THE LIPTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 26, 1996

Jim Courier

JIM COURIER: Nah.

JIM COURIER: Really.

JIM COURIER: What do you want to know?

JIM COURIER: Nothing's on my mind right now about the match besides I'm glad to get through it.

JIM COURIER: I'm very happy with the result. I would have liked to have played better, but I just didn't fire on all cylinders today. I'm glad with the way I fought through it. I got a chance to play better tomorrow. That's all I ask.

JIM COURIER: I don't recognize you with the beard.

JIM COURIER: Didn't recognize you with the beard.

JIM COURIER: It's a simple scheduling decision, that's all.

JIM COURIER: When I decided I was going to play the Olympics.

JIM COURIER: I think after the US Open is maybe a little bit soon. I think we could play for another -- play for maybe another -- I think we should play through the end of October, then have November, December off myself. I think there's a few events that we could do without, we could just condense it a little bit and go straight to the big indoor tournaments in Europe, play a couple of those, play the Master's, Davis Cup final, ciao. If we end the season in October, there will still be tennis November, December, because some entrepreneur will want to put in some money and have an event. That's fine. I think that should be the player's option rather than having to play into December with Davis Cup. Too much.

JIM COURIER: We wouldn't lose tournaments, per se. There could still be challengers. If you do that, there will still be challengers afterwards, and there will still be exhibition tournaments, I guarantee, because there are people that want people to come play. I just don't think there's a reason for tournament tennis that's for ranking that has big significance. I think it's overkill. I think it shortens careers if you play that much.

JIM COURIER: Too much money (indicating).

JIM COURIER: We don't have control. We're a partnership with the tournament directors, and they're not going to give in. We have franchises, I don't know if you understand that, or not, but our tournaments are franchises. Like Lipton here, Butch owns the rights to these weeks. We can't take that away from him, much like the NFL can't take away the Seattle Seahawks as much as they would like to. It's his, his franchise. He's probably going to be able to move it wherever he wants. That's pretty much how we are here, too. You just can't take them away. That's the problem. Because there are lots of small tournaments around that I think they're fine, but I think the schedule needs to be condensed.

JIM COURIER: I've beaten my head against the wall enough.

JIM COURIER: Yeah. Sure they could, except they just signed a contract with Tiriac for Hannover for that week in November for I don't know how many more years. That's the problem, you have these contracts. It's very complicated. I don't know everything about it. I can just tell you that I can sit up here and talk all I want about a perfect world, there's still going to be crime, there's still going to be pollution and there's still going to be tennis in December.

JIM COURIER: Do I sense that?

JIM COURIER: All they have to do is look at my record. That's that.

JIM COURIER: I don't have anything to defend, period. I decided not to play. My decision. I certainly don't feel like I owe anybody anything, any explanation for not playing. I've gone above and beyond the call of duty on numerous occasions. I enjoy playing Davis Cup. I think Davis Cup as it is right now, the scheduling is outdated. I think the game of tennis has evolved, and Davis Cup, certainly in America, has this much importance (indicating). You go on the street and you ask how many people know that we went to Moscow and brought the title home, ask them if they care.

JIM COURIER: You know, I got some other things to do tonight. I can't sit here and talk about it. That's another one of those things. ATP and Davis Cup, scheduling. I guess I never used to complain because it was all new and fun. Once you get into the swing of things, you see there's flaws to every system.

JIM COURIER: Almost three years.

JIM COURIER: I haven't been here enough. I mean, I might live here, but I feel like basically a vagabond. I'm always somewhere, but I'm never anywhere, you know, if that makes any sense to you.

JIM COURIER: Like I said, scheduling is everything.