- You look more tired than angry with yourself.
- No, I'm not too angry with myself. Of course, no loss is enjoyable but I didn't have that much time to get properly prepared for the Olympics. I was longer in Cincinnati therefore I had many flights in a short space of time - from the US to Latvia, home only for 1 day, then to Beijing. That and the unlucky draw - I had to play against a player who doesn't make many mistakes.
- Did you lose more today to Davydenko or to the heat? You took the towel after every point even in the first games of the match.
- It's hard to play against Nikolay in any conditions. He's a world class tennis player, number 4 in the world. Therefore I'm not looking for any excuses. He played very well, I didn't play too well and that is visible in the final result.
- Have you played anywhere else in a similar climate?
- No. This was the first time I played in Asia and in such climate, the first time I had so many flights before a tournament.
- How was your knee?
- Actually it was fine, it didn't hurt today. It's very up and down with my knee - sometimes I completely forget about it, sometimes there are problems.
- Were you able to feel the aura, the atmosphere at the Olympics at all? Feel that you are in a special sports event?
- Of course I felt it. I want to give many thanks to the Latvian Olympic committee because they did everything possible so that both my coach and I could feel as comfortable here as possible. Everything was great, I could concentrate completely on my practice and the match. I chose to live in a hotel because I wanted to change my routine as little as possible but I went to the Olympic village and saw everything there, it was an interesting experience.
- So to London for the medals?
- [Smiles] Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves... But I think this experience will prove to be valuable in 4 years. What now? Next Tuesday we're flying to the US. Now I want to go and talk to my coach, decide what our plans are. So there are many questions I can't answer right now. But I know for sure that I won't stay in Beijing for more than one day. I'll go home to relax and practice, maybe we'll even decide to go to the US earlier.
Nikolay Davydenko after the match:
- To tell you the truth, knowing Ernest, I was expecting a harder match today. But the weather played a big role today - the high humidity. The balls were heavy, it was hard for him to serve and therefore his control was much worse. It's very important to correctly acclimatize here because the conditions outdoors are very different from indoors. If you don't take care you can become tired already after 10 minutes in an open stadium and then it's not possible to play anymore. You have to spend more time outside to get used to these conditions.