DAVIS CUP - BELGIUM vs USA

July 19, 1998

Jim Courier

Q. What happened, Jim?

JIM COURIER: I just have a tired arm from a lot of tennis this weekend. Woke up this morning, my arm was a little bit tight and sore, like a pitcher who has thrown too many pitches. In the warm-up today I could feel a little weakness in there. I wasn't getting much pop on my serve out there. I was trying to hit it hard, but I couldn't break 120 out there. Normally I'm hitting 124, 125. Just a little bit weak. You know, there's really no reason to make a small problem into a big one in a dead rubber.

JIM COURIER: I'm more willing to risk injury when there's something on the line, for sure. I just don't think it's wise for me to continue on playing like that. If I can't play comfortably out there, there's really not much point in playing.

JIM COURIER: I hope not. I hope not. I'll go get some treatment right now and rest it. Going out and hitting more serves right now is probably the worst thing I could do for it. I'll take it easy and hopefully it will be fresh and ready to go. Nine sets in two days after not having played tournament tennis, much tournament tennis, for much of the spring, you know, it's a lot to ask of your arm. You know, I'm hoping that it's just a building block for me.

JIM COURIER: Well, I don't know about that. Certainly was difficult in Atlanta. Here, we got through 3-0, not without a fight. Certainly in the doubles, we could have easily gone down that match. Fortunately, we didn't. 3-0 is a good position to be in, coming into Sunday. Particularly when you get conditions like this, it makes it tough to play in. You know, I think we like where we stand. We're into the semifinals.

JIM COURIER: Yeah. But it's not quite as severe. I'm hoping I can stop it before it gets out of control.

JIM COURIER: No. The reason that it's hurting now is because I was over at Wimbledon again stupidly playing with those heavy balls. You know, they're ruining my arm. If I can avoid the Wimbledon ball, I think I'll be in good shape. I haven't had any pain in my arm since mid February. Then I went over to Wimbledon, and the second day I was over there, after practicing, my arm started hurting again. I think that's clearly the variable. It opens up a little bit of a weakness. If the Wimbledon committee could do me a big favor and go back to normal tennis balls instead of trying to make the game slower on an impossible-to-slow-down surface, you know, I think I'd be a lot happier.

JIM COURIER: Probably, yeah.

JIM COURIER: No. What happened the other day on Friday was that I put lead tape on my racquet, as all players do, to make them all evenly weighted and balanced. One of the pieces of lead fell off. I had to get it put back on. No big deal.

JIM COURIER: Uh-huh, yeah. I shouldn't play before at least Tuesday there, so.

JIM COURIER: Yeah. Hopefully to be ready to go and fresh, you know, a little bit fresh. I'm a little bit tired from playing tennis. My body is a little bit beat up. With a good day and a half's rest, hopefully I can come back. Usually all it takes me is one day to come back of rest. So given that today wasn't too, too physical, I think I should be okay. I'll go in and roll the dice.

CAPTAIN GULLIKSON: Well, Gaudenzi was injured for a while. He's playing well this year. David Sanguinetti is kind of their rising star. He got to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon on a fast court obviously. He played college tennis in the States. He played at UCLA actually, so he knows how to play on hard courts a little bit. You know, they bring a certain amount of passion to the game, like all the Latins do. You know, they'll certainly give us a very good test.

CAPTAIN GULLIKSON: Absolutely.

CAPTAIN GULLIKSON: Yeah. We'll have to look at Richey's situation. You know, Richey has been injured a lot. Now he's going in to get his knee scoped. We'll see how Richey is doing. Certainly Jim, Andre and Todd have a standing invitation. I think they'll be ready to go. I can't speak for them, but I hope they'll be ready to go.

CAPTAIN GULLIKSON: Maybe I can give him some of Xavier's birthday cake. Get a little sugar in him.

JIM COURIER: It's cute. Where's the girl that pops out of it?

JIM COURIER: I'm a veteran.