GREAT AMERICAN INSURANCE ATP CHAMPIONSHIP

August 14, 1999

Patrick Rafter

Q. This is obviously the match you probably wanted to have coming into the final?

PATRICK RAFTER: Yeah, a short match tonight. It's a pretty light evening and going to try and get back to sleep at some stage. But it is a late final. I think last year it was a two o'clock wasn't it, final? Three o'clock? They have gone back another hour later, which is pretty nice. But the quicker the better.

PATRICK RAFTER: Not that I know of. I don't know. Not that I know of. I came in here with a bit of a sore shoulder. Took some medication. Just went out there and just served and served, because I knew I had to serve well if I'm going to play well. I did a few days of that, and I came out and it just got better and better each day I played. And now I don't need to do anything. I've just got to play the matches.

PATRICK RAFTER: I serve volley all the time, but his serve, I can't get to the net that much. His serve is very difficult to get him behind. From the baseline, he sort of dominates a lot; so I'm just trying to get the ball back into play. And he was sort of controlling the points a lot and trying to get the short ball and get to the net. But the passing shot was still working tonight as well.

PATRICK RAFTER: It's not the heat, because it's 68 degrees tonight. I don't know what it is, Mate. The courts are good. The conditions are good.

PATRICK RAFTER: Yeah I've tried playing at Indian Wells, and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I play well there, because the conditions there, I think, are quite ideal for me to play some good tennis. Scottsdale -- Miami, I've had one good year, but nothing really successful, either. But I can't work it where I had a better time of year there.

PATRICK RAFTER: Yeah, but if you want to write about it and make it into a big thing -- (Laughter).

PATRICK RAFTER: Okay. There's no worries, but you know, there will be no love lost out there. We'll be going at each other. I'm looking forward to having a good match tomorrow.

PATRICK RAFTER: Not really. I don't like -- I'm going to see him around. We walk past each other, and I don't like to be enemies with anyone. I just think that it just sort of got sort of taken out of text a little bit. I did mean a lot what I said, but the headlines read how I slammed him or something, and that wasn't the case at all. That was really the thing I was trying to patch up with him. I wasn't having a go at him, like in a bad way. Just to let him know that, you know, we're all out here trying to do our job.

PATRICK RAFTER: Oh, yeah. (Laughter).

PATRICK RAFTER: We always sort of talk to each other. Maybe sometimes -- we usually just say "Good day", "Good day." But sometimes we run past each other in a shop or in the restaurant and have a little chat and go on our way. There's no bad feelings. None at all. Never really has been.

PATRICK RAFTER: I don't know. I came out tonight thinking: I just hope I put up a good show here. Because in the past, I haven't had good results against Kafelnikov, and I just thought if I can go in there and get a 5 and a 6 or a 5 and a 5. I don't really know how the match is going to go, but the more I served and held my games hang on, I thought I've got a real good chance here of winning this match. That's the way I go into every match. I'm going to go into that match sitting in the locker room half an hour before I play Sampras thinking: I just hope I get a few games here and make it into a bit of a match. And things just happen.

PATRICK RAFTER: No, I don't hope I'm going to lose. Just to do well and get as close as I can. When you're close, then you've got a chance of winning.

PATRICK RAFTER: Yeah, I thought the first service game of the second set was pretty big, pretty important. If I can hold that, then I knew that I had probably a chance to go on. I held up pretty convincingly. I thought: Here we go, I can go and top him here.

PATRICK RAFTER: Probably better than what I played last year. This is nice.

PATRICK RAFTER: Well, I haven't lost a serve all week yet. That's one pretty big thing. Haven't really looked like losing it too much. Just the serve is probably one of the biggest things, I would say.

PATRICK RAFTER: No. Just hope I get close, you know. That's what I'm talking about. I don't know. I'm sort of -- I rise for every match. There's not one person that I like to beat some guys more than others, but that sometimes makes by game worse.

PATRICK RAFTER: Well, you want to win so badly that you become sort of too tight, and then you don't focus on your game.

PATRICK RAFTER: Not really.

PATRICK RAFTER: Once again, a serve like that, you're not going to lose too many serves in a game. I am surprised. I played very two returners and haven't lost.