US OPEN

September 8, 1998

Yevgeny Kafelnikov

Q. Would you say it was an off day for you?

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Excuse me?

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Like in which circumstances?

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: The way I played?

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: I mean, I'm not going to criticize myself now right in front of you in the press conference. Whatever I did, I did, it's already passed. Unfortunately, I lost. Life goes on. It's nothing much I can tell you about it.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: The one thing I can tell you, that I was having so much difficulty to hold my serve, especially on one side. The sun was really bothering me. Unfortunately, you know, I just let go second set, which is -- I shouldn't have done that. From that point on, the match turned completely the other way around.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Excuse me?

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: I don't know why. You know, I wish I know the answer. You know, for sure, if I would get that much back, especially in that situation where I won the first set, for sure I would never have done that mistake. It's easy to talk after the match. But, you know, my fault I lost the match. I'm not going to blame on anybody but me.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Yeah, I'm be playing two, three weeks in Basel.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: A lot of things, a lot of things.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: I'm not going to do it. Let's talk about the match and then I'm out of here. I don't want to talk about it right now. I'm sorry, don't get me wrong.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: That's right.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: I definitely -- I definitely regret it for the things I've done in the past, you know. I mean, I should have taken advantage from the situation that I had, especially here this week, honestly. But I don't know why and how it happen. Like I said, I'm very disappointed with my performance, especially today. The way that I played those three matches before I was pretty happy. But, you know, I just cannot explain. Maybe, you know, it was too much pressure on me, expecting myself to win, to do well. The draw was quite open on my side. You know, just I haven't had such a situation in a long time. That's why I kind of didn't know how to handle it.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Things again went so wrong for me in the beginning of the year. I just don't know. I just don't know the explanation. Hopefully I will do some things prevent myself from those kind of mistakes. But, you know, that's life.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: You know, I'm already too tired to talk about the talent. The talent is one thing; the winning the Grand Slam is another thing. The guy who has the talent, they probably never win the Grand Slam. Good example, Goran, he was three times in the final. Okay, I was fortunate enough to win at least one Grand Slam, and I'm proud of it. But, you know, like I said, talent is one thing; winning the match, winning the big tournaments is another thing. Okay, if you combine those things together, you great player.