U.S. OPEN

September 6, 1994

Michael Stich

MICHAEL STICH: Probably, for him, for sure. I mean, I had my chance 5-4, it was not great tennis. I think, we were both nervous, it was a little windy but I had my chance and he had the big chance in the breaker and after that I think he got a little frustrated kept the pressure on him the whole time and I think he just lost it a little bit.

MICHAEL STICH: Yes, I think I played very smart today. You know, I just -- I served really well. I hit a lot of aces, a lot of first serves, a lot of free points, but I wasn't going to for to much. Last time I played him I tied to come in as much as I could and today my tactic was to put a lot of spin and on the ball especially on my forehand and give it to his forehand, so he can't put too much pressure on me and I think that worked really well. I was moving great at the baseline, I was moving great at the net, I think it was my best match probably this year I played.

MICHAEL STICH: Let's put it this way, I think -- that sounds a little strange, he's still a very young player, his first U.S. Open, his first night match he played and I played a couple of matches like that and I knew what I had to do and I was so focused when I went on to court and he's a player that doesn't normally think too much about what he's doing-- not that he doesn't know what he's playing, but he's coming out there, enjoying himself, being really relaxed and I think today for the first time he felt the pressure and the pressure he put on himself that he wanted to do something extremely well, and it just didn't work out and I think my experience, as well, paid off today that I played a lot of late matches like that.

MICHAEL STICH: I don't think about it. I'm still expecting myself to lose in the next round.

MICHAEL STICH: It's tough to say. All those guys, Bjorkman doesn't beat Edberg for nothing in three sets, four, four and zero. I will be ready for the next match, no doubt about it. I know about my chance I have right now. But I still have to be very focused not getting too relaxed on the court and you know, those are the matches where you go in and everybody tells you you're winning anyway and you start to believe it instead of saying the chances are 50/50, everybody is playing tennis and you have to play it out to win it and that's what I'm trying to do. I have a day off now, coming back on Thursday and I'll be ready.

MICHAEL STICH: No, I just, you know, the way I approached the summer season this year was totally different than I did last year. Last year I had a greater year, played well, everybody was expecting me to do well on the hardcourt and I didn't do too well at all. And this year I came here just and told myself, try to play as good as you can, try to find your game, and I had great preparation, it paid off and I'm very relaxed enjoying myself a lot and I think that's just the difference. Next year it might be a different story again, but right now it's working very good like I'm doing it and I'm just approaching the tournaments differently than I did last year.

MICHAEL STICH: No, I think I've played matches where I probably played better, but this year for sure, as I said, was probably my best match I played this year, from every standpoint, the way I'm moving, the way I served, the way I followed my tactics and everything, just everything I did was just perfect and it paid off.

MICHAEL STICH: I played good matches on hardcourt before, there's no doubt about it. But I didn't play so well the last two years on hardcourt, so this was because the best match I play on hardcourt last two years.

MICHAEL STICH: That's a different -- that's a difficult thing to do because you know, you know that the draw opened up and everybody is telling you, hey, Pete is out. Now you have a big shot, but I try to put it away and just look at the next round and play the next round and say, hey, if you want to be in the final, you have to win two more matches. That's what you have to focus on and trying to do that and like my coach is helping with that, my wife, you know, just taking day by day and just match by match.