U.S. OPEN

September 1, 1995

Mats Wilander

MATS WILANDER: It is a disappointment to play so shitty. It is not disappointing to lose, yeah, very disappointing. It was too good. He plays too fast for me. Windy day like this, it is not when I can't keep the ball in play. I have no chance of winning tennis matches, and I can't keep the ball in play today, so....

MATS WILANDER: I have the legs, yeah. Yeah, it is not that. It is more when I play, when I have a bad day or when I hit the ball as -- I didn't play horendous, but when I play this bad -- anyway, I just don't have the confidence to believe that I still can win the match; playing bad, that is the big difference. I know I have to play good to beat Todd Martin; if I don't, I am not going to beat him. Anyway, that is what happens now. Before I didn't know what would happen.

MATS WILANDER: I don't know. I don't know what is keeping me -- I don't know if there is anything -- I am not trying to get to that point at all, so nothing is keeping me from doing anything.

MATS WILANDER: Yeah, I just don't, I mean, I didn't enjoy it today. It was not fun at all, no.

MATS WILANDER: Do you ever think about that you are going to die? I mean, that is -- I mean, no, you can't ask me that question. How can you think like that? Did you ever think about the girls that you get when you are 18 compared to 45? It is not going to happen, okay. It is never going to happen again, I am telling you. Why think about those kind of things? It doesn't -- it doesn't make any difference anymore.

MATS WILANDER: I had trouble finding a range in general. I am not sure -- it doesn't help when you have somebody teeing off on so many balls like Todd does. He hits very flat nice groundstrokes, nice balls to hit on, but he hits them so hard and he hits so many winners and hits so many unforced errors. It is hard -- if you are not playing well, you can't expect him to let you get back into your rhythm. You have to find it somehow yourself, and today it was just -- I just couldn't find it.

MATS WILANDER: I was wondering about the ball that hit the tape, so a questionable ruling.

MATS WILANDER: Basel or -- yeah Basel, I think is the next one.

MATS WILANDER: I don't know. Couple of years, year, two, three years. I am not sure.

MATS WILANDER: No, I don't like the style of play, no. I think that the shots -- the shots that they hit today are more -- are a lot better and much more amazing than the shots you hit before, but the way they executed them, I think it doesn't -- no, I don't like it as much as before. As I said before, it was much more graceful, before when you had longer strokes and whatever. Now you have guys with short compact swings that gets the job done, but it doesn't look as nice, but that is, you know, that is the way it is in technology. I suppose, you don't need long strokes anymore. You can hit short with short swings and just short strokes and it is more compact, I guess, obviously safer with these rackets.

MATS WILANDER: I don't know if it is. I am not sure. I don't know.

MATS WILANDER: I enjoy watching it. It is just a different, you know, different kind of game. I think today you are watching a match and you are looking out for winners that the guys hit. You are not really looking out for what one guy is going to do to expose the other guy's weakness as much as before, so in that sense, it is more interesting to see lots of great shots at the same time, as when it gets to 5-All, it is more interesting to see some guy choke than some guy hit outright winners, I think for everybody.

MATS WILANDER: Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. I think it is normal. That is the way it is.

MATS WILANDER: It is like golf. I think Daly hits the 17th playoff hole in St. Andrews. Jack Nicklaus, he should hit 3 iron and hits a driver; has 95 yards left on a 460 par 4, I mean, you don't need strategy when you can hit a driver 340 yards. It is the same today. If you can hit a serve 125, why spit hit in. You just go for the ace, and the match is won.

MATS WILANDER: Has it changed in what sense? I am not in it this year. That is a big change. That is one of the biggest changes for me.

MATS WILANDER: Yeah, I don't do very much with it.

MATS WILANDER: Well, the cap company was pressure from Pernfors and beer company was pressure from Nystrom.

MATS WILANDER: Novacek.

MATS WILANDER: I think -- I don't know. I think you can't look beside Sampras and Agassi. I think Agassi yesterday showed that he is human at the same time as he showed that he is not going to -- he doesn't fold. He doesn't go down easily, so if you don't do that, then you got a serious shot of winning.

MATS WILANDER: I didn't think so. Not seven years ago, no. No.

MATS WILANDER: I think everybody always knew he was a great player and he hit the ball better than most probably anyone else and I think we all realize that if he was there -- I think we realize that the day he was there mentally he was not 20 or whatever he was ranked two years or one year ago, he was still top 3, top 4.

MATS WILANDER: Yeah. If I get picked, yeah, sure.

MATS WILANDER: It was fine.

MATS WILANDER: No problem. One thing that lasts for an evening. Bad food in the players' restaurant. That is what it was.

End of FastScripts...