today I played
the major tournament in the world, I played the final, and I controlled my
nerves. I played well. I walked into the court and was hitting hard and was
very pleased with what I did.
As I said, I want to be fair with myself and I don't want to have a bad state
of mind just because I lost this final, no. For me, that match was already
won before I stepped into the court. Just playing this final was
extraordinary. I was very pleased with the result. I'm going to continue
playing the same way and maybe I might have other victories.
Q. Would you talk about your injury. Did it bother you? What happened? Did
you warm up in a bad way?
MARIANO PUERTA: No. But I got scared when it happened because I had a pain
which was very strong. When the trainer came, he put a very tight bandage
and that's maybe the reason why I didn't feel any pain, or not as much. I
could stand the pain. I was able to play.
I'm very happy because I was able to play this final. I would have been very
disappointed if I hadn't been able to make it till the end of the match.
Q. What kind of pain was it? What muscle?
MARIANO PUERTA: I didn't do an ultrasound yet, but I think it's the adductor.
Q. About your injury, it's a different injury or the same as yesterday?
Yesterday you had an ultrasound examination.
MARIANO PUERTA: No, today it was the right adductor. Yesterday it was on
the left side. Today I had no pain with my left leg. My adductor on the
right leg was hurting, but I controlled the pain and I didn't play badly
because of that. I was able to run as much as before. It didn't bother me.
Q. At a certain stage we saw you were looking for him, too, seeming very
surprised in the fourth set at 4-All. He finally won the point at a certain
time. Did you feel powerless, thinking, "How can he still get that ball
back?"
MARIANO PUERTA: Yes, I was seeing that sometimes I had to go to my limit
to be able to destabilize him. Sometimes you have the impression that he
stopped, and still he controls everything.
Now I can see young players playing against him. I can see them from
outside. I see there are some points that they can win, and they make
mistakes. Well, the same thing happened. I had to play very close to
the lines in order to destabilize him because if I missed, he could lob
me. If I was standing too far back, then he could pass me or dropshot me.
So it was difficult to control my game.
Q. Did you believe if you had won this fourth set you could have won the
match or was he untouchable?
MARIANO PUERTA: I felt that if I won the fourth set, we would have been
both at 50/50. At that moment I didn't consider he was any more the
favorite. In the fifth set, it could have been either of us. We were 50/50.
When I went onto the court, he was the favorite, it was clear to me. But
at the end of the fourth, I didn't see him that way any more.
Q. Was it the same doctor as last time?
MARIANO PUERTA: No. It was another one. Yesterday it was not the same
problem either. My foot wasn't hurting any more from yesterday.
Q. A long time ago there was Mariano Zabaleta. Now there's another one.
We talk a lot about Guillermo and David. Is there a competition between
you three or is it just proof that you can come all together to the top?
MARIANO PUERTA: It's a demonstration showing that one week it can be one
of us and the other week another one. Something is driving us, all of us.
Personally this is the way I see things. Given my experience, it's been a
few months now that I'm back with them, I can tell you in the tournaments
where I went, everything went well among us. We really get along together
better than a couple of years ago.
Q. You were talking about what you had to do, make a lot of effort to win
a point against Nadal. Do you believe he's unbeatable or did you show us
the way to beat him?
MARIANO PUERTA: I believe it's possible to beat him. I believe today I was
ready. I was very close. I was one point away from the fifth set. If we had
been in the fifth set, I don't know what would have happened. I was seeing
that he was watching what was happening outside. He was not very much at
ease. I hadn't seen him that way during the past two weeks.
I believe it's possible to beat him, but you have to be very strong
physically and mentally. But, yes, it is possible to beat him.
Q. At the end of the match, given the fact that you hit a lot of balls,
do you believe Nadal won the match or you lost it?
MARIANO PUERTA: No, Nadal won the match. You cannot beat Nadal just by
hitting the ball back. He really won that match. Because when I tried
to take the match into the fifth set, he fought back very strongly. He
was very consistent. He made no errors.
No, it's really him who won that match. I made errors because he was
pushing me to make them.
Q. You saw Guillermo Vilas. What did he say to you?
MARIANO PUERTA: Well, he was very pleased for me. He congratulated me.
He did that already many times before. He said that I should be very
satisfied with what I did and that I should be very pleased with that
match today. He said it was not easy to play a final the way I played
and the way Nadal was playing. It's not easy to play at such a level.
He said to me I should be very pleased with myself.
Q. Is there a disappointment that you lost the fourth set somewhere?
MARIANO PUERTA: Disappointment? No, not really. But I wanted to play
that fifth set. It made me crazy. I had goosebumps when I heard people
yelling my name. Center court was very excited at that moment. For the
crowd, I would have liked to go into a fifth set.
Unfortunately, Nadal didn't let me play this fifth set. It's true that
on one of those set points he did a dropshot, I caught it, and he played
a volley. I didn't know how he was able to hit that volley.
I have nothing to criticize about my game, but I really wanted to play
that fifth set. But he didn't let me do it.
Q. This conference is live in Argentina. Is there anything you want to
express?
MARIANO PUERTA: No. What can I say more than I did? I'm just able to say
that I'm very pleased; I'm very happy. I felt very good on the court.
I was very comfortable on the court. I never imagined that the Argentinians
would support me so much and give me so much strength to continue the match.
I feel that people like me very much - not only the Argentinians, but the
French people also because the majority of the crowd was French. I believe
that they wanted me to continue and they wanted me to go into a fifth set.
This is an extraordinary feeling. It's unusual. That's it.
Well, now I want to go back to Buenos Aires in a couple of days and be with
all the people who supported me and I want to share that happiness with them.
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