ATP TOUR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

November 16, 1993

Michael Stich

MICHAEL STICH: I think he returned pretty well. I think that was his biggest strength today. He was not serving that well and made a lot of easy mistakes from the baseline but I always had to watch out for his returns. He made a lot of straight winners off my serve. That was the danger today, I think.

MICHAEL STICH: Sure. I was so nervous before I went out there. The first match is always the toughest one for me. After not having won a set here two years ago, I am very happy with the way I played for the first match and obviously that I won.

MICHAEL STICH: What do you mean my results weren't that good?

MICHAEL STICH: Three weeks. I won Stockholm. I think that is pretty good. I didn't-- I think-- I played pretty well. I won Stockholm. I played the quarters in Paris; played the quarters in Antwerp and I played still good tennis. It was not that I was playing badly. And no, I didn't think about it. I wanted to get as many points as I was able to, because I wanted to take every chance I have to maybe go one spot up on the rankings and didn't work out quite as it could have, but I mean, I think the end of the year was as good as the rest of the year.

MICHAEL STICH: I can't tell. You probably better ask the experts or people who watch me play a lot. I think there is still work to do. I think you can ask every top player; he can still improve and I think he would say yes. I still can improve; especially on the mental side. Sometimes I am getting too upset about different things, but actually I don't want to worry about it. I am happy that I won. I am looking forward to the match tomorrow. That is all I care about.

MICHAEL STICH: Yeah, I think I played very consistent throughout the year. I mean I had my lapse and I had covered tournaments that I didn't play too well. I think everybody had that this year. I still won five tournaments. I played really well in Davis Cup and all the Team Cups that were this year, and so I am very happy that I played quite consistent.

MICHAEL STICH: It is beautiful. Always better than losing. No, but winning my first match here, being the second time here, I mean it is a good feeling.

MICHAEL STICH: Lines calls, the 7th game of the second set. Whoo, I don't know. I think there were a couple of serves that were close, but they were all good.

MICHAEL STICH: Yeah, but they were all good. They were very close, but I think the machine worked well on those ones.