THE LIPTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 14, 1994

Steffi Graf

Q. Steffi, Jim Courier is of the opinion that one of the reasons you are dominating so right now is because you are simply more fit than the other women players. What is your feeling about that?

STEFFI GRAF: I don't know -- I mean, on some players you can say they are maybe not as fit and some you can say they are fit. It is just -- it is difficult to just put a label on everybody, I would say.

Q. Does that contribute to the disparity in the women's game and the dominance by the top players, do you think it is the fact that not everyone out there is in top shape?

STEFFI GRAF: Maybe. But it is up to them to decide what to do. I mean, you can't make the decision for them. I mean, they must know what they want to do and how far they want to go and, so it is really up to them what to do.

Q. Must be a tremendous-- give you a tremendous sense of confidence playing someone who you know is less-- in less than peak condition when you go out there, I assume?

STEFFI GRAF: When I go out there I don't really care too much about it because I just go out and see how everything is going. I mean, I am trying more to concentrate on my serve rather than the opponent. I do realize that sometimes knowing maybe I can outrun the other one, but it is not what I am there for. I am there to play my game.

Q. Is your conditioning a big part of your game; do you feel like that is the reason for the success?

STEFFI GRAF: It hasn't been really the last couple of years. I think from beginning this year, it has because physically I am much fitter than I have ever been. I trained harder than I have had, and the other on the other hand, I don't have as many injuries anymore as I used too. So it is all coming together.

Q. You said you were looking for a bit of a challenge. Did you think you got it during those few games that forced you to raise your level a little bit after that?

STEFFI GRAF: Today?

Q. Yeah, today after you got to the five and then --

STEFFI GRAF: Yeah, I did have to tell myself to concentrate and play the point better than I did a couple of games. On the other hand, I did make some more errors maybe more than usual, but she did play very well in that one game and she broke me. She returned very well. But I did have to tell myself, "come on, let's go."

Q. When you do that, when you tell yourself, "let's go" or something, do you find yourself more focused and the games start going well for you?

STEFFI GRAF: Yeah. Obviously the other points I maybe didn't concentrate as well. At 5-3 I said okay, let us take it point by point.

Q. Because the second set went very, very quickly.

STEFFI GRAF: Yeah, then on, sometimes you let down on a few games and that is what happened, but I didn't want it to happen again.

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