US OPEN

September 6, 1999

Yevgeny Kafelnikov

USTA: Questions for Yevgeny.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Well, you know, I couldn't ask for anything better than that, you know, finish the match in three straight sets. Although, you know, I had to struggle in the beginning of the match. That first set took us 50 minutes to finish that set. I was fortunate enough to win that set. I played the right points at the right time.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: I think the fatigue factor played a huge role in the match today. Andrei was coming back from a tough match against Lleyton Hewitt. You know, once I won that first set, he thought, "Oh, God, I have to tough it out." It's not easy to play, especially against a guy like me where you have to basically work for every point. You know, I'm sure that was a major factor for him.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Sort of, yeah. You know, if you look back at those four matches that I have so far in this tournament, none of them was easy one that I was cruising, you know, all the way through all the match. I had a tough one first match, tough the second one. You know, match against Bjorkman wasn't an easy one like it was probably looking in the score. Today was the same story, although, you know, I felt like the second and third set today in the match was quite a bit easy. But, you know, if you compare first round match that I had in Australian Open, those first four that I had here, they pretty similar, yeah.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: I'm not complaining.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Yeah. You know, I'm thinking in the back of my mind that perhaps, you know, that's my -- the only shot I will have in the US Open probably ever to win. You know, I have to capitalize that opportunity.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: You know, I'm 25 years old. If you can say, I'm very young, thank you for the compliment. If you look at other guys who are competing in this tournament, 18, 19 years old. Time goes by very, very quick. I remember myself being in the position like, young guys like Safin, many guys like that. It's seven years already gone, and I'm not a Junior anymore. I feel like, you know, I've been in this locker room forever. That's why I can say that probably I was fortunate I had so far in this tournament, that's probably going to be my only shot to win the US Open.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: I need to probably go down in the ranking to 141 to think about it. You know, last five years, I've stayed in the Top 10. That just shows I like to compete, I like to be on the top. It's not an easy thing to do.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Let me put it this way. From those 21 tournaments I've played, I had eight or nine times losing the first round. That's probably the difference. That's why I'm staying out of injury because those weeks basically I didn't compete at all. That's why last couple months I found back the motivation and I found back my ego because I felt like I was back to my favorite surface. That's why, you know, I'm competing that well lately.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: I don't want to look forward that far. I have US Open here, six more days to finish the tournament. That's the only concern I have. I'm not concerned about future ranking.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: I'll definitely try.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: You know, it was all business. Me and Andrei, we still going to keep our friendly relationship off the court. But it is sometimes hard to maintain the concentration, but you got to do it. You know, it's the fourth round of US Open. You don't want to give yourself a chance to enjoy it that much, so you have to keep the focus. I'm glad I've done the job and it was all business on the court.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: I felt like when I broke him for the second time in the second set, I felt like I took complete control of the match.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Worst part of my job? I hate to say it, but probably the travel. You know, we spend so much time on the road, that's what makes our life so difficult - my life. I don't know what my fellow players would say. I found the travel very, very difficult.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: You know, he understand me as a person. That's first of all. We have a lot of same basis. We like to play golf together, we following basically the same sports. We do a lot of stuff together that we both like to do. That's important with our relationship. All I can say, Larry, he understand the game very well. He's a great motivator. I was always telling everybody before beginning of this year I was struggling with motivation. But, you know, seems to me that Larry open my eyes more in that aspect. That's what I was looking for.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: All I can tell you, when I had that bad period of time from the month of March up until probably I would say five weeks in Montreal, you know, he treat me like we're playing in the Australian Open, the same basis. We're having fun, talking to each other, playing golf basically every day that we had a chance to play. You know, Larry treat me as good as probably I would expect him to do, to treat me. That's why our relationship has been so successful as you guys probably notice.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Larry have Russian background. His grandfather from Ukraine. I understand him, he understand me. It work on that basis.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Not at all. Not at all. Doesn't mean that those guys still in tournament. They not going to win the tournament at all. I'd like to see how is Greg going to do tomorrow against Todd Martin. Actually, I had a chat with him this morning in locker room on that issue. He sort of backed up. When he comes back to you tomorrow afternoon, you should ask him.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Right now, I like my bet. That's one I'm going to stick to. I'm going to repeat once again, three guys going to win the tournament: myself, Krajicek and Agassi. Those is the guys that is going to win the tournament.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: No. Only the Brits coming, Canadian Brit, I would say, comes back to me with the big smile on the face and sort of giving me shit about it. You know, I respect his opinion, and I'm sure he respect mine, so.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: I don't know. I wouldn't say so that they're shy. I'm on the same basis with the guys who ranked 150 in the world. Even though I'm the No. 2, I still take the opinion from the guys who are lower ranked than me. I appreciate that.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Yeah.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Yeah.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Don't get me wrong. I definitely prefer to play Spadea than Krajicek. Don't get me wrong.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Spadea?

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: No. Why should I owe him one?

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Yeah, I was serving for the match. Bad thing happens to me that night. Don't take away anything for granted from Vince. Vince has done so far well, he's 8-1 against the Top 10 guys. Seems to me he likes to play when he's an underdog. Every time he makes a huge upset with me at Lipton, next match he loses to Clavet. Same in the French Open, he upset Krajicek, next day he loses to Filippini three straight. How can you understand that? Don't get me wrong, I rather play Spadea in the quarterfinal than Krajicek, no questions about that.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Yeah.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Yeah (laughter).

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Yeah, yeah, yeah (laughter). Hopefully he'll watch the press conference and say, "God, Yevgeny (inaudible) twice." I got to win three more matches. That's the simple thing. Those three matches won't be easy, like what many people realize. I got to win tough matches. That's bottom line.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Yeah, definitely. If you look at the results in the past four, five weeks, we both had a huge round in the hardcourt season. Andre went to twice semifinal, won Washington. So did I. I won twice, to the final. Good running in the North American hardcourt season. Like we were saying, it's nice to bring that momentum that we had to the last Grand Slam tournament of the year. So far, we've been successful. You know, like I said, we're both favored to win, like I said, and Krajicek, of course.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: They doing fine. Thank you for asking. They in town. Although my wife takes -- she cannot take it watching me play. It's so much stress for her. That's why she stays in the town and watch it on TV.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: The child is almost 11 month.