US OPEN

September 6, 2004

Nicolas Kiefer

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

NICOLAS KIEFER: Well, I mean, everything was okay and then 3-Love, first point, I had this reflex volley that came very fast, and I felt that something happened. Just tried to keep on going. Big first serve. But I couldn't hold my racquet. That was a tough decision. I wanted to finish it. Maybe at this stage was bad to stop, but you never know.

NICOLAS KIEFER: Yeah.

NICOLAS KIEFER: Yeah, but I felt it at this stage. I just tried to focus on my game. I thought, "Forget about it, it's going to be better." As I said, I tried to serve. And then Per examinated (sic) it. It's a tough decision, but I had problems with the wrist before. You don't know, decisions like that, you take them. At this stage, it got swollen, so something is wrong.

PER BASTHOLT: Well, firstly, when I see Nicolas on the court, I try to evaluate the acute situation. Obviously, we have to do some more testing on it to be sure of the exact diagnosis. But it was apparent to me that there was something seriously wrong. He had absolutely no power. He wouldn't want to extend the wrist. So I was sending warning signals to him also. The ultimate decision is his. He said, "I can't hold the racquet." We tend to believe that he has a tendon issue, but we want to make sure. So he's doing an MRI in a little bit to exclude potential stress fracture or fracture.

PER BASTHOLT: That's very individual how they recover from things like this. I would say normality would be four to six weeks.

NICOLAS KIEFER: No, I mean, of course it was strange game. I came out, had a great start. He came back very strong. I didn't feel so good outside. I just tried to stay in there, and fight, keep on fighting. I came back strong in the fourth set. I won the tiebreaker, very close decisions. But I made it. Yeah, I had also a good start. But he broke me. I tried to stay in the whole time. But there are things that happen maybe, I don't know, maybe once in your career, maybe less. Unfortunately, it was me.

PER BASTHOLT: Yeah. Obviously when a tendon is hurt, if he had a fracture, if you continue to play, you can potentially hurt yourself badly. Yeah, obviously it would take longer to recover.

NICOLAS KIEFER: Who?

NICOLAS KIEFER: Yeah.

NICOLAS KIEFER: No, I mean, I came out very strong, and I let him play a little bit his game. Was tough for me to focus today. I don't know why. This I can think about later. I was struggling a little bit with my serve. I couldn't go up very good. I mean, this is normal. I had so long weeks, long trips. Of course, my body feels tired. Maybe that's the result, I don't know. But I didn't come up so good with my serve. I mean, everybody knows that he has a great net game, but also he misses some. I forced him to play a fifth set. The most important thing for me in this stage was that I kept on fighting. I was down two sets to one, and he won so many straight games. But I was thinking every time that I can still do it. I kept on fighting, fighting, fighting. Today I stayed in by fighting and being positive, not by playing tennis.

NICOLAS KIEFER: Only here at the US Open (smiling). I mean, last few months or weeks, I don't know when my last foot-fault was. But today three times, one time very important point. I think also last match I had two or three foot-faults. Maybe the linesmen are something special here, I don't know.

NICOLAS KIEFER: Well, of course I'm disappointed because I knew I had my chances to get to the quarterfinals or even more. That's the reason why I was here. That's the reason why I was fighting on the court for every ball because I was thinking that I can still do it. Doesn't matter what the score is. This is my strength. This is my strength, what I got back, what I was fighting for. I was fighting to go it back. That's the positive thing that I can take out from the last few weeks or months. It was a big change in my tennis, in my career. On one side I can be happy the way I played but, I mean, today I didn't move so good, I couldn't adjust so good to the ball. These are more things I can still work on. But, I mean, now the main thing is to check my wrist and to see what's going on.