NEWSWEEK CHAMPIONS CUP

JOE LYNCH: Thomas Muster repaying Adrian Voinea for A second round loss last year; moves into the third round as No. 2 player in the world and No. 2 seed here. And, won the hard court title at Dubai four weeks ago. Playing his first tournament since then. First question, please.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, it is difficult to say because it is a different match; different conditions than last year. Last year came from Mexico, just a couple days to change over to hard courts and I am feeling quite confident the way I played and I have been serving good which was a key today to win this match.

THOMAS MUSTER: No, I have done the same thing between the other tournaments: I haven't hit the ball since when I was down there and the same I didn't for Dubai, I didn't play one shot; same I did before the Australian Open. I just had quite a lot of resting periods and that is what I wanted at the beginning of the year. And -- which makes me more sharp and concentrated when I play those tournaments. And, it has been working quite well so far this year. And, as you can see, it is my fourth tournament and I have never played less tournaments than this year up 'til March.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, I started playing with my new racket at the World Championships where I had this improvement already. But, as I got a better timing now and my confidence is growing with that Kneissel racket, which is an inch longer than my old Kneissel racket and it gives me just a little more speed which could be the reason for better serving. But, I think the whole game, I am playing this year is quite good on hard court the way I perform.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, it's a Kneissel racket. It is the one I used last year, just as I said an inch longer now and it is a very stiff racket, always play with stiff rackets. It is very good.

THOMAS MUSTER: I started three days before the World Championship. We just got it produced and I played with a prototype racket. I had only three rackets for the World Championships. But, I liked it from the beginning on and we have been testing it about 6-7 months. What I like about the racket is that it is very stiff and has a good racket head speed and performs very well in serving; especially groundstrokes, top spins, that is what I like.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, that is what it takes at the beginning. You have to move a bit further and it is a bit of adjustment on your footwork, but that is the problem. I had it at the World Championship, as I said, since I have been playing few months with it, I am quite confident.

THOMAS MUSTER: Just do what I did last year except winning. Didn't do anything wrong. I won all the tournaments. I did win in 1995, except, as I said, the French Open which I had not a great day. Michael Stich had a great tournament. So, he was in the finals. And, obviously, was in good form at that stage.

THOMAS MUSTER: I don't think that was much of a reason. Definitely it was faster than the years before, but that wouldn't -- I mean, all the chances I had against Stich, I could have won three matches with all those chances. There is no excuse for losing, but I am quite well up to this stage. And, I am playing well. So we will see what is going on with the clay court season. There is no guarantee for winning all these events again. I have made up a lot of points already which takes away the pressure from the clay court season. And, I don't care what is going to happen there unless -- as I said, my goal is the French Open. I want to play well there. Winning all these events again before or not doesn't matter.

THOMAS MUSTER: You just -- one thing is for sure you cannot win it with a serve only. Doesn't matter which conditions you are facing. You have got to play in it and you have seen in the last years that big servers got very far. But, obviously, the better groundstroke players or the more complete players that win it. And as Courier showed, as Bruguera showed, Kafelnikov last year showed, it is definitely different to the other Slams.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, if I play 100%, I think I prove that I can win it and I still can win it. That is for sure. But we have to face it that well, we are going on to Europe; we have -- I don't know -- 15 great Spanish clay court players and if you play a tournament in Europe, I don't know, I played probably the last two years, it is like 50 to 2 against Spanish players or something. But, they are getting tougher and tougher and you beat one or two guys, which always takes a lot of strength to beat them, there is going to be a third one or fourth one to beat. And it is going to be tougher and tougher every year. And, you get other players, except the Spanish, which are good clay court players too - there is no guarantee. Obviously, I played two great court seasons which is 100% almost. And, you cannot do it every year. That is what I said. There is no guarantee. I am very happy the way I started off the season, which takes pressure away really from the first two, three clay court events.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, I always played well on hard court. As I said many times, I didn't have the ability by my health to play more. And, I showed many, many times that I can play well on this surface, and also I think other players start realizing that you just can't be the top-10s with only playing on clay court because you just don't have enough clay court tournaments. And, that is why all the Spanish players have to go and play on hard court and move in and get better and raise the qualities on other surfaces. That is what they did. And that is why they are dangerous players.

THOMAS MUSTER: The evaluation of the clay court tournaments went down. And, as I said, they are not enough to be in the top unless you win every single tournament on clay, even that doesn't put you in the top-5. So you have to win a tournament like I did win one Super 9 in Essen, otherwise, I would have never been No. 1 last year without winning that tournament at the end of 1995. So, you have to do well on other surfaces. And that is what I tried to do and that is why I always was a bit disappointed when people said I just played on clay and just the No. 1 clay court player. But I don't agree with that because I think I have won enough on other surfaces maybe except on grass, and that is just it. I think it was not really fair to even to say to all these other Spanish that they are clay court specialists because they are not.

THOMAS MUSTER: 30.

THOMAS MUSTER: I don't think I am the fittest guy. I think I am one of the most competitive, which is a slightly different thing. It is close together, but it is still different. I think there are probably 30 guys out there that probably have the they have the same ability in physical strengths than I have. It is just the question to use it at the right time. And, I think when you get older it is a question of recovering. And, as I said, I am not -- didn't play as many tournaments as I did the years before and I took more time to rest and to give my body a chance to recover. And, play tournaments only when I feel I am at 100%. That is what I am doing. And it helped me a lot because the danger when you play a lot is to burn-out is there. And, especially when you are turning into 30 and you are over 30.

THOMAS MUSTER: No, I think I played -- the last three years I played the best tennis of my life and I still do. So I just -- I think there is no reason for me to think about my age because as long as I am competitive and as long as I can win matches on the top level, there is no reason for me to stop doing what I am doing and that is what I enjoy. And if I see no more chance to move on in practice that means I cannot prepare as good as I would like to for the tournaments; then it is time to stop because if you can't fulfill your commitment on the practice court anymore, you cannot play matches and that is the time you should stop. But, I think I still can make my time, my practice time up everyday and when I get up in the morning, I still feel okay.

THOMAS MUSTER: It is not sure yet. But maybe Estoril is still in my mind. But, maybe I am starting Barcelona, but it is pretty similar at the end of the year, it will be almost the same amount of tournaments. Just that the spring will be quite open.

THOMAS MUSTER: It is pretty much up to tournaments now and to the Davis Cup because it is quite tough now playing here and Key Biscayne then Davis Cup against Croatia and Estoril, Barcelona, Monte Carlo, Hamburg, Rome, Paris, that is like every week, so you have to take into consideration that it might not be smart to play all the events.