NEWSWEEK CHAMPIONS CUP

March 13, 1997

Thomas Muster

THOMAS MUSTER: Nothing. You guys call me claycourt specialist.

THOMAS MUSTER: Let me ask you a question, who is a serve and volleyer and a baseliner, in your opinion?

THOMAS MUSTER: But Goran as an example has never really done well here. Sampras has, but he's not only a serve and volley player. He's more aggressive. He's an all-around player, as he's proven many times. The rest I think is just kind of an all-around game. When you can serve and have good groundstrokes, more or less sometimes better serve, sometimes better groundstrokes. That's just limited by the surface and the speed of the balls. We're playing outdoors, not indoors on carpet. That's just the reality.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, it's very dry air here. The resistance -- the friction is usually more, more moisture in the air. That's certainly an issue here. In that case, if you say somebody has a good serve, it should be an advantage because you can serve harder. That would make it up, more or less. I don't have a problem. It's a really high bounce, which maybe is good for topspin, because the ball takes off after it bounce. There's not much of a difference.

THOMAS MUSTER: Got to say something.

THOMAS MUSTER: That can happen anytime, any round, any tournament. Last year I lost as No. 1 player in the world, and everybody was complaining that I'm not a good player. Sampras lost, this year he's the No. 1, so what? He's not a good player? I don't hear anybody this year, so. I haven't heard any comments this year of Agassi or anything, so. Pretty quiet, boring.

THOMAS MUSTER: It could be, but it could be Philippoussis/Chang, it could be whatever. I don't want to make any comments now who is going to be in the semifinals or finals at this tournament. We've seen many upsets, a lot of strange matches. I'm concentrating on my next match. We'll see.

THOMAS MUSTER: Both are very interesting matches, because Philippoussis I played once in Munich on clay and I won. He's on the run, he's serving big, certainly very confident. So is Moya. Already Philippoussis/Moya is an interesting match. Playing Moya as a young, upcoming player, doing well this year, especially in Australia, I think it will be very interesting, too. Either match is a good challenge for me.

THOMAS MUSTER: I say it every time I've been asked about it, people didn't realize two, three years ago that I'm playing well on that stuff, I just can't play enough on it because my body doesn't allow it, then either you don't understand tennis or you're blind. It's not my best surface. I've won more tournaments on clay, that's a reality. I think even Cliff Drysdale doesn't realized when he introduced my seven tournaments that I won Essen like two years ago. Once it's in your head, it's tough to get out.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, it depends. It's my fourth tournament this year, and we are March already. It's the least tournaments I've played since I'm a professional up till March. It's worked for me taking breaks in between, giving my body rest. So far my results this year were pretty good. There's no sign of burn out or injuries. That's good.

THOMAS MUSTER: I'm not bothered. It's just everybody -- I think every human being wants respect. That's one thing. I think I'm respected, some people might be jealous. That's one thing. It's just everybody keeps asking me the question. I'm sick of it. I'm just trying to make my point and say if you don't realize or people don't realize that I've been playing well on the stuff for years, even back in '89, then they might have a problem with understanding tennis and technical parts of tennis. It's true that I improved it in the last years because I've paid more attention to it.

THOMAS MUSTER: Excuse me?

THOMAS MUSTER: Not at all. I knew I could play on it, maybe my best surface without an injury in '89. There's no reason for me to mentally go on hardcourt and say, "I can't play on it." If you play 100 matches a year on clay and 10 on hardcourt, that's just so uneven all over the years, you play so many more matches on clay than hardcourt, your success will not be the same. Nobody ever talks about Agassi being a hardcourt specialist. Since the French Open many, many years ago, he hasn't done much on clay. That's the reality. Some players play well on clay, some better on hardcourt, whatever they feel better to play on. That's where they going to have the best results. That's very easy.

THOMAS MUSTER: Change them every night (laughter). No, not much. Try to stretch well, just try to keep the muscles loose, just take rest, try to recover for the next match as good as possible.

THOMAS MUSTER: I'm the wrong person to ask.

THOMAS MUSTER: I'm seriously the wrong person to ask.

THOMAS MUSTER: It's not that I dislike him. I respect him. I'm the wrong person to ask. You better ask himself what he thinks about himself. That must be the probable question.

THOMAS MUSTER: Is he retiring (laughter)?

THOMAS MUSTER: Sure, he can win it, yeah. He could win any tournament at any time, if he wants to.

THOMAS MUSTER: That's what I'm saying, ask him those questions.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, Spain (laughter).

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, it's very strange. It's like young players coming and coming. Probably had a very heterosexual life producing more and more players every year. I think they do a good job as a federation. They have I don't know how many claycourts. They have feelings and techniques how to start on clay. That's why they're very good. They always had good claycourters from generations back. They're realizing they can play well on faster surfaces. That's not the only game, clay. You have to play well, if you want to be in the top, you have to play on at least two surfaces. They're really good.

THOMAS MUSTER: All of them, Alberto Costa, Moya, Bruguera, don't forget him. There's so many. There's like 10, 15 guys. They really have the ability to win a claycourt tournament at any time.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, it's just the people since years tried to -- I don't know why it is, maybe only clay, but I have the feeling every time I come to the States, it's not media, but sort -- respect is maybe not the right word. They probably always underestimated my game. When they look at the match, in America, everything which is fast, which is loved, hot, cold, it's great. If it's just a solid game, it's not a hundred percent, you have to serve two million aces or serve two million double-faults, it's great. You have to do something extreme. I'm not that way.

THOMAS MUSTER: Maybe, yeah. Maybe.

THOMAS MUSTER: I don't know. Maybe I have to have five earrings.

THOMAS MUSTER: Jesus, I don't know. Maybe a player close to retirement. I don't know. It's very difficult because tennis is so complex. You need speed, you need power, you need to have a feeling for the game, all kind of things. It's very hard. If I could, I would probably take the quickness of Chang, Sampras' serve. I don't know. I would probably keep my forehand.

THOMAS MUSTER: Probably McEnroe's game because he used to anticipate very well what's happening on the court. Even Sampras does, good anticipation of what's going on. It's very difficult who to pick.

THOMAS MUSTER: I'm not sure I if I should take a two-hander or one-hander. I don't know. I like my backhand actually. It's not that bad. From the groundstrokes, I can't really complain. I probably would take Rosewall's volley.

THOMAS MUSTER: You don't have to excuse yourself.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, it's something you can't really learn. It's not in the books. If you look at most of the strokes this year on the court, you can't compare it with what you see in the books. It's like in all other sports, the extremes are going to be different than what you learn on the court. My forehand, they always said it was carried out of the woods, so.

THOMAS MUSTER: Over the years, it's something I always tried to improve. Even if I was a kid, I tried to get it better, more accurate, more spin, wanted to make it stronger.

THOMAS MUSTER: It's bet getting better.