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IBM/ATP TOUR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPNovember 13, 1995Goran IvanisevicFRANKFURT, GERMANY GORAN IVANISEVIC: I don't like -- I mean, it is tough to say. The way Thomas played this year, it is unbelievable. He is so confident, so sure, you know, when he comes on the court, he is so sure that he cannot lose. Not only clay, now he is playing indoor, doesn't matter what surface he plays. He has just that power, makes him play unbelievable. He is a great competitor. Unbelievable -- like animal, you know. Just destroying everything. What he achieved this year, winning 12 tournaments. Q. What do you think he can achieve? GORAN IVANISEVIC: I think he can do well, semis. Q. This time last year you were thinking about having a rest. Now, you are here in Frankfurt. How does that feel? GORAN IVANISEVIC: It feels good. It is worse thing to be No. 9 here. I want to play, but being 9 you can't play and I already plan my holidays today to be home, but I am here because I -- I didn't play good last two months. I didn't, if I play solid, I would be easy in the Masters, so it is my fault and God punished me - five days suffering. GORAN IVANISEVIC: I am going to practice a little bit - somebody might need me; try to have fun and do nothing. GORAN IVANISEVIC: I think Pete and Boris, if he plays good, he can be -- I mean, he is dangerous all days, but here he gets more motivated and I think he can be more dangerous. Q. How about Muster's chances? GORAN IVANISEVIC: I think Thomas has a good chance to go to the semis because there is a group where nobody can really hurt him. He is very confident, he just - whatever surface you put him on, he is just playing unbelievable. I think he is looking good for the semis. GORAN IVANISEVIC: It is not easy to be here sitting around for five days straight. If somebody is going to pull out -- I planned my holidays not to come here. Now, I am here and so I have to be here, no complaints. Q. Who is the favorite for this tournament? GORAN IVANISEVIC: I think Pete is the favorite, but you never know with Boris. Depends how he feels. He has the crowd behind him, so if he gets confident, I think he is going to get double motivated here; then he can be very tough to beat. Q. What do you think about the new balls? GORAN IVANISEVIC: I didn't play here yet, but they are making -- they try to make these balls pretty slow indoors courts and these balls, they are trying to make pretty slow indoor courts and these balls, they can -- the balls are very hard to play. They get very hairy after five games, three games you play, so better for the guys who stays back. Q. The reason for the success of Thomas Muster this year, winning Essen? GORAN IVANISEVIC: I think he deserves it the way he plays this year. I think it is very tough to make it again. He really proved that whatever surface for him, he is going to play unbelievable. He is very confident. He hits the ball hard and he is not afraid to lose against anybody. Doesn't matter which court he is on. And he is just very confident and I think doesn't matter fast or slow for him at the moment, I mean, he is so sure that he is going to win, so it doesn't matter where you put him. Q. What happened this year? GORAN IVANISEVIC: A lot of injuries this year, bad luck. GORAN IVANISEVIC: Wimbledon against Sampras made one, two mistakes, lost the match. Q. Next year? GORAN IVANISEVIC: Not injured and started year very good and play better. Q. I haven't seen you since the business with Bob. GORAN IVANISEVIC: He decided to stop. Q. He just hit the end of the road. He wouldn't take you further? GORAN IVANISEVIC: I was surprised for me, but he had enough probably, maybe before, but he was -- probably it was enough. Q. Anybody to replace him? GORAN IVANISEVIC: I don't want to rush. After one month, I mean, slowly -- I mean, I have a friend of mine, if I need he can travel with me for the beginning, you know, I am going to find someone. GORAN IVANISEVIC: I mean, I can travel. I mean, I won a couple of tournaments. It's not that I need babysitter. It is always better still to have somebody there. It is easier. Q. Has this been one of the worst three months of your -- GORAN IVANISEVIC: Pretty bad. GORAN IVANISEVIC: The way I played and every week was I hit the ball okay, but, if I would play solid, I would be playing here now, but can't change anything. Q. So you will probably arrive in Australia on your own? GORAN IVANISEVIC: I don't know. I mean, on my own or with a friend of mine; then I see. Q. Going to take some holiday? GORAN IVANISEVIC: One week; then Grand Slam Cup; going to Israel play one day exhibition there. Q. Never been there before? GORAN IVANISEVIC: Never. Q. Let me ask you the question which I am sure you are very bored in answering. Why is this happening? I have seen you play as long as any of my colleagues and you are infuriating to us; not only for you -- GORAN IVANISEVIC: Why? I don't know -- Q. When is this wonderful talent going to produce the trophies that it deserves? GORAN IVANISEVIC: I don't know. Maybe never. Maybe next year. I don't know. I mean, I can't say. Q. But you said after your last match that you didn't play like a champion. You played like -- GORAN IVANISEVIC: I don't care for any trophies except Wimbledon. If I can get that one -- Q. When are you going to choose a new coach? GORAN IVANISEVIC: I don't know. I mean, I am looking and I am not going to rush and take anybody. If I have to travel alone in the beginning, I am going to do it before I choose a real one. Q. How disappointed are you that the four years with Bob did not produce certainly what we all had hoped and no doubt you had hoped would produce; in other words, that you would start winning the trophies one after another, after another, because everybody thought that? GORAN IVANISEVIC: Okay, I became No. 2 which not too many players became No. 2 and I was twice in the Wimbledon final, so then I didn't do anything. I did everything with him. It is not so bad. I mean, thing I could do is win that Wimbledon, then I did -- so I still have a chance; maybe alone; maybe with another coach, we will see. Q. Do you think psychologically it's a disadvantage only thinking about Wimbledon, do you think for the rest of the year -- GORAN IVANISEVIC: I am not thinking only winning Wimbledon - I don't care - otherwise I would only play Wimbledon all year and take the rest off. I am enjoying to play every tournament. That is why I am playing, but my dream is to win Wimbledon or any Grand Slam. I was twice so close to semifinals; just that.... Q. I don't know if you talked about it already, but can you tell me why this happened, which way did it go? Did you say to Bob, let us stop because you are unhappy with the bad year or was it the other way around? GORAN IVANISEVIC: I didn't want to stop. He stopped the relationship. Q. Why? GORAN IVANISEVIC: You have to ask him. Q. You are looking down at your feet? GORAN IVANISEVIC: I don't want to talk about it. He made his thing in the newspapers and the way he did it I don't -- so I didn't want to stop. He stopped it and that.... Q. Do you think he lost patience? GORAN IVANISEVIC: I mean, I don't know what he lost. I was not easy to work with sometimes, but everybody has tough days, so it is okay, life goes on, try to find a new one. Q. Thomas Muster said that you have as much, if not, more talent than any player in the world, But tennis is not just about hitting balls. It is about also playing mentally. Do you think because of your temperament you might one day have to accept that you will never go to transfer your talent into winning -- GORAN IVANISEVIC: If I didn't have my temperament, I wouldn't be here now because that is what makes me a good player. That is what makes me be No. 2 in the world. That is what makes me to come to two Wimbledon finals, and that is what makes one of the best history -- Q. How do you explain going your own ability to lose first round, second round, and of course to win -- GORAN IVANISEVIC: Now, I am going through tough times that I need to win a couple of matches and then I will get this game back and then I can beat anybody. But at the moment, I am just going through tough stages which I don't know what to do on the court. I am hitting the ball good. Q. But you can't say after all this time -- GORAN IVANISEVIC: I was injured this year. I had tough times, and it just comes. I am not a machine. Agassi, he dropped to 19 and after two years, he went to No. 2. Jim was No. 1 and then he went to 15. Now he is coming back again. Everything is why in the life. Why is it this, why is it more. Why? Why? Q. You have a reputation off the court of being a really, you know, friendly person. You are very popular off the court. You used to say to us in press conferences that on the court you were thinking sometimes about other things; not the tennis, the war in Croatia, friends back home, and family. Do you still suffer from this problem of allowing things that have nothing to do with tennis to enter your head while you are on the court? GORAN IVANISEVIC: No, I mean, I am thinking what I have to think on the court about tennis, about how to win the match, how to beat the guy. Q. But you are very effective off the court by things that happen? GORAN IVANISEVIC: Things are better what I am thinking off the court that is my problem, you know, or what I am thinking on the court is my problem. When I win, nobody asks. When I lose, everybody asks, why? Why is that? But if I lose my temperament, if I lose what I have inside, I am never going to be the same player again. Q. Do you feel very lonely, Goran, without a coach? You have always had someone with you backing you, now you are on your own. GORAN IVANISEVIC: I am not a person that feels lonely when losing -- having a guy -- I can be alone, but I am a guy that likes to go around -- I am never going to feel lonely because I have friends; I have my family, my girlfriend, so I do not feel lonely. Q. Are there any Croatian coaches? GORAN IVANISEVIC: I don't know. Not so many. Anything can happen, but we will see. I don't want to rush, so still a lot of time. Q. What goal for '96? Now presumably to get back up to 10 back up to 2 in the world ? GORAN IVANISEVIC: First, not to get injured. I had a bad year and I still finished top 10, so this is not bad. And try to put my game together and enjoy tennis, enjoy to be on the court. Enjoy to win the matches and lose the matches and have fun and then I am going to be the same old player and then I am not afraid about anybody. Q. Do you mind the situation like today where everybody is going out and only a few people are talking to Goran Ivanisevic? Last year, the year before your table would have been? GORAN IVANISEVIC: Nobody gives a damn about the No. 9 player. Q. What about Ivanisevic, the person? GORAN IVANISEVIC: That is -- I mean, I don't know if they are interested over here, but No. 9 is always the guy who is the garbage. Q. You have used that word quite a bit about your own tennis? GORAN IVANISEVIC: Yeah, No. 9, somebody has to practice. I am here, somebody needs to do. I am here. So it is a good punishment to be No. 9 year, five days suffering, that is the way I played the year, but God punished me now for five days. Q. What is with the beard? GORAN IVANISEVIC: Nothing, me and my good friends Andrea, we had a little bet, Gaudenzi, and just shaved our heads. Q. And the beard? GORAN IVANISEVIC: Just something -- I don't know. Beard is beard. GORAN IVANISEVIC: Monica comes after 2 1/2 years to play a tennis tournament, I mean, for me or anybody -- Q. You couldn't do that? GORAN IVANISEVIC: No way. Even if I play good tennis, they can beat me now. After 2 1/2 years I don't play -- Q. Isn't it necessary that the prize money has been reduced just at the time when the women's game, possibly with Seles back, is going up again? Is that bad timing? GORAN IVANISEVIC: I don't know. But they should think of that before. But I think it is a good move that, sure, they don't deserve equal prize money. I mean, it is not easy. You see the draw before the tournament, Graf, Seles, Sanchez, Martinez or whoever. Q. Just because, you know, someone -- you don't mean to say that the standard is bad; that is what I am trying to say to you? GORAN IVANISEVIC: Standard, I mean, you have five girls who can make -- create standards of tennis; can be a great match which is Graf against Seles. It is a great match. Graf against Sanchez, great match. Pierce against Monica or Pierce against Graf, it is a great match. It's finished. It's finished story for the matches. You have girls who are ranked 50 against girls ranked 10, disgusting match. I throw up watching that match. Why they should -- Love and Love; Graf gets the same money like me losing first round. It is not fair - playing five sets. So you have five women, they can produce great tennis, which is becoming only finalist, quarterfinalist, and semifinalist and before that, you don't have a great match. You have bad, bad terrible matches. And we have the first round unbelievable matches. Because they are not meeting quarters or semis, they are beat something Love, Love, Love, Love, Love; then they have interesting matches for final. Then it is really boring. Q. I only read the statement. Perhaps you can tell me a little bit more about Bob. GORAN IVANISEVIC: I was just a little bit shocked for me. I didn't know that he was going to stop. Okay, I went through tough times and everything was bad, then he decided that morning that we should stop, that was not easy to work with me last couple of months, but I always -- I also have tough time. I didn't play well. I am fighting with myself, fighting with everybody. Q. Why? GORAN IVANISEVIC: You don't play good; it was shocking for me. One morning he said it is finished. He made a statement. He said you write a statement. Q. I didn't know that you didn't know anything? GORAN IVANISEVIC: No, I didn't know anything. So..... Q. Is he still a friend? GORAN IVANISEVIC: Yeah, I gave him a call last week, everything is fine, but it hurts, now I hope I can find somebody else. Q. But you have no idea who it is going to be? GORAN IVANISEVIC: No. Q. Does anybody come to mind? GORAN IVANISEVIC: In the beginning, it was Pete and Andre the way they play every week almost the final. But then I have to go with Thomas because what I think this year, first victory indoor and everything what he did the way he played ten, it is really unbelievable. It is really too good and I mean, whatever surface you put to that guy at the moment I mean, he is going to play great. He is so sure that he is going to win that he is unbelievable and he is tough to play twice in a row, two years in a row like this. But the way he played this year, it is just -- and he has a chance to be No. 1 next year, I mean, 'til Key Biscayne he has to be No. 1; otherwise it is tough - a lot of points to defend, but he keeps his mind and continues to play, he is going to take the chance because he is up a little -- he is going to take his chance and I think he has good chance to be No. 1. End of FastScripts…. |
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