NEWSWEEK CHAMPIONS CUP

March 13, 1998

Thomas Muster

MIKI SINGH: Second consecutive year for Thomas Muster in the semifinals. Three-set win today over Andrei Medvedev. First question for Thomas.

THOMAS MUSTER: I don't know if I pulled a muscle. We -- I haven't got the treatment yet. We'll see. Might be either a soreness problem, hip flexor. We don't know yet. But it happened in the first set. I can't tell anything until I've seen the doctor and got treatment. We'll see tomorrow.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, it was painful enough not to play a hundred percent; not painful enough to quit. Sort of in between. Got on-court treatment, took some pain killers which kicked in 20, 25 minutes after I took them. Made me play all right for the end of the third set, actually. Maybe the adrenaline, just the chance to win it, you know, kept me going. All I tried to do is just play a steady game from the back, not to miss, let Andrei do the work, finish the match, make every shot.

THOMAS MUSTER: Physically, I mean, in terms of fitness, it's not a problem at all. I mean, I could have played, physical-wise, another two or three sets. That doesn't matter to me. The problem was the injury. When you just play sort of 70 percent on one leg, it's always difficult. You're not as flexible moving around the court. When I broke in the third set, I -- it took all the power I had in the world, the last game, to run the ball down, take the pain. It was good.

THOMAS MUSTER: I don't know. I can't tell. I'll see tomorrow after the warm-up. I don't know if I can play tomorrow or not. I don't know.

THOMAS MUSTER: I don't know. You mean, by looking (laughter)? I can't tell. I just know who I don't like to play, that's myself. No, I don't know. I don't have a favorite player to play against. I don't know.

THOMAS MUSTER: Yeah. I have a chain I always have with me when I play.

THOMAS MUSTER: I'm not wearing it, but I always have it in my bag.

THOMAS MUSTER: Just happened tonight.

THOMAS MUSTER: I don't know. It's that kind of thing, you don't know. You can't really play a hundred percent, your opponent keeps missing shots, playing the wrong tactics. I just tried to play as good as I could under the circumstances. That's all I did. I tried to, you know, place the ball well. I didn't have pain when I served, so I could serve all right and prepare the shots. That was it. In the second set, I just tried to get a break somehow, I don't know how. Then a fairly easy one, the second set. Third set, I was down 3-Love. Hadn't got myself really a chance. But then 3-1, I broke back. Suddenly, I'm in the match again. I just stayed with him as long as I could. I don't know, maybe it bothered him because I was injured or not. Sometimes it's very difficult, you know, to finish a match, when you think someone is badly injured, and still the balls keep coming back. That's what I said to myself. I knew that I wasn't a hundred percent, but still I tried to make him, you know, do the shots. He has to finish me, finish me off, injured or not. He couldn't do it.