EUTELSAT MONTE CARLO OPEN

April 24, 1996

Jim Courier

JIM COURIER: Wasn't my best match, for sure. Javier played well. I just didn't do what it took today basically.

JIM COURIER: It's just a weird match. You know, coming from Barcelona, and Monday was extremely windy, yesterday was extremely rainy, so I didn't really have much practice, to speak of, coming into today. I really felt very uncomfortable on the court. In practice I was hitting the ball terribly. Some days you just have those kind of days where you wake up and it's just not there. I think today was just one of those days for me. You know, Javier took advantage of that, like a good player should.

JIM COURIER: No, I don't think it's a disadvantage. I think today has been a very strange day, let's put it that way, very strange.

JIM COURIER: They suck. Let me make that very clear. I'm glad you asked that question. If someone didn't ask it, I was going to bring it up. I think it's pathetic that last week we played with a Roland Garros ball, and this week we come here and play with a different ball. I think it's ridiculous. It's a mockery that we can't get these tournaments together. Every claycourt tournament should be playing with a Roland Garros ball. Every hard court tournament played in the summer leading up to the US Open should be played with a US Open ball. Every indoor tournament leading to Hannover should be played with the ball we're playing with in Hannover. Everything else is an injustice to the players. I still don't know what racket tension I'm supposed to play with. I played in the rain, each ball felt like it weighed a kilo each. Last week I'm hitting the ball great. This week I would have lost to a handful of you guys out there today. I mean, it's ridiculous. It's not professional. I don't understand it. I mean, I know it always comes down to money, and that's really ridiculous, that we can't have some consistency, because that's what the ATP is supposedly striving for. We deserve that. So the balls suck. Let me make that very clear, if I didn't already.