ATP TOUR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

November 16, 1993

Andrei Medvedev

ANDREI MEDVEDEV: A little bit nervous. Bothered me the whole match.

ANDREI MEDVEDEV: A lot. Because since indoors is not my favorite surface, it was being in such a big tournament is very-- for me, it was a dream to get here and to play. First match, obviously I was a little bit too nervous, I would say. I couldn't -- I was fighting a lot with myself, and I couldn't concentrate on the fight against Michael. It is difficult, but now I know what it is, so hopefully next round will be better. I hope so.

ANDREI MEDVEDEV: Yeah, normally, especially indoors, you have to be more aggressive. Especially I have to be more aggressive because lately I think I have more chances than before to win the point at the net. I was a little bit, you know, too scared or something, to go to the net. And to take the approach. I was not very confident in my, you know, to hit the ball. And, you know, as I said, it bothered me so much that I couldn't really concentrate in the game.

ANDREI MEDVEDEV: No. I was a little bit more confident. I needed that break. I needed to break Michael. But he played a good game. He served well. Then he played a good volley on that breakpoint, and, you know, what can you say? He served really good today. Even it wasn't a great match, but I think he was better than I am today.

ANDREI MEDVEDEV: I would actually prefer to play Michael Chang in the first round, because I knew that I will be nervous in the first round, and with Michael at least you have -- with the other Michael, I would at least have a chance to get the rhythm of the match, because he is playing more baseline, and you can hit your strokes and maybe get the rhythm of the game and finally, you know, take off and play your game. But with Stich it was a little bit different. His game is different, and even he is favorite in our group, but I would prefer to play Michael Chang in the first round than Stich. But since the draw is made this way, I had to fight with it, and today I wasn't successful, so -- but I have two more matches left, and I will try to take a lesson from this one.

ANDREI MEDVEDEV: Probably, yeah. On the professional opinion, it wouldn't be boring, because then I would see somebody nervous, and I would already know what it is even to look on the TV. But for the spectator, I would sleep, probably.

ANDREI MEDVEDEV: This court is just fantastic. It is -- I would say it is one of the best, even the best indoor court that I played so far, because it feels very good. It is not very big and it is not small. It is just the right size. The lights are good. And the court, the stadium itself, is made in a way that I feel great. I feel very comfortable. The only thing, again, it is a shame that I played this way, like I played today, but it wasn't because the court was fast or the balls were bad. It was inside myself. And, as I said, the court is great and, you know, I really look forward to playing another two matches.

ANDREI MEDVEDEV: It is great. The court is hard. I mean, it is not soft like in Bercy. And it is pretty slow. I mean, the ball bounces high and you really can play baseline, if you have legs, if you can move. But you also can play serve and volley, so I would say it is a universal.

ANDREI MEDVEDEV: What is that?

ANDREI MEDVEDEV: Were you sleeping?

ANDREI MEDVEDEV: I said I like the surface very much.

ANDREI MEDVEDEV: I mean it feels good. I don't know, maybe I get used to indoors so far because I played so many tournaments indoors this year, but this court is really great and atmosphere is very nice.

ANDREI MEDVEDEV: No, it wasn't surprise. I mean, everyone here, I guess, can beat anybody. If you watch the match, you probably could see that Michael played very good match, very strong. And especially on the key points, he was concentrated so much that Jim had not so many chances to come back in the second set and even in the first set. But you know, it was one match and if he continues to play like this, if Chang continues to play like this, he has the chance to win the whole tournament. But we will see. There are other good players, other very good players, and you know, it is tennis, it is a sport. You never know what is going to happen.

ANDREI MEDVEDEV: Medvedev. In English it is Medvedev. In Russian, you wouldn't be able to pronounce it.

ANDREI MEDVEDEV: No, I wouldn't tell you because it is a wasting of time. So it is better not to tell, because then if you try, it hurts me. Believe me, you have no chance to pronounce it. Trust me on my word.

ANDREI MEDVEDEV: It is even better. I would like every tournament to have a singles line because when you play with the doubles lines, it seems to be that the net is a little bit longer and you have more room for the court and sometimes I miss it, because it is much nicer to play on the singles court, much nicer, really. I don't know how it would feel on the clay, but indoors it is very good. It is really good, I like it very much.