U.S. OPEN

September 2, 1995

Luke Jensen

Murphy Jensen

LUKE JENSEN: Where did you learn how to speak English?

MURPHY JENSEN: What was the question?

MURPHY JENSEN: Yeah, I actually started to feel it. The second set I couldn't find the forehand, I was still in a boat heading for the ocean, but, you know, I just got it going and felt really good today. I mean, the beginning of the week I was really sick and I didn't know how we'd do and the first match was kind of shaky. This match actually came out and served pretty good and felt good today. I owe a lot of my success in the last couple of matches to Luke because he stepped up and, you know, he realized that I was feeling really down and made

me --

LUKE JENSEN: Pepto Bismol.

MURPHY JENSEN: -- and made me feel a lot stronger. I've got -- actually, the reason we won today is because two of my best friends came down from Kansas City. They support us, play for World Team Tennis, my sister over there. That's kind of cool. So, kind of a surprise.

LUKE JENSEN: What's prepare mean? Is that with concentration and focus. It's just one of those things that's --

MURPHY JENSEN: We save that for Christmas.

LUKE JENSEN: Yeah, exactly putting the sticker on, that's what we do, stamp our autograph cards. I think, you know, that whole year you're watching that football preseason, these guys' coaches getting up at 5:30 in the morning, I mean, we're getting in at 5:30 in the morning. (LAUGHTER).

MURPHY JENSEN: That's what I want you to say.

LUKE JENSEN: We're actually -- the last two -- the Grand Slams, we've done well at the French Open this year and here. We have really been riding a huge losing streak. So through World Team Tennis and a couple of tournaments we'd lost nine straight sets. So forget matches, we couldn't even win sets. So we really had to pick it up and really create our own momentum. It's really easy to go out and play in front of the crowd, there's so much electricity. You hit out on your shots and you don't really get tight, you don't really think it's such a big, big event. And it is -- it's bigger than life, but the thing is you have to think about is watching the ball making your returns, doing the basics and all of a sudden good things happen and a lot of guys, because we're able to play at night a lot in front of people or throwing things and going nuts and doing cart wheels, that I think it's intimidating and it's too our advantage most of the time.

LUKE JENSEN: I think we got a wave --

MURPHY JENSEN: In Paris.

LUKE JENSEN: In Paris, yeah. You've got to get it going.

LUKE JENSEN: So you're saying when we're going crazy it seems like we're --

LUKE JENSEN: Sometimes the situation just happens. It's more of you ride the wave of the emotion of the situation. If things are going good, it's easy to really take certain shots or certain points that really climax. I know our last match, first round, we got down to breaking the third and then all of a sudden you're rallying and everyone -- all of a sudden it sparks and things are really going and you have some great points on -- some big shots on big points, and here we're winning and we didn't close it out and then we kind of lost the momentum, and then right away we jumped on it in the third and kind of rode the wave out. But it really depends, sometimes you're more excited than others. And I remember -- because we're not winning all the time, it's tough because people expect to come out and get this great show every time, they put all this intensity, all this fun and laughter, well, when you're losing nine straight sets, I mean, there's nothing really to celebrate. I mean, these guys are kicking your butt and you're like yah, rock and roll. I mean, there's not much you could do. It's tough when you lose. But when you're winning you just really go for it. We don't win so much so when but we do we're going crazy.

MURPHY JENSEN: You should have seen me when we won our first tournament since the French at Nottingham, right before Wimbledon, it was a joke. I mean, Luke was ready to jump through the roof. We won a tournament man.

LUKE JENSEN: It was awesome.

MURPHY JENSEN: It was like eight finals.

LUKE JENSEN: It was a real tournament. It was one of these official tournaments they put on the tour.

MURPHY JENSEN: It wasn't something that we did in our hometown.

MURPHY JENSEN: No, no, no. In Nottingham?

MURPHY JENSEN: No, I -- I got you with champagne.

MURPHY JENSEN: Actually, he said don't tell anybody, don't tell anybody.

LUKE JENSEN: I think it really depends on -- the situation was 40-Love, you're not going to do it when it's a break point or 15-30 and they're most likely going to win that point.

MURPHY JENSEN: It's one way of relaxing, you know, just kind of accepting that there's a big crowd. A lot of people walk on the center court and really just wet their pants.

LUKE JENSEN: Well, so much is talked about, for some reason the last ten years --

MURPHY JENSEN: I just look at it and just say let's go for it.

LUKE JENSEN: You wet your pants and then they go for it.

MURPHY JENSEN: No, I just go for it.

LUKE JENSEN: You look at every book or listen to any sports psychologist and they tell you to watch your strengths and focus on everything. I think you really have to accept what's going on. I mean, you have planes and all these things going on and if you're trying -- it's too hard, you're already trying to focus in on the match and trying to take care of business and then if you're trying to focus on if someone is screaming here, a bottle falls there, and whoever is in the crowd watching and, you know, it's more of a distraction, you're not supposed to be thinking about that and your mind -- because some guy told you you should be doing this and that, just accept it, you look at it, you address it and then you move on. And I think just to get involved -- I mean, how many times do you get a chance to play in front of people screaming and yelling who want to make a difference, positive or negative, against you. I mean that's fun, that's what you want to do. You don't want to be playing on court 75 with janitors out there sweeping the courts. You want to make noise and that's exactly what should go on.

LUKE JENSEN: Hey, Michigan has the most players in this tournament.

LUKE JENSEN: We kick butt. We could have our own Davis Cup team. Washington, Krickstein -- okay, you've got the Jensens, that's one brain cell and then you've got -- well, our sister's played, so that's two brain cells, so that's four. Then we had Frazier, Martin, the Washingtons, we had three of the Washingtons play and then Krickstein. Who all lost to -- who am I thinking of smoking Detroit?

MURPHY JENSEN: Oh, Campbell.

LUKE JENSEN: Campbell. So Michigan was -- right when the indoor boom came tons of juniors from the -- Victor Amaya from -- tons of great players from Michigan.

LUKE JENSEN: Yeah, only Yupers (ph). We're not Yupers, our parents are Yupers.

MURPHY JENSEN: Really. Luke's first article in our newspaper was of him snowblowing the snow off the court so he could hit outside. It's kind of funny.

LUKE JENSEN: You had to be there (LAUGHTER.) How many courts are in Bristol?

MURPHY JENSEN: There you go. My dad's from mark Marquette.

MURPHY JENSEN: I used to go to Marquette for our tennis games.

LUKE JENSEN: Northern Michigan University.

MURPHY JENSEN: My grandfather has the lake trout record for fishing in Lake Superior.

MURPHY JENSEN: It's true.