COMPAQ GRAND SLAM CUP

December 3, 1996

Jim Courier

JIM COURIER: Do I agree with the linesmen's decisions?

JIM COURIER: Not all of them. The ball is moving very fast out there. I think the main problem was it seemed like the electronic device, Cyclops, didn't seem to be working too well.

JIM COURIER: Well, I haven't been wearing my cap too much when the sun is not out mainly.

JIM COURIER: Well, in years past, I've been kind of fatigued at the end of the year. This year, due to injuries, and not winning as many matches, I'm a little bit fresher. Actually, this is kind of preseason training for me next year. Just works out perfectly. Although I'm happy with the transition next year to a little bit earlier in the schedule, it happened to work out perfectly for me this year.

JIM COURIER: Well, I was just rehabing, you know, doing stuff in the water, stuff on bikes, stuff on treadmills, all kinds of mechanical stuff that they do to try to rehabilitate a knee, get it to heal faster. Just the traditional American rehabilitation stuff; nothing too bionic or anything like that.

JIM COURIER: Seemed pretty good. Seemed like it was pretty full today. The German fans normally support their events very strongly. I don't think this is an exception. Seems like it's supported very well here.

JIM COURIER: Not at first. But, after three or four weeks away, I started to get the itch to go again. That's a good sign, you know. I think I haven't really been injured to the point where I had to stop playing before; that was the first time. I guess those things -- I don't think it was coincidence. I think my brain was ready as well as my body, ready for a break. I'm looking at it in a positive way. I hope that that will -- I already feel like I'm more encouraged to play now, more positive than I've been in a long time. For me, if I can just be positive and keep moving in the right direction, I know the results will eventually come.

JIM COURIER: Well, I think there's certainly different ways to look at it. I think in a lot of ways I need to play more tournaments and train maybe a little less hard. The main thing really is to enjoy it, you know, enjoy the good with the bad, enjoy the bad with the good. If you don't, it gets to the point where I wasn't enjoying anything. At some stage, I would neither enjoying the winning matches or losing, I just wanted to be elsewhere. You're not going to stick around very long if you do that, you're going to burn right out. You know, I think it's an old cliche, but you step away, you don't have what you once had, you say, "I'm not on the Tour right now, do I miss it?" The answer for me was, "Yes." It's a positive sign for me.

JIM COURIER: Didn't see it.

JIM COURIER: No.

JIM COURIER: I don't know. Seems like an awful long way to come to play and go. I think if he made the effort to come over here, he's probably here to play. We'll see what happens. I can't really predict what's going to happen.

JIM COURIER: I certainly did watch it.

JIM COURIER: It was certainly extraordinary drama. I mean, I haven't seen drama like that in a long, long, long time. I mean, two matches going the distance, that was amazing. My personal opinion on Davis Cup - and it has been this way for a few years - is that we should play Davis Cup every other year, and the first year and the third year have Davis Cup, the fourth year be an Olympic year. If you want to create another larger World Team Cup type format for a one- or two-week event and make that a center piece event, you could make it Europe versus the rest of the world or Europe versus the United States, any kind of combination like that to keep the interest. The interest is good, country versus country is good. The Davis Cup format, as it stands right now, is a very difficult and increasingly crowded schedule. It's difficult for players like Pete and Andre and Michael to make themselves available all the time when there's so many more demands on their time than there ever has been in the game of professional tennis. You know, personally, I'd like to see the event moved into a two-week format, 16 draw, expanded World Team Cup type format and play it like that where we all know, and make it where the entire focus of the tennis world is on this event, make it after the Grand Slams, almost like a fifth Grand Slam, team format, make it like that. I think the Olympics also should be played in a team format, not individual as well. That's my opinion. Doesn't really hold much water, does it?

JIM COURIER: Do you want to know why?

JIM COURIER: Every match we play, if we don't play at home, we have to travel six or more time zones. We're playing in Europe every time, India, Australia. This next time we're not traveling time zone-wise too far, but we're going to Brazil. If I'm European, I'm happy as a pea in a pod. With the exception of Davis Cup, I have to go play Australia, America, possibly Brazil, the chances of being a European team and traveling are probably one-third of the American team's. I can cry about being American. I'm not. I'm very happy to be from America. It's much more difficult to play the game right now travel-wise as an American. I mean, I made six trips to Europe this year. How many times did Boris come to America besides a vacation? It's tough. That's the way it is. There's nothing we can change about it. You can't make the time zones any different. It's just the way it is.

JIM COURIER: I haven't come here for many years because I was too tired. I'm sure that -- I know Pete and Todd are very tired, I would assume Michael. They've all had very, very busy, long years.

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