May 30, 2000
Head Coach Dennis Emery
On whether he foresaw Carlos Drada’s Success…
“I would love to say ‘Yes.’ Our goal was for Carlos to make All-American. Ithought the key thing he did during the tournament was that he relaxed oncehe made All-American. He had a really tough match to make All-American. Hewas down a set and a break, and he rallied and turned that match around towin 7-6 in the third (set) against a player who had beaten him handily inJanuary. Once that happened, he relaxed and really turned it on.”
On Carlos’ tough matches…
“Carlos had a really tough draw for the tournament. In the first round, heplayed a guy who made All-American last year, (Peter) Luczak of FresnoState. He also beat the No. 3 seed from Texas A&M in the quarters, ShuonMadden, and then Jeff Morrison, the No. 1 seed and defending champion. Youcouldn’t have picked a tougher draw to come through than the one Carlos did.”
On where Drada ranks among those who have played for UK…
“We actually sat down and did that. I think you would have to put Carlos atnumber one. We’ve had players who have had really good careers. We’ve neverhad anybody come in here and put it together for one week like he did.We’ve had players who have gone on to have very successful pro careers.Greg Van Emburgh was a semifinalist at Wimbledon, and he was a semifinalistin doubles at the NCAA. No one has ever gone to the finals. I think youhave to put him at number one now. The thing that is really neat for me isthat Carlos is not only one of the best players we have ever had here, heis truly one of the nicest people we have had here. It is good to see thenice guys win one.”
On what Carlos’ success does for the program…
“I think it will help our whole team and our program in terms of nationalcredibility. We have had a lot of success as a team. We have had a lot ofAll-Americans. But we haven’t had anybody who has gone on to the finals ofthe NCAA. We have had a lot of success in other tournaments like theNational Clay Courts. In my mind, one of the things we haven’t done is dowell individually at the NCAA for the past 12 to 15 years. It is somethingthat is always in the back of my mind, and this is a big breakthrough forus in terms of recruiting. It’s a big deal for us.”
Carlos Drada
“My main goal going into the tournament was to make All-American. Last yearI was really close and I lost two tie-break sets, it was tough going in andtrying to do that again. This year everything just kind of fell into placefor me.”
On beating the No. 1 seed Jeff Morrison…
“I thought I was going to beat him before the match. He is one of theplayers in the country that I am actually comfortable to play against. Ihave played him before and every one of our matches have been close. Everytime I have played him I have had a really good chance to win. I thoughtthat if I played him down there I was going to beat him.”
On his future…
“My main goal right now is to keep playing tennis and see now well I cando. Hopefully, what happened in the tournament will keep happening. I nowit is hard, but it is always good to keep dreaming.”
On his health…
“It is tough to play in a tournament like this. What is going to happen isgoing to happen regardless. In the first round I twisted my ankle and wascramping, but the conditions were hard for everyone. Even tough I had backspasms and wasn’t in the best of shape, I still feel like I beat a lot ofguys because I was more fit than they were. To win this tournament you haveto be well mentally and physically.”
On his mental state…
“Whatever happened I was always just thinking of the moment. I have beenreading a lot of books on that sort of thing, and I think it helped becauseit taught me how to leave the other things. Nothing bothered me, even whenI was down. Everything just seemed to be together for me. Nothing couldaffect me and the thing was that I wasn’t even trying. Everything was justfalling into place, and I was playing great.”
