U.S. OPEN

August 26, 1996

Michael Stich

MICHAEL STICH: It's hot out there.

MICHAEL STICH: You know, I think -- I mean, he's definitely a good player. He's got good strokes, especially on the forehand. He's a tall guy. I don't think he really -- didn't look to me he really had a game plan to go out there and try to get to some kind of tactics. In the second set he played well. I struggled on my serve, had problems with my shoulder. As you said, it's his first Grand Slam. I think there's much to learn for him and that's going to happen, definitely. And he's going to improve every time he plays a Grand Slam match.

MICHAEL STICH: No. Since the French Open, basically. At the end of the French Open, sat out a bit of the grass court season. I took two and a half weeks off and thought it would get better. It even got worse. For that reason I only played one match, Los Angeles. I flew back, had treatment, had to cancel the whole summer. It's been bothering me now for about ten weeks or something like that.

MICHAEL STICH: It's inflammation of the rotator cuff of the supraspinatus and the biceps tendon. Basically the whole shoulder is inflamed. It's not real pain, sharp pain, it's just something that's bothering you. All the muscles around the shoulder are really tight. It helps me double-fault a bit more.

MICHAEL STICH: Get away from me (laughter). No, no. Nothing here. Just something you need to give a rest to get rid of.

MICHAEL STICH: Yeah. Not with me. I can just speak for myself. I still feel it's embarrassing what happened. I was about to fly home tomorrow. I was about to pull out yesterday and say, "That's it." I felt the second thing that happened, they seeded me first, then they changed and seeded Mantilla, didn't have the -- didn't call me and say, "We changed it again." They did it without notifying anybody. I felt it's so disrespectful to anybody on this tournament, playing in this tournament, that I felt I should have gone home. There are so many reasons for playing, especially spectators and the kids who come out here and want to enjoy watching tennis, that I decided to stay.

MICHAEL STICH: You know, I don't know. I don't know if anything is going to change. I feel either we should have done a little bit more, maybe just cancel out the Monday or something like this, not show up today, start the tournament tomorrow to get a stronger message through, or otherwise not to complain too much. The rules allow the US Open to do what they did, basically, no matter if they did it before or not. But they have the right to do it. The way they did it is what we have to complain about; the way they did the draw and how they put the seeds into the draw, that's something we have to complain about. You know, I feel we made it a little bit too easy for the USTA. They didn't really got hurt as much as I think they should have.

MICHAEL STICH: Yeah. Nikki Pilic is my Davis Cup captain, he knows all about it; told me how to do it. As I said, I don't think we should have boycotted the tournament, there's so many reasons; especially spectators, linesmen, they have nothing to do with it. It's basically a couple of people who make a decision for everybody. I felt like maybe we should have boycotted Monday, start playing on Tuesday, 2 o'clock on Monday, make them feel that we feel very strong about it.

MICHAEL STICH: Actually, there was somebody from the ATP told me I was seeded. Basically, the decision was made, and I think then Ken Farrar came in and said, "You guys are going to make another mistake because you have to take the next highest ranked player, which was Mantilla." They didn't officially bring it up, but it was like five minutes before it came out. Obviously they must have known that everybody knows about it. They changed it again, but they didn't inform me. It's not like I'm upset that Mantilla got seeded, I think he deserves to be seeded, as everybody else who is in the top 16 deserves to be seeded. But just, you know, as I said, I think it's disrespectful to me. For example, that nobody from the ATP or the USTA had the courage to call.

MICHAEL STICH: I did.

MICHAEL STICH: No, basically not. Basically, it was like, you know, to call off the whole Monday was rejected. They said, "Listen, there are so many reasons to play." It might have ended up in a lawsuit from the USTA towards the ATP. That's not what we want for tennis either. They made a suggestion that we might go to every match 20 minutes, a half hour late, wait a little longer. I'm waiting, nothing happened. Nobody asked me today, so...

MICHAEL STICH: Depends a lot on you as well. The more you ask, the more the talk is going to be about it. The less you ask, the less people will talk about it. I think that's what we should do. We should try to forget about it. It happened, we made our point or not, and that's it. I mean, the tournament is on its way, the first day, we should all concentrate on tennis.

MICHAEL STICH: No, no. You know, as I said, I was surprised I was seeded. I don't think I deserved to be seeded at this tournament. I mean, I played eight tournaments throughout this year, one match on hardcourt. The reasons why the USTA made those different seedings, there are a couple of players where it doesn't make sense, the seeding they got. Let's take Boris as an example. Unfortunately he's not here. He was bumped up one spot, didn't play one match on hardcourt this year. Yevgeny won the French Open, was bumped from four to seven, no matter if it's a different surface or not. I still have the feeling everything is done here for the American players.

MICHAEL STICH: Yeah, sure.

MICHAEL STICH: No. Probably this thing would happen, let's say, if they were thinking about it at the French as well. I'm not blaming anybody for the fact that they do it. For me, the whole thing started last year when they started this Sampras-Agassi rivalry. They played great tennis, best players last year, deserved to have a lot of talk about them. They forgot about all the other players. They didn't even talk about anybody. For me, that was like, as well, not showing -- also at this tournament when I played Andre in '94 here, everything was just, like, set up around him. He played great tennis, no doubt about it. He still should respect the other players for what they do and what they try to achieve, why they're coming out here. It's our job. We try to do as good as we can. We have to follow so many rules in our job by the ATP, from the ITF. The least thing we can expect is to be respected for what we do.

MICHAEL STICH: I didn't say they didn't respect me in '94. Everything that happened here was, you know, around Andre Agassi. Everything was just made for him like he played his matches when he was supposed to play, always got the grand stands. I'm happy about that, because he did a lot for tennis in '94. He was the glamorous player in that year. What he did coming back from that injury, ranked 30, then coming up to No. 1 is incredible. No complaints towards him at all. He deserved that. Still, you can do that and still respect the other players instead of trying to treat the other players the way you always do. Sometimes things happen where you just, you know, treat other players better because they win a lot of tournaments or whatever. But that doesn't mean you have to treat the other players less good. You can still treat them the same way and still treat the other players better. Unfortunately, it always happens that you treat the better players better at that time and treat the other players not as good as you used to. That's very weird to me. I know there is a difference between the Top 10 players and the rest, let's say. I experienced that. Sometimes it's great for me as well. I wouldn't complain. I think that's what I felt about this whole situation here, that it's about the tennis, it's about the game, it's about how to bring it out to the people, not about how to make money and how to get television ratings or stuff like that. I don't know if that's the reason for the USTA or not. A lot of suspicion and thoughts about that.

MICHAEL STICH: You know, Andre is Andre.

MICHAEL STICH: I don't think so.

MICHAEL STICH: No. Looking at this year, you know, I think Andre didn't play great tennis at all. He played good at the Olympics. He won the Olympics, played great tennis there. Then he won, what was it, Cincinnati, I think. That was about what he did so far this year. There's a reason for the fact that he dropped to No. 8. It's not because he wears the wrong shoes or something like that, it's because he didn't play as great as he did the years before. For that reason, he should be seeded 8, not 2. He should be seeded what his tennis -- regarding the way he plays tennis right now.

MICHAEL STICH: That's too much to get into that. It's court assignments, maybe. We get the better practice courts, stuff like that. I'm not complaining. Mostly at the tournaments now, they really treat all players really well. They try to accommodate everybody as good as they can. I'm not one to say they treat the other players bad or not.

MICHAEL STICH: I didn't say that Agassi is treated differently this year. I say he was treated differently in '94 when I played him here. Everything was set up for him. That's fine. It's an American tournament, he's an American. That's the way it should be. Still, you can still treat all the other players normal and don't give them the feeling they are just like the side effect on the tennis tournament, they're just there, just needed to play matches. They are there because they do what they do, and that's their job, and they take big pride in that. I take a great pride in what I do. I'm very happy with what I do.

MICHAEL STICH: I said before, it was very hard -- difficult for me to play as well. He played good. I didn't feel he had a real strategy going out there, how to play against me. It was his first Grand Slam match, obviously. I think the more matches he plays on Grand Slams, the more he's going to learn. He seems to be very talented. Still, it's a long way to go.

MICHAEL STICH: No. My shoulder is still bothering me. For that fact, I didn't practice at all coming to the US Open. I played, like, three days before I flew over. I started practicing at home. I wouldn't say I'm in great condition, but with me, that doesn't matter, probably.

MICHAEL STICH: It doesn't really affect the pace. It affects the fact that I'm serving probably 40 percent first serves, just not as loose as I would like it to be. If I'm starting to get tight, what happens in a situation like in the fourth set where you're close to finishing a match, it just gets really tight. I'm getting down on my serve, double-faulting a lot. I can still serve 130 sometimes, but it's not as often as I would like.

MICHAEL STICH: After Paris.

MICHAEL STICH: Yes.

MICHAEL STICH: No.

MICHAEL STICH: No, I didn't think about that at all. I didn't know what would happen in the fourth set. I was confident that I might still get that break and come back in the fourth set. I didn't think about that at all. I just wanted to try to win this match, get out of the sun.

MICHAEL STICH: No, no concerned. I know it could have happened, but I was confident enough to get that break to get back into the fourth set and try to win in four.

MICHAEL STICH: Yeah. I think there were a couple of players. I don't know exactly the names. I know the Spanish players were very unhappy with the fact that Mantilla was not seeded in the first place. I think there were a couple of others. It's good because, you know, I talked to a couple of guys about it. They have different opinions and different reasons for going or not going. As I said, there were more reasons for not going than for leaving this tournament. I think that's why most of the players decided to leave.

MICHAEL STICH: That's correct.

MICHAEL STICH: No. He heard that I would be because a decision was made and it was talked about in the referee's office. One of the ATP Tour managers heard that I was going to be seeded, that they made the change. Just about before they officially brought it out, they then changed it again.

MICHAEL STICH: Yeah. I mean, I know who those players were who were complain about him being No. 2 or No. 1. I can say I have the highest respect for what Thomas did, what he achieved. He showed that he can play on hardcourt, that he can play indoors, that he deserves his No. 2 ranking, whereas I feel probably the system, the ranking is working now, is not the perfect system. We've tried to figure that out for the last ten years, to find a perfect system, and we still haven't got it. You know, I think your ranking is what it shows, what you have achieved throughout the year. That's what it should be. It doesn't matter basically if you play only on clay or hardcourt. The Americans hardly go to the claycourt season. I mean, they play three tournaments on clay, I guess. That's about it. You could argue about that, why should you be ranked No. 1 if you play only two or three tournaments on clay? That's the way the Tour is and how everybody plays. Everybody has its strengths and weaknesses. Can you choose? Unfortunately we are unable to choose the surface we like to play on the best. I think the ranks is fair. It just represents what happens throughout 12 months. Especially on Thomas, I think he deserved to be No. 1.

MICHAEL STICH: No, I don't want to talk about that.

MICHAEL STICH: It's difficult for me, sure, yeah. He's a very young, upcoming player. For me, somebody who has been around quite a long time, to play somebody from your own country, is not easy. If I lose, everybody is pointing at me. If I win, it's normal that I win. For him it's a little bit easier situation.

MICHAEL STICH: No, not at all. His first match at a Grand Slam, so he doesn't have anything to lose. He wants to do as good as he can. If he beats me, a great result for him. Anything else is acceptable for him. It's not like he goes home saying, "I should have won." He has a lot to learn, he will.

MICHAEL STICH: Yeah, I know him for a long time. Know his father for a long time.

MICHAEL STICH: No, I don't think so. I think also two years ago, I don't think that Nike ever took a real influence on the scheduling. As well, Boris and I know, a lot of top players have the possibility to go to the tournament director and say, "I'd rather like to play at night than day." Boris did that throughout the years, a lot of the other players. Ivan did that, John did that. That's probably what Andre did. Playing here, he has all the options to do that because it's his home tournament, as Pete probably. I don't think that Nike ever, ever really got involved and started changing or making playing schedules.

MICHAEL STICH: No.

MICHAEL STICH: No.

MICHAEL STICH: That's a tough one.

MICHAEL STICH: I couldn't say. He has a completely different upbringing than I have. He lived at Bollettieri's for six years. The only thing he did was practice today to come as far as he did now. Maybe he's burned out in two years. I hope not, he's talented. But as I said, a lot of work to be done with his game. He's aware of it, everybody is aware of it.

MICHAEL STICH: I knew his father for 15 years, knew the family for a long, long time. His father was a trainer in my hometown. For that reason, I know the family pretty well.

MICHAEL STICH: No, it's inflammation.

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