U.S. OPEN

September 7, 1994

Thomas Muster

THOMAS MUSTER: That's no excuse, as I said, because Andre was winning the first set, and it probably could have changed the whole match, but he risk a few times in the tiebreaker, and he got ahead of me, and then he hardly missed the ball. I mean, he just really was controlling the court inside the baseline and, I was more or less running. So, at the end, I gave him a little trouble just pushing with my left foot, and I had to slow down a little, but there's no -- he was going to get to it.

THOMAS MUSTER: You know, that's not why I lost the match. But, I mean, if the ball is that far in, even if it's 5-3, or Deuce, whatever it is, it's just -- I mean, I can't look at it because it's just so bad. It's bad if you get a call when the ball is that far out, like at the end, it is a slow ball and the guy is sleeping at the baseline, and that's frustrating, but it's just, just asking myself, how can you miss shots like that, that's it. This why I gave it to him. We're good friends, and I don't think I should steal a ball like that. He was obviously playing better today. It is not a question of one shot.

THOMAS MUSTER: What's that?

THOMAS MUSTER: That's not the reason. If we play on clay, I could get most of his balls back. I could slide, and it wouldn't be too hard on my legs, but now you have to run even more, and it's much harder for me to run on hardcourt than it is on clay. And he definitely controlled the court inside. And on hardcourt it is a lot of difference, and once you have two sets to Love and a break, the more he got confident, the better he played. You saw in the first set, he didn't volley once-- he had respect and the way he was playing-- beginning, he missed a couple shots and second and third I just missed a shot.

THOMAS MUSTER: He raised his game, definitely. He broke me right in the first game on-- I had a couple chances to break back to 1-All, but, I never really had the feeling I could get on top of him, at the beginning I was, but, I had 4-2 and I really got a bad call there, in that game which was very important, and then the whole game changed. You know, probably, but the first set you never know.

THOMAS MUSTER: Definitely, like the way he played today was running me all over the court, and, I mean, I was waiting for him to miss a couple of shots and he didn't, so what I had to do, I had to raise the speed and, of course, I made some more mistakes, but I had to go for full power shot because just to come in, he's passing too often and he's preparing the shot too well. So for me, I had one chance to raise my game from the baseline, but the harder I played, the faster the ball came back, because you're just staying so far inside the court and controlling it. So, that was the only chance-- was when we played cross court forehand and backhand cross court that I hit a good forehand shot down the line, but that's too much risk.

THOMAS MUSTER: No. I had an awful time in Cincinnati and Indianapolis. I played-- lost twice in the first round, so I'm pretty happy with the quarter final. But it's disappointing to lose in straight sets like that, but, still, I mean I think that Andre has a great chance to win this championships and it's the best I have seen him play since a long time and if he's on and he's playing well-- you could see, he can win Wimbledon from the baseline, he can win the Masters, it doesn't mean -- the speed doesn't mean much.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, he played better, it's difficult, you know, what can I do? I can run and run and run, but just one point, I can't run. I can't run down every point. So I just played more inside, he played harder than me. Everything he did he did better. What can I do? I can call him names, but that's not the meaning of being in tennis. You know.

THOMAS MUSTER: How he would?

THOMAS MUSTER: That has no meaning, big, flat serve. He has the best return in the game probably, or one of the best returns, so he will just block it back if Todd-- if Todd doesn't really volley well, he's going to be dead, because Andre is passing too well, returning too well. So he really has to serve great, to stay in the game there. And the question is how long can he last at that pace from the baseline. Andre's serve-- so he has to risk it to play a perfect game.

THOMAS MUSTER: No, not really. I just said "Good luck and feel better today" and he said, "Thanks very much."

THOMAS MUSTER: No, but that's -- I would say that's normal. It's no need for him to say anything because that's just the way it is. And I don't know if he would give a point like this to me and I don't care. That's just the way I feel about it and that's it. There's no question if he would ever give me a point or not.

THOMAS MUSTER: I've done it a few times. It's just -- I mean, today was against Andre in front of 22,000 people. I've done it a few times. But, sometimes you lose matches and sometimes you win it. But it is not because of one point like that. Even sometimes it's deciding -- that's the way I feel.

THOMAS MUSTER: What's that?

THOMAS MUSTER: After this?

THOMAS MUSTER: I don't know. Probably tomorrow I can jump around. Shouldn't be too bad.