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INTERNATIONAL TENNIS HALL OF FAME

July 21, 2018

Newport, Rhode Island

STAN SMITH: Good morning. I'm Stan Smith, president of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Thank you for coming out to enshrinement weekend. Have another exciting weekend starting today. It's a pleasure to be here this morning so we can celebrate some of the greatest champions of our game, and presenting them with the ultimate honor, induction to the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Please welcome to the International Tennis Hall of Fame the class of 2018, Helena Sukova and Michael Stich.

This year the Hall of Fame honors two of the sport's greatest competitors and champions. We are proud to induct the No. 1 player in the world in doubles, the No. 4 player in the world, Helena.

Helena was powered by a big forehand, a well developed all-around game, and great consistency. They won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles in her career and she won four titles at Wimbledon, two at the US Open and one each at the Australian and French Open. She partnered with her young brother, Cyril Suk, to win three Grand Slam mixed doubles.

Helena's tenacity as a competitor is undeniable. Her comeback during the 1984 Australian Open semifinal versus Martina Navratilova is legendary. She was down a set, still forged back and won, snapping Martina's 24-match winning streak.

She played a key role in Czech Republic Fed Cup teams for 13 years. She won two silver medals in the Olympic Games in 1988 and '96.

Since retiring in 1988, Helena has been active in sports administration in the Czech Republic, has earned a doctoral degree in psychology. That's something I didn't know. Watch out what you say (laughter).

Today her brother Cyril Suk will present her at the induction ceremony.

Also a great pleasure to welcome former No. 2 player in the world and champion, Michael Stich, to the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Michael won the 1991 doubles title, then the next year took home the doubles title with a guy named John McEnroe. His Grand Slam finals appearance included 1994 US Open and 1996 French Open. Michael played comfortably both at the baseline and at the net. His game was so consistently good that from 1991 to 1996, he ended up each year in the top 20.

He won professional tournaments in all four surfaces in 1991 and again in 1993. He excelled in the season-ending events, winning the 1992 Grand Slam Cup and the ATP world championship title.

Michael has represented his homeland with pride. He won the gold medal in the 1992 Olympics in doubles, and during the 1993 Davis Cup Final he won three matches to seal the victory for Germany.

After retirement Michael served as tournament director of the German Open and the Michael Stich Foundation, which focuses on HIV and AIDS awareness. He's leaving tomorrow to go back to Hamburg and run that tournament.

He'll be introduced by his long time coach, Mark Lewis.

Michael, congratulations.

MICHAEL STICH: Thank you very much.

STAN SMITH: I wanted to ask you a couple questions. First of all, as you started your career, actually an interesting story. Let's talk about the plate. The plate in Wimbledon was a separate tournament for those players who lost in the first round. I think you have an interesting story about that.

HELENA SUKOVA: I told the story to Stan yesterday. My mom was playing the '64 Wimbledon. Ended up winning the plate. Since I was born in '65 February, she was already pregnant with me. Actually '64 was my first Wimbledon (laughter).

MICHAEL STICH: You won the plate.

HELENA SUKOVA: I won the plate. I have the cup at home.

STAN SMITH: As you look back at your career, who inspired you the most? I know your mother.

HELENA SUKOVA: I think for sure my mom because being Wimbledon finalist, I always wanted to win Wimbledon since she was in the finals. Okay, maybe I can make it one step further. And I didn't. Then it was Jan Kodes. We used to have an event in Czech which is called, We are searching for new Kodes and Sukova. I was trying to copy a little bit Lendl's game. I think those three would be the ones.

My mom used to be national coach. I remember when I was a child, she used to practice with Martina, Hana and all the top Czech players. I would take Martina's backhand volley as one of the shots that I would love to have.

STAN SMITH: As you think about being inducted, we've had some conversations over the years when you were nominated and didn't make it to the Hall of Fame, but finally deservedly got into it. Now that you've been around here for the last few days, you've seen the museum, all the displays of other great champions in the museum and Hall of Fame, how has it affected you now?

HELENA SUKOVA: I have to say I am still feeling like in a fairytale. This whole town, this club feels like a fairytale. I'm just flying high and enjoying myself. Hopefully I'll pass my speech today, then I can enjoy it even more after.

STAN SMITH: Kim was saying this morning she's a little more relaxed this year. Last year she was under pressure of being the inductee.

We'll open it up to questions after I talk to Michael a little bit.

Michael, as you started your game, what was the reason you got into tennis?

MICHAEL STICH: Actually I have two older brothers. My family started quite late with my tennis. I was the youngest with six years old. My whole family went to the club, couldn't leave me at home so they had to take me. Racquetball, there was a tennis wall you used to play against. I got a racquetball and said, Spend two hours here, we'll pick you up later.

That's probably how I got introduced to the toughest opponent in tennis, the wall.

STAN SMITH: How was your record against the wall?

MICHAEL STICH: I definitely won.

STAN SMITH: I heard that Lendl's mother used to take him to the courts and put him on a leash connected to the net post. Was that true?

HELENA SUKOVA: I heard the story, but I don't know if it was the truth. I think it would have worked otherwise to us because I was forced to play piano and I hated it ever since. Luckily they didn't force us to play tennis, and me and my brother stayed in it for a long time.

STAN SMITH: As you came along, what kind of inspired you the most in your game?

MICHAEL STICH: I think the base for me as a junior I never wanted to become a tennis professional. I never had the desire. My father was a typical so to say businessman. For him a professional athlete was not a job. It was nothing you can count on in your life.

I really played tennis because I loved the game. I hated losing. I couldn't stand losing at all. I didn't behave too good as a tennis kid. I never won anything in juniors. I never won a round till I was 18 and I became German junior champion. I still have no idea for whatever reason that was.

Niki Pilic was our biggest mentor in German tennis. He invited me to come to Munich, practice with me. I met Mark Lewis. We started working together. I'll give it a shot for two years. Wanted to study medicine, I should have waited a little bit. We'll try two years, if it works out, great. If not, I can do something else.

That was good because I didn't feel the pressure that I have to be successful, I didn't have to do all this because someone else wanted me to do it. I really wanted to try it myself. Otherwise, it would not have worked.

STAN SMITH: You were interested in education. Your parents were interested in you getting an education. Different than some of the guys who started at 15.

MICHAEL STICH: Just imagining that I would have gone around the world at 15, I would not have been able to do that. For me it was the right thing to stay at home, finish school, just really get an idea of life, what it means, have the family surrounding you, supporting you. That was very important. Like the first generation of German players, they all left school with 16 and wanted to be tennis professionals. I looked at that and said, That's great.

STAN SMITH: Not for you?

MICHAEL STICH: No.

STAN SMITH: Did you play other sports?

MICHAEL STICH: I played soccer till I was up to 18. That was a little bit of decision between soccer and tennis. I preferred tennis because I didn't have to deal with 10 other guys messing up (laughter). It was only up to me to mess up.

STAN SMITH: You both were great doubles players. How did you see the doubles and singles? What was most important to you?

HELENA SUKOVA: For me always the No. 1 and most important was playing the singles. I was known that I didn't really like to practice so much, so doubles was perfect. That way I have the alibi. If I played my doubles match, I didn't have to practice.

As I said, since I wanted to do so well in singles, there was almost no pressure, much less pressure for me on doubles. As Michael said, he played soccer. I used to love to play soccer. Maybe that's a little bit part of me going into the team competition. So doubles is little bit something similar to that.

STAN SMITH: The Hall of Fame concept is really, we have it in America, Australia, Canada, but in Europe it's really not that well-known. What is your thinking about that? You're in the Hall of Fame. Do you understand that whole concept yet?

MICHAEL STICH: I know that the Olympic Federations, say, from Germany, have invented like the Hall of Fame for all sports, so to say. They want to create something like that. But I think they don't have the sense because one thing the Americans do so much differently from my point of view is they really celebrate their sports heroes. They celebrate them. They are so proud of them for what they've achieved. Bad times obviously they criticize them, but in general they love the history of sport.

In Europe we have traditional events, historical events. But athletes are not being celebrated as much as in the States. I think that's why this comes so much more across here. I think we can still learn a lot because it's worth it also to keep the history with that. That's what the Hall of Fame does. You celebrate the players, but you also preserve history and tradition. That is so important. I think we can still learn a lot, bring that idea across, make them understand it's worth doing.

STAN SMITH: Any concepts about the Hall of Fame?

HELENA SUKOVA: I would say Michael said it perfectly well. It works the same way in Czech. They have Hall of Fame for ice hockey players. We are little bit trying to make the history, keep the history for us. Tennis so far with the IC movement. I think the idea for improvement in the way of Hall of Fame for the tennis, I think it would be great. How do you bring in the kids if you don't tell them the history happened this way and you can do the same?

MICHAEL STICH: If I may add one thing. Especially in Germany. We have Gottfried von Cramm as one of the first real ambassadors of the sport. No young tennis players know him. They have no idea who that is. He was the first tennis hero in Germany before the second world war.

If you would get in this history, what he did, I think it would teach the younger players a lot, too, about respect, about loyalty, all that stuff. That's why something like this is, International Tennis Hall of Fame, is so important.

STAN SMITH: We're running some film on the various elements of what it takes to become a champion. You did an interview recently with this. It's going to be interesting to see how that plays out and the effect it can have on young people as far as the characteristics that are so important.

You all are the 253rd and 254th members of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, 22 different countries.

As of two years ago we got the ancient players, back in the early 1900s. As of two years ago we have arguably all the greatest players that have ever played the game. You guys are the most current ones. I want to congratulate you on that.

I want to open it up to questions from the press.

Q. When you beat Martina, how did that affect you and the tennis world at that time?
HELENA SUKOVA: The big change after that was we flew from Melbourne to Tokyo. I had three press conferences every day after that. Before that, I barely had one in a month (laughter).

Q. How do you each feel about getting into the International Tennis Hall of Fame?
HELENA SUKOVA: As I said in the beginning, it's still a fairytale, still flying high. Hopefully I will be able to read my speech because I learn it by heart because I thought it would be too difficult to remember three sentences in a row. Greatest thing which happened to me after I stopped playing.

MICHAEL STICH: Same for me. Obviously you come in here, the first step you make into this Hall of Fame, the premises, is just strikes you with the history of the building, of the setup, the tradition that is involved. You go through the museum, you realize there's such a big history of the game. You're a tiny little piece of a puzzle that has been created like 150 years ago and will be there in another 150 years. That makes it extremely special.

If you go through the museum and see all those players that have won about eight Grand Slams in singles, 12, whatever it is, I feel a little bit small actually, but I'm still very happy to be part of this, very proud to be inducted.

Q. (No microphone.)
HELENA SUKOVA: I really don't take it as higher or lower. For sure the Grand Slam singles finals was always the top for my career. I was always hoping to win one of them or more of them, and I didn't. I just took it one step at a time.

In the beginning, I was trying to convince myself, Maybe you are too young to be able to beat Chris, because I won the first set in the finals. Looking back, tough to say. I don't like to compare. Every one of the finals or tournaments I played was having something special to it.

I have to say when I stopped my career in Wimbledon in '98, I was very disappointed in myself that I didn't achieve what I was hoping for or what I was believing. It took me about two years to realize that my career wasn't that bad.

So now I'm happy to having the two silver medals at home from the Olympics. When we lost the first one, we were two points away from the gold. When I came back from the match into the room at the village, I just threw the medal into the corner. Now I treasure it.

As time goes by, you realize that maybe you did something more than you thought at the time.

STAN SMITH: The voters seem to think that since you got voted into the Hall of Fame.

MICHAEL STICH: Actually my favorite Grand Slam title was the one in Wimbledon (laughter).

Q. What did you expect before you got here? How has the experience been?
MICHAEL STICH: Obviously it would have been much different coming here as a player. I never came as a player because after Wimbledon we always had the Stuttgart tournament in Germany on clay, playing your hometown. It was never possible for me to come.

You look it up on the Internet, I've spoken to Stan before, Todd Martin, Diane, the whole team. I have to leave tonight to go back to Hamburg, so we had to work this out somehow.

You create an idea. When you get here, it's completely different because you can see pictures of the buildings and everything. When you stand here and see the history, also you walk inside, you feel like, you stand outside, Where are the tennis courts? You walk inside, it opens up, it's so historical, well done, it catches you right away. You get the sense of the history, the years players have been playing here. When it was set up, used to be a gentlemen's club, it makes it a special place.

STAN SMITH: The first US Championships were held here, then moved to New York and became the US Open. Does have a lot of history.

Q. (Question about Pete Sampras.)
MICHAEL STICH: Obviously I was the better player (laughter). That's why I have a good record against him.

No, Pete was an incredible champion. Pete never liked to play a player that played a little bit the same game as he did. I had a good serve obviously. I was capable of coming into the net and play serve-volley. He liked to dictate against me and Goran and Boris. I think that's what he didn't like, not being able to dictate points.

I was never a player that played him at his peak. I played him in Dusseldorf. The press said, How do you feel about going out there and playing Pete? He has won 30 matches in a row.

I said, I have to beat him.

My goal was always stepping on court and trying to win. It happened quite a lot, not enough unfortunately. Against Pete, the challenge of going out there against the best players in the world, trying to prove you can be a better player, that's what made it so much more special.

Q. (No microphone.)
MICHAEL STICH: Well, you take one word out of the friendly rivalry and that would probably work out. Teamed up for the Olympic Games, obviously, in '92.

It was always said that we didn't get along. Obviously as we were rivals, we couldn't get along. It was like we wanted to beat each other all the time. I think we benefited a lot from each other because we always wanted to be better than the other player, just raised our level the game every time we played, not just against each other but also in regular tournaments. I think that helped us obviously.

We're different as people, different characters, different ways of approaching life. Not worse one or the other. The rest was the media, as well. We were thrown into the shark tank of the media. We were young, didn't know how to deal with it. We spoke out. We said what we thought. Sometimes we should have maybe just shut up and be quiet.

That's part of the game as well. It added to the game. We got so much attention. The media loved it when you have a rivalry. When you say something bad, the other guy comments on it, the media loves that, you guys know that.

I think what we treasure most is we achieved it together. We were able to work as professionals and really follow a goal. We wanted to achieve a medal. We lost early in singles. The only chance we had to team up and win it together. We proved for ourselves and everyone else that it's possible to do that when you follow one goal.

Q. What did your brothers do?
MICHAEL STICH: They study both IT. They're both IT people, not in programming but management. Older brothers are always a great influence in your life obviously. You want to live up to them, copy them, be like them up to a certain age.

They are my best friends now, which is great to have such a close relationship. They would have loved to be here. My brothers, they're both on holidays, they booked it earlier, so they couldn't come. I respect that. They couldn't make the trip.

They were very important. They are still very important in my life as people and as someone I can relate to. They are always honest to me. In business, in sport, you find a lot of people that are not always honest and loyal. So family is the most important.

Q. How did your family being accomplished in tennis help?
HELENA SUKOVA: I think there wasn't that much pressure. I think there was more pressure on my brother, myself and my mom having some success. He always said, No, I didn't feel any pressure. Good for him. He achieved so much in the doubles. Maybe without the pressure, he could have done a little bit more in the singles.

I think overall it helped me a little bit because my mom was very loved everywhere. I came the first time to Moscow or some other tournaments, How come we never seen you before? That was perfect for me.

I think when I first time got my wild card in Australia into the qualifying of the Australian Open, even though I won the juniors in Sydney before that, I think it helped me also a little bit that people just loved my mom in Australia.

Q. What were some of the cornerstones of your mom's coaching approach?
HELENA SUKOVA: I mean, she was there from all the first steps we did on the tennis court. Unfortunately when I was 15 she started to be ill and died two years later. I little bit feel maybe sorry for myself that she wasn't there during the time when I stepped into the big tennis. I think it could have been much easier for me.

In a way, she was there from the beginning. I think she gave us the most important stuff that you can get when you learn the sport and when you learn the first footsteps.

I cannot tell you exactly what it was, the secret, because some of those I would like to keep to myself.

Q. (No microphone.)
HELENA SUKOVA: I remember that very well because coming into the finals, it was still the old system in Czech. The officials, the feeling was that the Czechs living in America will probably win both finals. They decided not to televise it and there was not much publicity.

I think looking into it these days, I think it would be on all the TV channels you can find in Czech. That was the difference.

At the same time maybe there was less pressure on us because we didn't have that crazy media in your home country.

STAN SMITH: Thank you. On behalf of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, congratulations again to both of you. We have a great ceremony planned here pretty soon. Hope all of you will be out there to see it. Thank you.

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