RCA CHAMPIONSHIPS

August 17, 1995

Bernd Karbacher

BERND KARBACHER: Yeah, of course, for me it was a little bit easy than for Todd because I played twice during the day on, I think, the outside courts are a little faster than the stadium and for Todd it was -- he played a night match yesterday and it is much slower and you could see that he hit a lot of balls; just flew away and he couldn't keep the ball in play. I hit the ball pretty good and I was really surprised. He made a lot of mistakes. It was pretty easy for me.

BERND KARBACHER: Yeah, of course I think for me maybe it is not a good draw, but I think for me it is advantage because I won against him this year in Key Biscayne at the Lipton 6-3, 6-3 on hard court; I won last year on hard court in two sets, so I think that is the advantage for me. I know how to play him. But he played really well today and yesterday when he beat Ferreira, he played really well. So I think he is playing well at the moment. But let us see what happens. I hope I can win another one, another third time.

BERND KARBACHER: Yes, of course I came here last week for Cincinnati for the tournament and I had only one day to practice on hard court because I played a tournament on clay before, and then I beat Stark in two sets and then I won against Kafelnikov and I played really well and then I lost to Courier. He played a very good match. So I was very happy the way I played last week and I hope I can keep on playing like that and I know that I play well on hard court and especially these tournaments, I like them very much, so I think it is the hard court season -- the second time of the hard court season starts very well for me, so I am really looking forward to the U.S. Open.

BERND KARBACHER: No, it was not guesswork. Sometimes you have to guess a little bit on the first serve because he hits the ball very hard, but I think -- I don't know his first serve percentage -- I think it was not very high today and when he hit the first serve; then I couldn't return it very well and then it was one of these days, he had no success with his serve and service was coming and I was lucky one and hit a return winner, so for him, it is very important how he is serving, and he had problems -- maybe with the balls, I don't know what, but I think my return, okay, I know that my return is pretty good on hard court, so it fits really good.

BERND KARBACHER: To be honest, you don't truly know where the ball is flying. You try to hit the ball in front of the body and that is it -- to block it and you cannot really say on a first serve with 120 miles per hour that you are playing crosscourt or down the line a winner. You try just to get the racket to the ball and if you really hit it front of the volley; then the ball is going in the field and sometimes I think I made some really some good returns was also when he came in on the serve and I hit it really down to his feet and that is very difficult then to hit a good volley.

BERND KARBACHER: Thanks.