Thomas Enqvist defeated Petr Korda 6-3 6-4



ATP: Okay. Thomas Enqvist, a straight-set winner today. Then displayed his serving accuracy by hitting a racket and a bag on each contestant's request in Hit The Target Contest. Pretty good accuracy today, and moves into the quarterfinals here, the semifinals in Montreal last year. He likes Canada. Our first question for Thomas.

QUESTION: Thomas, you were playing your first match. A lot of people might have thought that you and Petr were the best match today. He has a good reputation. You're very highly ranked. Were you surprised there was not much attention to you?
THOMAS ENQVIST: No, not really. I think -- you mean the match?

QUESTION: Well, you're the first match in centre court. People aren't here yet, and Washington seems to be the featured match, but you and Petr are very good players. I thought maybe the match would have gotten more attention.
THOMAS ENQVIST: No. It's a lot of good players here, so you don't think that way. You play the time you're being scheduled and you go out there and you try to win the match. That's the important thing.

QUESTION: I think I've been informed that in your third to the last point the other night against Sanchez, it was 64. Did you know that?
THOMAS ENQVIST: 64?

QUESTION: 64 strokes, yeah. Did you know that?
THOMAS ENQVIST: That's unbelievable.

QUESTION: I mean you probably haven't had too many points like that, have you?
THOMAS ENQVIST: No. I guess not. Today was almost 64 hits in the match. It was short points today.

QUESTION: The nice thing about that point, though, was the way you won. You could have a long point like that and then the guy hits it in the net, but I mean, you had a very high-bouncing shot on the forehand and you must have been tired and then you still hit a winner. You must be very satisfied.
THOMAS ENQVIST: Yeah. That was fun. That was one of the best points I think I ever played, and like you said, you start to get a little bit tired and down to the point. He probably didn't think so much. So that's probably why I made that shot.

QUESTION: How well do you feel like you are playing right now?
THOMAS ENQVIST: I think I am playing well. Today's match was, like I said, was short points. And there was a little bit of wind there and Petr tried to take the ball out and it's harder to do that when it's wind there. And I started, I think, better today than I did the match against Sanchez, and he served pretty well, too, so it was shorter points. But I thought I was playing okay.

QUESTION: So you're at where you want to be right now?
THOMAS ENQVIST: Yeah. I'm in the quarterfinals.

QUESTION: Thomas, the funny part, I thought, after that point was when you went to serve the next point, and you were both obviously dead, very, very tired and you served reasonably quickly. I suspect you were trying to show him, well, I'm not tired, and then you hit a let. Then you were still so tired, like you had to take more time the next serve. Is that what you were trying to do after that point, sort of show him I'm not so tired?
THOMAS ENQVIST: No. But we only have 25 seconds.

QUESTION: Well, I think they may have given you more than that for that point.
THOMAS ENQVIST: Yeah.

QUESTION: Tom, are you a fan of ice hockey?
THOMAS ENQVIST: Yeah. I'm a big fan.

QUESTION: The world championship begins. What do you think of Sweden's chances?
THOMAS ENQVIST: I think they have pretty good chances. They're not obviously the favorites, but I think they have a good team. They have some key players that are in there, and one didn't play because of family reasons that we needed. We don't have that many professionals like you have where somebody gets injured, he has to put in another one. But we have a little bit smaller amount of players to play with. That's our top standard, I think. So that was sad. But still we have a very good team, and it's going to be a lot of fun to finally see a real championship.

QUESTION: Were you a hockey player yourself?
THOMAS ENQVIST: I played a little bit growing up.

LYNCH: He had a little slump this spring, which he blames on the Flyers losing the playoffs. Big Flyers fan. That's because they didn't have Renberg for the whole playoffs.
THOMAS ENQVIST: Yeah. That's true.

QUESTION: Speaking of that slump, Thomas, you probably hadn't been playing as well as you'd liked to, and you seem to be coming out of that a bit now. How do you explain that?
THOMAS ENQVIST: I think this year I've been playing a little bit up and down. Last year I played really solid, and I had a high standing in my game for almost the whole year. And this year I've been playing some very good tournaments, and then I've been playing a little bit worse. But after a while, if you start to lose, you lose a little bit of confidence, and I haven't been playing that many matches like I did last year. But I started off with a good year, and now I've been working hard. I've been practicing a lot, and I think I'm a better tennis player this year than I was last year. I've been working a lot different on my games. So right now I feel like I'm playing better again, and I've been playing a lot of matches lately. So hopefully I can continue to play well.

QUESTION: How do you know you're playing better? Do you notice anything better now than you were a few months ago?
THOMAS ENQVIST: Not maybe that much in the game. More that you have been playing some matches and you've been winning a little bit. So you start to get more confidence. And when you start winning a little bit, you start to win in the close sets and you start to win some matches,and that's very important to get a lot of matches in, in your volley.

QUESTION: You now play the winner of Henman-Ferreira. Which do you prefer to play?
THOMAS ENQVIST: It's tough. Both players are very good players. Ferreira is probably the favorite in that game, but Henman is upcoming player and has a good serve, so it could be a good match. But it doesn't matter who I have to play. I have to play really well to win. But I feel like I'm playing good, so I think I have a good chance to win if I play well.

QUESTION: Are you happy with the way the draw has opened up after yesterday? Do you have kind of an easier route?
THOMAS ENQVIST: It's no easy route in this kind of tournament. It just shows that everybody is very good and everybody can beat anybody. So you really have to be focused, you know, and you have to play 100 percent. Otherwise you're probably going to lose, even if you play maybe a little bit unknown guy, then you play a guy that's highly ranked.

LYNCH: Anything else for Thomas?

QUESTION: Yep. The fact that you did well here in Montreal last year, and the fact that you came back to the tournament. Do you get any inspiration from doing well last year?
THOMAS ENQVIST: It's always nice to go back to a place you've been playing well in, and I like the hard courts, and I usually play good tennis this time of the year, and hopefully I can continue to win matches.

QUESTION: And what were you mostly thinking about in the game today? What were you worried about when you were playing him?
THOMAS ENQVIST: I think I served steady. I put a lot of first serves in, I felt, and I played solid. I didn't miss that many shots, and he was making too many mistakes.

Text from du Maurier Open, Canada's international men's tennis championships by McKEE COURT REPORTING.