U.S. OPEN

August 29, 1996

Michael Stich

MICHAEL STICH: Nothing.

MICHAEL STICH: No. Overall, I feel very tired. If I don't have time to warm up, start the match right away, I feel like I play one set maybe at a good energy level. I don't know what it is. Probably everything together. The whole year just coming down, I didn't have any matches on hardcourt. Today I was able to play the ball over three or four times, everything had to go wide, make a big step and come back strong. I didn't have a chance. It was terrible.

MICHAEL STICH: I didn't know what I wanted to do. Once I figured that out, it didn't happen. I didn't have any strength behind my balls. I couldn't dictate any kind of point. He was looping in his topspin balls. I was trying to come into the net. I don't know how many times I lost my serves, but it must have been five times or something like that. I only broke him once. I couldn't play my kind of game. He didn't have anything to do but putting the ball in play, keeping it in play, hope for me to make mistakes. That's what I did. I think I made more unforced errors than I ever did in my career before.

MICHAEL STICH: Yeah, I wanted to play. As I said before, I know I'm not a hundred percent feet, only 80 percent, today I was only 60. Physically I was very, very weak. To play a guy like Sergi, he knows what he has to do, he's very consistent. He's not as good as he used to be, but still good enough for me today. That's what he did. He made me run, made me play a lot of balls. That was the only thing I was not able to do today.

MICHAEL STICH: If I lose my serve five times on hardcourt, probably have a percentage of serves under 40 percent. Speaks for itself. It's getting better every day. It's like the treatment really helped. It's getting better. I just think my body takes a lot of energy to try to heal the shoulder. For that reason I'm not having enough energy to perform the way I would like to. You know, that's the choice I made. At least I'm happy that the shoulder is getting better by the treatment every day.

MICHAEL STICH: You know, he definitely is. He had a terrible 12 months, last year he was injured, had an operation and everything. It is tough. Once you're down to 60, 70, 80, what he is, it's very, very difficult to come up. There are so many good players that want to go up, they're playing all over the year, especially on hardcourt. Sergi didn't have a great claycourt season. He's working on it. That's all you can do. It happens or doesn't happen. He knows what it takes to be there and come back to the top. That's a big advantage he has.

MICHAEL STICH: Go home.

MICHAEL STICH: Yes, get treatment for my shoulder, try to get it fixed properly, then just try to get myself motivated and start working for the end of the season.

MICHAEL STICH: It's an inflammation of the muscles around the shoulder, of the rotator cuff. The muscles are so tight, especially on the back, on the shoulder blade, it's pinching a nerve, so that gives me a numb feeling in my arm and shoulder. That makes me feel very weak. I mean, I have trouble -- last night I had trouble lifting up a water bottle. In the morning it's always better. After treatment it's very bad, but the morning, the next day, it's always better. It's really improved.

MICHAEL STICH: Right now I like to play golf, I love playing soccer. Hardly any time. Unfortunately this year I didn't have the time at all to take any time off to do that basically. I enjoy playing tennis, so it's not something I'm forced to do. I enjoy doing it.

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