NEWSWEEK CHAMPIONS CUP

March 13, 1996

Adrian Voinea

GREG SHARKO: This was Adrian's second career top 10 victory. Last year he defeated Boris Becker at the French Open in route to the quarterfinals there. Questions.

Q. First week of the year in Doha you played Thomas on a similar surface; not quite the same, obviously, being Rebound Ace and you got fairly well thumped. What turned it around today?

ADRIAN VOINEA: In Doha, you mean, I played him in Doha. In Doha I think the results of the match was -- it doesn't say too much because they were very good rallies and it happened that he won the important points and over there I think also my tactic wasn't so right because I was hitting from the baseline and I never went -- I never go to the net, to conclude the point. So that is what I said at the beginning at the match and I said I have to play hard from baseline, but to finish at the net, so to put pressure on him, on his backhand. This was the simple difference it makes.

Q. What was the problem with your shoulder?

ADRIAN VOINEA: This problem I had -- I have this since the beginning of the year and it is changing the position. Sometimes I have here. Sometimes I have it down (pointing to shoulder area); now it hurts me really bad when I play forehand. When I start this morning, when I started the match, it was okay, it was no pain, then after I start -- I start -- after the two first games in the second set, it start to get really painful and I thought I am going to quit because it was really painful and when I was playing forehand, so I say I have to -- I have to take this chance to win the second set and that is it.

Q. It is a problem with the nerve; a nerve is being pinched or it is a muscle problem?

ADRIAN VOINEA: I think it is --

Q. Tendinitis?

ADRIAN VOINEA: Tendinitis.

Q. When it started to rain, after you had won the first set, was that disappointing to you that you couldn't continue with the match right then after you were set up, you had to abandon the match?

ADRIAN VOINEA: No, no. I was feeling good. I was feeling confident with myself. I was saying it is better that it is raining because like this, I am resting a little bit and I start with the new forces, the second set. I was feeling okay, so it doesn't bother me nothing, the rain. A little bit because after the rain stop, we wait one hour and a half or two hours for the courts to be dry.

Q. Were you aware of a small group of young men who were cheering for you rather loudly in the stands? Did you hear them?

ADRIAN VOINEA: Yeah, I hear them very good. They told me, I mean, I think those guys are friends of Romanian guy that he told me before we are going to do a lot of noise and I say -- and he say before it bothers you, this? And I say no, it is okay for me. I mean, if Muster doesn't care with me, it is okay.

Q. Considering you played so well at the French last year a little surprising to see you handling yourself so well on the hard courts. Do you consider yourself a clay courter or all-around player, or --

ADRIAN VOINEA: You know, in hard courts, I start to play -- I start to play at the end of the last year, I start to play indoor tournaments that I never played in my life. So at the beginning, it was tough. It was tough to go from clay to hard courts and to have results. But I made a choice, I said I am going to play on hard courts and I want to use -- to get used to it and now it is a lot of tournaments that I play. I play six months that I play, so maybe I get used to it.

Q. About the pain in your shoulder, could you have played a third set?

ADRIAN VOINEA: No. I don't think so.

Q. So you would have retired if you lost the second?

ADRIAN VOINEA: Yes.

Q. Do you have an agent representing you?

ADRIAN VOINEA: No, I don't have no agent.

Q. I am not an agent. I was just curious.

ADRIAN VOINEA: No, I don't have it. It is Tiriac that is helping me sometimes.

Q. Do you think you can play as well or better at the French this year as you did last year?

ADRIAN VOINEA: I don't know. I hope. I hope I play the same. Or even better because I mean, I have a little bit of pressure when I go -- when I think of it when I think of Roland Garros, but it makes me curious at the same time. I mean, it is like how good I am-yeah.

Q. Was that the highlight of your career? Was that the high point in your career last year getting to the quarters?

ADRIAN VOINEA: Oh, yeah, it was, yeah.

Q. What is more important for you to beat Becker there or Muster here?

ADRIAN VOINEA: To beat Becker there. That is more important.

Q. Because it is Becker or because it is the French Open?

ADRIAN VOINEA: No, because this win against Becker, it is changing me something. It is, I don't know, maybe the crowd in Paris; maybe something else, but I felt that after this game, after this match that I won, that I played in two days, I felt, I don't know what the feelings are, you just can feel, but I mean, it is difficult to explain with the words. But it was a strong feeling that I will never forget.

Q. What about the significance of this match today?

ADRIAN VOINEA: Yeah, I mean, before this match I was speaking yesterday with a Romanian journalist and I was saying from this top eight players I would choose Thomas Muster and he was asking me why. Because I feel that even I lost, I lost twice to him, I say I feel that my game, it can beat his game. I mean, I have the strike for beating Muster. Both the times I played him I felt that just a little step I need. And -- but I couldn't reach this step and I say, if I play him this time I will reach it because I feel confident and I was feeling really good on the court.

Q. So that means you want to play Thomas in Roland Garros, right?

ADRIAN VOINEA: In Roland Garros, it is different.

Q. But do you feel that you beat the No. 1 player in the world?

ADRIAN VOINEA: Not so -- no, I don't feel that. I mean, it was a great feeling after because it is also including this pain (pointing to shoulder) and I say if I going to lose the second set, I am going to -- I was thinking to quit, show this, it is -- this increased my satisfaction because I made a right -- I made the right shots at the right moment. I mean, I risked -- I was -- I took the right risk.

Q. What is next for you, next tournament?

ADRIAN VOINEA: I hope I can play Lipton. It is really bad, this, the things that I have. I hope tomorrow it is going to be okay.

Q. If you don't play Lipton, will you go home or what?

ADRIAN VOINEA: I go home, yeah. Because I have Davis Cup and they want me good there.

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