Q. Do you think this is your win 100 percent, or that his injury helped you a lot or affected him?
GASTON GAUDIO: Well, I think that if you play with a guy that he's injured, of course it's gonna help you. But that was in the fourth set. And then in the fifth, he start to run again like the beginning of the match.
So for sure it help me a lot for the fourth set because I was like almost done. And then in the fifth, I start to play again another match. It was like a new match. Because he was running again, and it was tough.

Q. How much was difficult to you to manage this situation, that sometimes it's not easy to play.
GASTON GAUDIO: Well, it's complicated to play a guy that you don't know how to play, you don't know the strategy to play a guy like he's maybe running, maybe not. You just thinking to put the ball in, and then he make a forehand winner, you know. So you don't know how to manage that.
But I think I was a little bit lucky at the end when I got two match points down and I came back. And, I don't know, I did it. I don't know how, but I won.

Q. In the fourth set some of us were asking in the press box, you did not seem to be using dropshots in the fourth set even though he could barely move out there. Why not?
GASTON GAUDIO: Well, is not a big ?? it's not so much important that, you know. It's like I was 6?1. I won 6?1 the fourth set. I almost ?? he couldn't run, he couldn't do anything. So I was worried about the fifth and I was thinking about the fifth and not too much in the fourth. I was like just put it in and he was like missing everything, that's why.

Q. To follow up on that question. Did you not find yourself struggling with some emotions as a human being rather than just as a competitor on the tennis court that kept you from being a little more ruthless and using dropshots in that fourth set?
GASTON GAUDIO: I don't know what you mean. I don't understand.

Q. Did you find yourself feeling pity and compassion?
GASTON GAUDIO: No, no, no.

Q. Did that affect your play in the fourth set?
GASTON GAUDIO: No. No, no. No, like I told you before, in the fourth set, I mean, I was just putting the ball in and that's it. I don't care. He was like ?? he couldn't run, but I was thinking about the fifth. That's why.

Q. One last question. Is what happened this afternoon, in your opinion, is it an example simply of life just not being very fair sometimes?
GASTON GAUDIO: Being not fair? Why?

Q. Because your opponent suffered an extreme physical injury during the match.
GASTON GAUDIO: This is a game that we have to run, you have to prepare yourself and you have to do all the stuff to play tennis, you know. And there's mental, physically and tennis. So this is the game. The way that it is.

Q. How does a player like you go from last year or the year before struggling a little bit, not having major progress at a Grand Slam, and then coming here in a two?week period, all of a sudden, you're on top of the world and pull out one of the most remarkable matches we've seen?
GASTON GAUDIO: Well, I don't realize now. I just finished my match. I don't know how much is gonna change my life with this. I can't believe it yet, so...
I don't know how many changes I made or what was the main thing that I change. But the only thing that I know is that I won. So I don't have the explanation, now. Maybe in a couple of days I gonna realize what I have done.

Q. Your coach was saying you made a lot of technical changes as well as the mental work you were speaking about in the last year. Did you always believe or was there a time this year when you thought, "Yes, I can win a Grand Slam. Yes, I've turned the corner and now I can be a great player"?
GASTON GAUDIO: Well, I guess until now I never believe that I can win a Grand Slam. I was like playing today until the last point, and I was like not even thinking that I'm gonna win this tournament.
So I change a lot of things in my mental part, you know, is like I was working a lot. But I don't know if I was prepared to win the Slam like I did.
So I don't know. Maybe from now on, I'm gonna believe in myself more.

Q. How important was making the connection with the crowd, sort of third set and where you went from there?
GASTON GAUDIO: Well, it was real important for me because I was like a little bit too nervous. And after that, I start to relax. I relax a little bit more, trying to enjoy the moment that I was living, being in a final, and it was my first time, and being with a lot of people down there, with the crowd and everything. It's like too much for me.
So after that, I start to relax a little bit more, and trying to enjoy that moment. It was good. It works.

Q.And in that final set, a couple of times you burst out laughing. What were you thinking?
GASTON GAUDIO: Well, I was laughing because I couldn't believe what was going on over there. It was like a movie, you know. I was watching my coach and I was telling him, "What is this?" I mean, it's like too much.

Q. So now that it's happened and you've had a little while to think about it, what does this really mean to you?
GASTON GAUDIO: Means everything. Everything.
I mean, since I was a kid, I was dreaming to be down here, being here and win this tournament, talking to all these guys here (laughing). It's like a dream, you know.

Q. What was the emotional process you were undergoing? Because in the first two sets we thought ? at least me ? that you were feeling defeated. Then you end laughing. What was the process there?
GASTON GAUDIO: Well, I think that it was the moment that the people start to make the waves. From that moment, I think that I start to enjoy it more, the match, and being more relax and trying to play my tennis. Because until that moment, I couldn't play like anything. I was too nervous, and I didn't do anything. I was like making so many mistakes.
So I think that from that moment was the main point.

Q. When you were down 6?love, 5?1, have you thought like, "Okay, Gaston, well done, final is enough," or you always think that you could recover him and go back?
GASTON GAUDIO: Well, it's tough to be in a final 6?love, 5?1 down. It was like I was suffering. I was suffering so much. I was telling my coach that I want to leave, I don't want to be here. I prefer to lose in the first round and not to be in here in the final and making this, you know?
Final, like I told the other guy, it's like I was trying to relax myself a little bit more and trying to enjoy the moment. And, finally, I did it.

Q. How do you feel by receiving the trophy from the hands of Guillermo Vilas, who is one of your idols?
GASTON GAUDIO: It was exactly the way that I dreamed. Well, it's great. I mean, like I told all the people there, I was like ?? I think that I'm playing here because of him. So getting that trophy from him, it was like a dream.

Q. You referred a little bit to some of the ups and downs of your career. Can you tell us a little bit more about that. And this year, specifically, how it's been going. And also when you started working with the psychologist.
GASTON GAUDIO: No, I been working with him since quite a while, I mean one year. But this year, I mean, I was playing so bad. I was like in the clay season, I didn't do anything good. I was not playing my best tennis. I reach the final in Barcelona. And from that moment ?? from that moment I think that I start to get in again in my tennis.
I don't know, I played last week in Dusseldorf, and I won a match that maybe makes me feel so good because I was like almost winning that match. I was 6?3, 5?2 serving for the match, and then he would recover and come back. I still fighting. So that, from a mental point of view, was like too good.
When I came here, I was playing match by match, you know, step by step, and I don't know...

Q. Follow?up. What has the psychologist been able to help you improve?
GASTON GAUDIO: He was helping me in the way that I have to enjoy more the things that I am doing, you know. Like trying to ?? not to suffer so much in the court, and trying to ?? happiness, you know, be happy over there, and trying to fight all the time. That's what he was trying to do with me.

Q. You said before that you made lots of sacrifices to play tennis. Can you talk a little bit about it, please.
GASTON GAUDIO: The sacrifice that all the tennis player used to do, but the people doesn't know. We used to travel so much and being by ourself without my family, without my friends. We can't go out and maybe sometimes have the money to travel when you are not getting so much, when you are not winning and you're not playing big tournaments like now. When you're a kid, you have to maybe ask for money to your grandpa to see maybe if you can take the flight to the tournament.
And all that sacrifices, I think that makes you ? how can I say? ? makes you, you know, like being there in the court and fight more ? more than the other ones.

Q. Were you pleased when you saw Guillermo Vilas and John McEnroe giving you the greatest trophy? Were you especially pleased with that?
GASTON GAUDIO: Especially what?

Q. Pleased.
GASTON GAUDIO: Yeah. I mean, it's like I touch heaven, you know. It's everything. I was talking with (Mack?) before the match and was just asking for some advice, you know. Because I was too nervous and I was telling him what I should do or, "Tell me what you think about it," or, "Give me some advice," because I'm suffering before the match, and it didn't even start.
He was telling me, "You have to relax yourself," and, "You are just in the final, try and enjoy this moment, and maybe in a couple years you will say this ?? you will maybe" ? I don't know ? "you will say that, 'Why I couldn't enjoy that moment?' And now that I'm not playing anymore, you know, you gonna miss it." He helped me a lot before the match.
I don't know. Even that I start the match so nervous, during the match I was thinking about that.

Q. When Guillermo first called the trainer, some people wondered if he was kind of going into some gamesmanship, trying to get in your head a little bit. What were your thoughts at that point? Did you doubt he was injured or did you wait to see what happened?
GASTON GAUDIO: No, I was waiting just to see what happened. I mean, he couldn't play the fourth set. I think that he was injured. Even the fifth set, he couldn't serve.
Yeah, yeah, I thought maybe the same situation like in Hamburg, but then I realized that it wasn't like that.

Q. Do you realize that the same way that Guillermo Vilas was referenced for the kids in Argentina, now you could be a role model for them?
GASTON GAUDIO: (Laughing). No, I don't even think about that yet. I don't know. Everything is coming too fast, you know. It's like I will have to calm down and go to my hotel, lie on my bed, and just think what I have done, you know.

Q. You talked about your family a minute ago. Could you talk about the inspiration of your father, in particular. I know you've mentioned that before.
GASTON GAUDIO: Well, I think that everything that I have done, I owe it to him. He made so much effort to me, for me, and for all of us, you know, my brothers, my sisters.
So I want to dedicate all this to him. He deserve it, for sure.

Q. A couple of days ago, you said you saw Nalbandian and Coria as the Galacticos, and you were something of a Valencia because Valencia won the league.
GASTON GAUDIO: I don't lie. I always say the truth.

Q. Were you being smart at the time?
GASTON GAUDIO: That's why I say Valencia, you know, because they got the championship and I got it. So I don't lie. That's why (smiling).

Q. You said, during your speech, when you were talking about your parents, you didn't ask them to come. Did you think if they came it would make you too nervous? Did you not ask them early enough?
GASTON GAUDIO: No, I prefer to be like I was in the matches before, just with my people, the people that we were doing our stuff together the whole tournament. So I didn't want them to change anything, you know. They know that I have it always with me, but in my heart, you know.
THE MODERATOR: Spanish questions, please.

Q. In your life you lived incredible things in Moscow, in Croatia, in Barcelona. When you look back on what you lived, what do you feel today, when you see that you win 8?6 in the fifth and that you win the French Open?
GASTON GAUDIO: It's 100 percent satisfaction. As you said, I had difficult moments. People don't know about it, in Moscow or in Malaga. In Malaga, people know how they criticized me.
It's true when you come back to Buenos Aires that you have the impression that it's my fault, and it hurt me. This is the reason why I enjoy this moment twice as much, because there are people who help me at that difficult moment. It was a difficult moment of my life.
Now, it's like a revenge. I worked a lot, I fought a lot ? more than ever. To reach that moment, this is life. Now I enjoy it.

Q. Did you think at a certain time you had lost the match?
GASTON GAUDIO: Yes, at one time I thought it was lost.
Ouch, I have a cramp.
Yes, at any stage I thought I could lose the match ? 15?40, when he was serving. I hit my backhand, and I thought, "We'll see what happens."

Q. You didn't have a good year until now, but you beat Moya this year. Do you believe this tournament was important?
GASTON GAUDIO: Yes. After Barcelona, I had the feeling that I was playing well again, and I felt that my tennis was back. I was feeling good, and I was behaving very well. So I felt good when I arrived in this tournament.

Q. Guga in Buenos Aires said that you were a potential winner of the French Open and you had enough talent to win. Did you talk about it with him?
GASTON GAUDIO: It's true that with Guga, we are good friends. I always admired him as a person before anything else. He was asked how it happened when he won and he came here. I won a challenger last week, and then we speak as good friends. I will not forget that the first time I came here he asked me to play with him. Since then, I respect him a lot.

Q. Your career is now at a turning point. You didn't imagine that a couple of minutes ago. Do you think about something?
GASTON GAUDIO: I believe it is going to change many things, but I don't know what. I don't even realize that I won yet. I didn't have time to understand that. Of course, it will change many things, but I'm not thinking about it right now.

Q. It's been 25 years or 27 years since an Argentinian didn't win here. It was legendary. Are you going to become a legend thanks to this victory?
GASTON GAUDIO: We'll see with time. But we can't compare with Guillermo Vilas. I think it's thanks to him that I was able to play. He won many titles. Nobody's going to catch up on what he did. Now it's our time, but it's another level. I think that everything that can bring joy and pleasure to the Argentinians, we will do it.

Q. Up to what point did the support of the public in the third set helped you for winning this match?
GASTON GAUDIO: I believe it was fundamental, because when I was down 4?3, I was very nervous. I couldn't feel the ball properly. I was not enjoying it all at that moment. Suddenly, the crowd did the wave, and I enjoyed my tennis more. I enjoyed the match, and I came back into the match.

Q. Did you think about Maradona?
GASTON GAUDIO: Yes, Maradona and all the people I mentioned. If I can bring as much joy as he did, why not? I hope I can give him emotions. Even if we can do very little for him, we will do it.

Q. This pres conference is being broadcast in Argentina. Do you want to speak to your parents and your friends in front of the camera? Do you want to send them a message?
GASTON GAUDIO: I already send a message from the court. I told them what I felt, that I loved them, that everything is for them, and that we are going to celebrate all that when I come back.

Q. Are you speaking to someone in particular?
GASTON GAUDIO: No, to my whole family and all the people who are helping me.

Q. You went through hard times. Do you believe you can live that kind of moment in Davis Cup? Did you think about the difficult moments you might live in tennis?
GASTON GAUDIO: Every match I play is a new experience. Whether it was in Russia or in Malaga, all that is good experience. Even if some of you ? not all of you ? criticized me in Malaga. I learned from that and it gave me strength to fight. Today, I enjoy all the more. It's possible that from now on, I will be able to manage better my emotions.

Q. There's no doubt that the Argentinian tennis had a period before Vilas and a period after Vilas. Are we going to have to wait 27 years more to live again this kind of celebration on the court?
GASTON GAUDIO: No. As I said before, Guillermo and David have an incredible tennis. They are both able to win this kind of tournament and they have many years ahead. Just as well he didn't win today, because it would have been very difficult for me because I don't have many years left in tennis. They have many years ahead in tennis.

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