MONTE CARLO OPEN

April 22, 1997

Thomas Muster

Q. What is your feeling about this game?

THOMAS MUSTER: I lost. That's my feeling. I think he played a good match; was fighting for every point. The chances I had, I didn't take. Set point in the second set, had many opportunities. He took his ones and he played a good tiebreak.

THOMAS MUSTER: As I said many times, it doesn't mean because I've won a lot on clay the last two years, hardly lost a match, that things like this can't happen. It's just that people maybe think logically I would probably lose less matches on clay than I lose on hardcourts, which was just the opposite this year. I always said, the ranking is based on the best of 14 system. Wherever you make your points during the year doesn't matter, as long as you make them. I lost last week and this week, but there's still four weeks to go until the French. There's a lot of things I still can improve. It's not that I'm playing bad. It's that I'm not using my chances as I used to do. Sometimes that happens.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, I've played maybe less tournaments in years before, but I played more matches. Maybe up till now, it would probably be even. I play better on hardcourts. The last results on clay were not what I expected, a bit disappointing. But, as I said, I'm just looking forward to the next tournament which gives another opportunity. Physically, I'm quite all right. As I said, I'm not using my chances. I will improve in the next few weeks, I think.

THOMAS MUSTER: It certainly is, because I think it's one of the nicest tournaments in the world. I said many times that every time you go on that center court, it's a special feeling. Living here for more than ten years, being successful here in the last ten years, I played quite good tennis here. It's a bit disappointing. It's just what happens sometimes. Somebody else will win this year.

THOMAS MUSTER: It's just the way I lost it. I didn't think I played that badly. Every time I had the point set up, I sort of missed it. I think going into the third set would have given me a great opportunity to win this match. The breakpoint, double-fault, even serving the game at 5-4, unforced errors there. As I said, it's not as bad that I'm saying I'm not confident and not playing well, just that a few things aren't working the way I wanted. I am playing about 60 to 70 percent of my normal capacity. That's not enough. If somebody is playing well - which most of the guys do today - it's not enough.

THOMAS MUSTER: Didn't grow probably, that's definitely true. I don't think much. He's running very well. I think he has a good dropshot. I mean, he's moving great, as I said. Just trying to wait for the mistake of the others. He played some great serve and volley game today. He's a pretty complete player, but mostly I think he's waiting for the mistake, counterpunching.

THOMAS MUSTER: You can say whatever you want. Maybe, I don't know. Put me as a hardcourt player, I don't know. Maybe I'm not supposed to win on clay. I just played a good hardcourt season at the beginning of the year. Just happened that in two and a half years, I lost my fourth claycourt match. It's really disappointing.

THOMAS MUSTER: At that stage, I just take a couple days off, have enough time to prepare for Hamburg, which is a different situation anyway. It's going to be way colder; conditions are going to be different than here. As I said, it's not a question of my game. It's just a mental question, a barrier I have to break sometime, and I'll be all right again. As I said, it's not my goal to win every single claycourt match I play. The French Open is something I'm looking forward to. The last years I played incredibly well up to the French Open. So far this year, I didn't. As I said, there's still, I think, five weeks left to go till the French. That's plenty of time.