HYUNDAI HOPMAN CUP XXIV – Transcript Bethanie Mattek-Sands & Mardy Fish (USA)

Written by: Staff on 4th January 2012

HYUNDAI HOPMAN CUP XXIV - Transcript Bethanie Mattek-Sands & Mardy Fish (USA)

Mardy Fish of the USA in action against Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic during their session 8 men's singles match of the Hopman Cup tennis tournament in Perth, Australia, 04 January 2011. EPA/TONY MCDONOUGH AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT |

4^th January 2012

The rest of Australia wants to know – you’ve got the Pat Cash headband on, we all grew up wanting a Pat Cash headband, how did you score one?

(Mattek-Sands) You know what, I did a little interview with him the other day and I was his teammate, so he graciously gave me one.

Well we’re glad he gave you one. Will you wear it again on tour? Especially of course on the East Coast, we’d love to see you representing the great man, the 87 Wimbledon champ.

Yeah definitely, I’ll pull it out again.

There were a lot of laughs here tonight; it looks like you’re having a good time. A bit of skin action going on – you hit Mardy a couple of times.

(Fish) Her diamonds.

Oh the diamonds was it?

(Fish) Her diamonds cut me here.

Absolutely, you’ve drawn blood.

(Bethanie Mattek-Sands) I’ve got some blood diamonds I guess, I don’t know. It’s not good.

It’s been a tough time of it here. The quality of the field is fantastic Bethanie and it is just great to get the games under your belt against the two best singles women in the world – are you looking forward to your last match?

(Mattek-Sands) Yeah definitely. I mean I get the day off tomorrow which will be nice, but you know again I haven’t played a lot of matches in the last 6 months, so this has been really great for me to come back and get my groove back.

Absolutely, well we’ve loved having you. Mardy – you covered some territory then. You were running all over the place. Did you think that drinks container was fixed to the ground?

(Fish) I thought it was full, actually there’s nothing in there.

I noticed also that you had your ankle strapped heavily in the singles and obviously got rid of it and a bit of clean skin in the second. What was that all about in the mixed?

(Fish) Well the turnaround isn’t so long, so we taped my ankles for the singles and then we only have 25 minutes or so and then we have to come back out, so I didn’t have much time to do that.

How’s the preparation going? You did say the other night that you’re still a bit jaded about coming over here. How are you feeling now couple of days on?

(Fish) Yeah I feel much better today for sure. I played two great players today. I tipped them to win most likely. It’s been fun and this is great preparation. It’s great that Bethanie can get out here and play some matches, because she hasn’t played a lot. This is perfect for her and for all the players.

An entertaining day, well done.