The Daily Forehand's Interview With Frank Dancevic

Frank Dancevic is the top ranked Canadian on the ATP Tour, and has been for some time.  The 24-year old i's an energetic big server with go-for-broke, flashy groundstrokes that quickly win him a lot of fast points and fans.

With his ranking just outside making it into the main draw at the time rankings were frozen for the US Open entry list, Dancevic was the sixth-seed in US Open qualifying this weekm and looked to have a fairly easy road to the main draw .  He lost in the first round, however, to Dominik Meffert of Germany, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1.  More on  that match later.  It was a tough break for Dancevic, who would be in the main draw of the Open had his current ranking of #104 been used.

I interviewed Dancevic  just after he won his first round match at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington over Santiago Giraldo, 6-4, 6-3.  Dancevic would lose his next match to Tommy Haas in a close 6-4 final set, a match in which Haas' gamesmanship (though he denied such) likely made the difference.

Click the link below to read the full interview:

TDF: Feel good out there? Not a single game on your serve even went to deuce…

Frank Dancevic: Yeah, I—shit!

(Dancevic accidentally kicks out a table leg of the table in the players’ dining room, knocking over a vase sitting on the table and sending water and flowers flying across the table)

See me save the glass there? Cat-like reflexes (laughs).

Yeah, I did feel pretty good.  I had a pretty long trip getting in here from Buffalo.  It was supposed to be an hour-and-a-half flight, but turned into a thirty-hour nightmare trip.  I got in last night around 10:30 at night, hit a few balls on the courts here from 10:30 til 11:00.  Luckily I was playing later tonight, otherwise I would’ve been in trouble.

But yeah, considering the circumstances I felt like I played really good out there.  I served really well, and I returned well, and had a lot of opportunities the whole match, so I’m pretty excited.

TDF:Did you drive down here? I know you’ve surprised people by driving to Indianapolis from Canada...

Frank Dancevic: Yeah, what happened was I left Friday afternoon from Buffalo, connecting through Newark.  It ended up being a late flight into Newark, and we missed our connection to Baltimore.  So they made us fly out the next morning, yesterday morning. 

Anyway, to make a long story short, we’re five minutes til landing in Baltimore, and they turned the plane around and sent me back to Newark, and ended up canceling the flight (laughs).  So the only way to get here was to drive from Newark. 

So I ended up driving five hours last night from Newark, got here really late.  I was exhausted.  I didn’t really practice much—I got to practice really late last night, actually practiced for an hour just to get a feel for the courts. 

It was pretty warm out there today, so I’m happy it was only two sets.

TDF: When you play an opponent like Giraldo who has a much bigger forehand than backhand, how does that effect how you play? Do you make a conscious effort to stay to one side?

Frank Dancevic: Um, I think his backhand is just as good as his forehand—he has weapons from both sides.  I just sort of tried to stick to my game plan, and hold serve every time, get a lot of free points on my first serve, and go after balls from the baseline, and put pressure on his game.  And that’s what I was able to do tonight.

TDF: What are your goals for the rest of the hard court season?

Frank Dancevic: Right now it’s just to stay healthy.  I think for me the most important thing is just to stay healthy, and keep my fitness up.  What I’ve been doing the last couple weeks and couple months is to try to stay fit, and try to stay injury-free.  That’s what’s kept me in the past from playing week after week of solid events.  So just to stay healthy, continue on, and hopefully have a good summer.

TDF: You’re ranked outside the top 100 right now—where do you think you belong in the rankings?

Frank Dancevic: Um, well, I was #65 in ’07, and I feel like I should be at least #65.  I’m playing well, and I feel like I’m playing just as well now as I was then.  So I feel like I should be at least #65, if not better.

TDF: How does life on the challenger circuit, where you’ve spent a lot of time, compare to life on the ATP Tour?

Frank Dancevic: Yeah, it’s absolutely different.  I’ve told myself I’m gonna try to never play a challenger again (laughs).

TDF: What is it that makes it so rough?

Frank Dancevic: I mean, it’s everything.  From transportation to accommodations, to treatments, to food, to player hospitality, it’s just so much better at the bigger events.  And, you know, when you go to the challengers, you find your own rides, you rent your own car, you find your own rooms in hotels.  It’s just a lot tougher.  It’s a much tougher life than playing the big events, and having everything really organized and really set up.

TDF: So you use not wanting to go back to challengers as motivation?

Frank Dancevic: Absolutely.  When I’m in the challengers, I try to say "just bust your ass, because you want to get out of here as soon as possible."

TDF: You play Tommy Haas tomorrow on the stadium.  Having had a lot of experience in challengers, how do you like playing on big stages versus smaller stages that maybe you’re more used to?

Frank Dancevic:  I prefer playing the big stages—I think anybody would prefer it.

I’ve played Tommy before, in the second round of San Jose.  He beat me in like two straight sets.  He’s a really good player—he’s been playing unreal this year.  So I’m going to have to play really, really well to beat him.

TDF: You had a pretty good grass season—made the finals of Eastbourne and then struggled at Wimbledon and Newport.  What do you like about grass, and how did you feel about your performance on it this year?

Frank Dancevic: Yeah, I’ve always played pretty well on grass.  Last year, even, I beat Nalbandian at Wimbledon in the first round.  That was a good win for me.  And then I made the semifinals of Newport last year, on grass as well.

I think it’s more that to play well on grass you need to come in a little bit more, and finish points off at net, and serve pretty well.  That’s pretty much what my game revolves around—serving well and finishing points off at the net when possible.

TDF: So were you happy with your results at Wimbledon overall then?

Frank Dancevic: Well, I mean, I played Eastbourne, and ended up finishing the final on Sunday.  And then I had to play the next day at Wimbledon.  It was tough to go from—I mean, I’m not disappointed about making the finals at Eastbourne, I was happy with that result—but it sort of threw me off a little bit, because I had no practice on the Wimbledon courts to get adjusted.  I just got there on the first day and it threw me off—I just couldn’t adjust that quickly.

TDF: You’re the only Canadian men’s singles player who has had a lot of success—or really any success recently.  What is it like being the only player from your country at this level? Lonely, sort of an outsider?

Frank Dancevic: Yeah, I mean…Dan [Nestor, current ATP #3 doubles player], I play a lot of tournaments with Dan, so he’s around a lot, but he’s also our coach for Davis Cup.

But there’s a couple guys on the challenger circuit, like [Peter] Polansky, and [Frederic] Niemayer.  There’s a couple younger guys too, so there’s a couple of us.  But yeah, in the bigger events, we’re struggling right now.  Hopefully that’s going to change soon, in the next few years, we’re gonna get a few up-and-comers. 

There’s a young kid, Bruno Agostinelli, who just won our Davis Cup fifth rubber match in Peru, which was unbelievable since he just got out of college and hadn’t played much pro.  And the kid came out and he enededwound up beating a respectable player on clay [Ivan Miranda].  So he’s someone to look out for, he’s just starting out, he has a few points.  And he’s actually from my city, he’s from Niagara Falls.  So we’ll see how he ends up developing over a few years.

But yeah, I think that the next few years we’re going to get more and more players breaking into the top 150 or top 100.

TDF: For a country that doesn’t have a lot of big players, you do have a big tournament in Canada—the Rogers Cup.  How important is that tournament to you?

Frank Dancevic:  Yeah, it’s one of the biggest tournaments of the year for me.  I try to stay healthy, and try to stay really prepared for that event.  I’ve played well there in the past, in Montreal, made the quarters there in ’07.  It’s always fun playing in front of your home crowd, and having your home people cheer for you. 

I think the [Americans] are a lot more fortunate in that way, where they get to play week after week, and they have fans and supporters there all the time.  And so that’s the one time in the year for where I get to have people cheering for me, and rooting me on, so it’s pretty fun.

TDF: On that note, how would your career be different if you were American, if you had grown up just on the other side of Niagara Falls? You’d get a lot more wild cards, potentially…

Frank Dancevic: Yeah, it would be completely—the opportunities would be way more.  You have way more opportunities being an American.  In every aspect—sponsors, wild card opportunities would be through the roof.  There’d be tons of wild cards, left and right.

TDF: Have you ever considered switching?

Frank Dancevic: Nah, I’m pretty patriotic.  I’m really happy—I love playing for Canada. I love my country. I’d never want to move out of Canada.  So, no, I never really thought about it, even with the extra help I probably would have had back in the day, when I was a junior. 

With the wild cards and everything, it probably would have been different.  You can’t really look back and say what could have happened, because who knows?