U.S. OPEN

September 11, 1993

Steffi Graf

Q. Champion, you've played a very close match with Seles in Melbourne. You could have won the match. Could you have imagined then that that would have cost you a Grand Slam?

STEFFI GRAF: No. And I don't really -- I don't really want to think that way, really. I think it is a great achievement to have been able to win 3 Grand Slams and be in the final of the other one. And having the possibility to even have a Grand Slam. I had it once. That is fine.

STEFFI GRAF: Yeah, it was again today very difficult conditions. I mean, I have -- play from the baseline, it is really difficult. If you play somebody who comes in all the time to play perfect, I mean, it is just impossible, but I think my backhand passing shot was really working today and maybe my serve wasn't 100%, but other than that, I don't think really-- I can't criticize much.

STEFFI GRAF: I am still -- I mean, after winning this 6 tournaments in a row now, I mean, I am not quitting on or not letting go to try to improve. But sure, it helps if you have a player who pushes you more. I mean, obviously, you are trying harder and you work harder. But I am not necessarily a person who needs it too much, because I like to push myself.

STEFFI GRAF: No. Not really.

STEFFI GRAF: I mean, I feel confident and when I am -- when I know I am playing well as I have been the last few weeks and when I realize how well I am playing, then it is it is really difficult to do something against me, because I know that whenever I am going to go for my shots, it will happen.

STEFFI GRAF: No. Not really. I mean, Helena has beaten quite a few good players here, and she didn't -- I don't think she really played bad today either. I mean, I played a lot better than yesterday, so I am feeling better. Sure, if you play a higher-ranked player in the finals and win, maybe, say, it's little bit more satisfying, but to play well, I think that is usually important to me than anything else.

STEFFI GRAF: Well, I didn't sense it at 4-1, then again it was 4-3 and 30-Love. I think when I won the game to 5-3, I think that -- I felt pretty good at that stage.

STEFFI GRAF: Well, today I was so much more relaxed than yesterday. I mean, yesterday in the beginning I was really tight and not really well prepared. I think today I just was a lot better focused right from the beginning on. I knew it was going to be a difficult match. I just moved a lot better than I did yesterday. Much more, since it is the finals.

STEFFI GRAF: No. No, I didn't. It is just -- it is just -- it's a fact, really. I mean, it is nothing that I had -- I mean, it is just obvious and I think there was nothing that I really had to say about it.

STEFFI GRAF: I mean, I didn't -- no. Because I didn't know how -- I mean, I am-- usually, I am very nervous before I have to do a speech or say something, I usually have no idea what I am going to say. Sometimes I am trying to tell myself, like at the French Open when I didn't say anything and I wanted to say something and I forgot, it was because I was really nervous. Today I really didn't have a chance to write a speech, so it was -- so, it just happened.

STEFFI GRAF: I have been saying that constantly now and nothing has changed.

STEFFI GRAF: I do. I mean, I like New York, obviously. If you like a place, I think you just -- I mean, this tournament is part of New York. I mean, I just like it a lot. That is why -- I always wanted to have an apartment here, just, I mean, it always makes it more comfortable for me staying in the City; having your own place and not having to stay in a hotel.

STEFFI GRAF: Not enough, but hopefully some day I have more time.

STEFFI GRAF: I wish. But it is difficult to -- actually didn't have a very good time this year here in New York, because I had a lot of photographers sitting outside my apartment, and they have been following me everywhere I was going. So, tell you the truth, I didn't have a very good time.

STEFFI GRAF: Actually, this feels very special, because I haven't played very well the last, I think, four, five years here in New York. I never played well here during this Open for a while and I haven't really played too well during the Virginia Slims Masters. So I think that is what it feels good to-- you know, it has been strange, because I like it here and still I haven't played very well. That is very unusual for me. That is why it feels good to stay.

STEFFI GRAF: No, because there are always other circumstances, and okay, the first Wimbledon stands out of every tournament, obviously. But after that, winning a Grand Slam, that is every time a great, great feeling.

STEFFI GRAF: Probably I have tried, yeah. I think probably.

STEFFI GRAF: I don't know. It is just -- I just said what I felt at this moment. If I look back at the tournament that is how I felt about it, in a way -- probably in a way I was trying to get to her.

STEFFI GRAF: I have tried several times. I haven't tried, though, the last two weeks, because -- whatever why. Whatever reason why.

STEFFI GRAF: Whenever I have to do a speech, I am just really -- I don't know why even if people tell me, you have done it hundreds of times, still it is always, you feel like you want to say something special to the people out there, because you feel special at that moment and you want to try to give something back. I was -- I always try too hard, in a way. But --

STEFFI GRAF: It needs the best players in the game and that is it. That is all there is.

STEFFI GRAF: No. No, probably that is how I am, in a way. I never feel I am above everybody else or I am better than everybody else. I don't feel that way even if I keep winning; it is the way I am doing lately. But I don't recognize myself like that.

STEFFI GRAF: They are not. They are not Americans. They are Germans.

STEFFI GRAF: I don't know.

STEFFI GRAF: Yeah, I really think so. That is what I have been saying the past few days that. That is one department I think I improved probably the most. That is what I worked with, Heinz, brought me the most. It is just when I -- when I start hitting it freely, that everything just comes together. That is what happened today. That is what I have been training for to be able to play these passing shots.

STEFFI GRAF: This place---

STEFFI GRAF: Well, I think it also has to do where I am staying. It is a really special building. My apartment itself is a -- I stepped into it. I said if I can get this place, I really want to try very hard and it is also the area that it is in. It doesn't feel like it is a really big, big city. It is just a small-different area where they have little shops, little galleries. It is nice just to go out and go into a restaurant and, I don't know for what reason, why everybody so surprised why it is New York.

STEFFI GRAF: Oh, come on.

STEFFI GRAF: I don't know why. I really don't know why.

STEFFI GRAF: Certain times I do. Sometimes I don't. I mean, it always changes. I think I am a better player than I have been in any stage right now. I think I play the points a lot better and overall, even if I had days like yesterday where I haven't really been playing well, still, I find the way to get back into it. There are times when I haven't been able to do that.

STEFFI GRAF: Well, the only call that I would criticize would have been the serve because I myself thought it was out, and but then again the next game she served, there was a serve that I felt was out. You know, that always happens. But I don't know if she thinks there were so many bad calls. I didn't think so.

STEFFI GRAF: There was a serve. It is difficult from the other side to judge a serve, but I felt it was out.

STEFFI GRAF: Yeah, I asked the umpire about it.

STEFFI GRAF: I am not going to tell you my secrets.

STEFFI GRAF: I think it is really a big part of it, actually. That is what I have just been saying, I mean, I feel more confident right now. That is why I feel even when I am not playing my best tennis I still feel there is a way back into it and that is just being confident about yourself. That is a very big part of the game being confident; being able to play better shots when it counts, to just believe in yourself. It's a long two questions.

RICHARD FINN: Can't control them.

STEFFI GRAF: Because I am still interested in the game. I mean, I still -- I still have a lot of fire in me. I still like to -- not every day, but most of the days, I like to go out there and try to improve and try to go further than I have and that is why it keeps me going.