WIMBLEDON

June 24, 2002

Richard Krajicek

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: Yeah, very good. I'm very happy. Yeah, like three or four weeks ago, my arm was still bothering me and I was really -- I didn't believe I was going to play Wimbledon this year. And, yeah, I was maybe even doubting when I was going to play, if I ever was going to be good. Suddenly, about two weeks ago, it improved very quickly and I could play Rosmalen. To come out here, play, and even win my first match, I think I had a pretty good draw though. But still it's nice to be here and also be on the winning side little bit of the draw one time.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: No, not yet. It takes normally about two hours to stiffen up. So normally I know little bit if I get a few problems, but during the whole match there were no problems. And I don't expect anything. So it was good.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: No, I don't think I've ever played there. I've played on Court 2, 4, 5, a lot of courts, but not this one. I forgot how small the outside courts are actually. Not that I always play on centre court, but I played on Aorangi, even the courts are better.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: I don't know. 100 percent about, almost the same (smiling). I have no idea. There's a lot of, yeah, a lot of holes in my game. I mean, my serve is not consistent. I mean, not only the percentage is not good, but sometimes I mis-hit it a little bit. I am still struggling with my rhythm. I think beginning of the match, I returned okay, then slowly my return game and whole baseline game went little bit downhill and I wasn't able to pick it up. Normally when you're playing well, you can have little bit of lesser moments during the match but you pick it up. I think, I don't know, 50 percent maybe. I have no idea. It's tough to say. But I'm just happy to be back, and I'm happy that I had a few aces again, so I know how that feels.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: I know for sure I missed one volley, but I missed one very easy volley at the net. But don't believe everything the press says (laughter).

RICHARD KRAJICEK: I didn't miss much. No, that was pretty -- pretty solid. The quality wasn't maybe always great, but I gave a chance of a second shot. But I have to -- you have to improve gradually, of course, and I think it's always good to not to make too many mistakes and from there you can work your way up with the quality of play.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: Well, there were two bad moments. One was last year in November, it was a couple weeks before in October. I was practicing pretty high level already, percentage-wise, I don't know, like 80, 90 percent already match level. Then start to bother me a little more. Then I was practicing and hit a volley behind me. Then I had acute pain in the elbow again and it was like a little bit of blood that showed on the MRI. Yeah, and then I have to take three months complete rest. I wasn't allowed to touch a racquet, nothing. So that was a pretty tough moment. And actually recently, I mean like three, four weeks ago, or like five weeks ago, I was preparing for St. Polten. Until like five days before the tournament for St. Polten, I was playing sets for like two or three weeks basically at 100 percent, really ready to play a tournament. And suddenly it start to bother me again. Then it went very quick from little bit of strange feeling, it went downhill very quick, to the point that I could only play half an hour maybe. And it was really bothering me again. That was the moment, yeah, I start talking to my coach like, "Okay, we have to set the D-Day now, when are we going to make a decision, not only for Wimbledon, but also for, yeah, for my career and also for my -- for our cooperation together." So, yeah, those were two dark moments. I mean, last year because it was an acute pain, it was like what happened, and I take a rest. Now a couple weeks ago because it was like 18 months already I was rehab, and I just almost got there. And then, again, I had a letdown. And, yeah, that is difficult. Difficult to motivate you to do, yeah, to go out there and to really be focused on your sport. And that's also the reason why I'm not in the best shapes at the moment. The other times when I was almost coming back, I was really in tip-top shape. Now I was about more than a week ago about four kilos overweight. I lost already two. But when there's no sight of playing a tournament, I find it very hard to work hard on the other things, to keep working physically, keep watching the food, keep doing everything, keep staying positive. I mean, training for the last 20 months that I played, I didn't play all the time because I had the surgery, but if I was practicing I was only counting serves. That's the only thing I did. Play an hour today, 70 serves at about 70 percent, oh, I felt that. Next day we play 60 serves at 60 percent. It just drives you crazy. So those were dark moments, and you really wonder why you -- why you, yeah, why you do it. And especially actually last, yeah, couple of -- last five, six weeks ago. That was probably the toughest moment.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Even last week when I came on court was very nice. The Dutch fans yeah, didn't always have the greatest relationship with the Dutch fans. But they were very, very good. I came on court, standing ovation. Gave me a good feeling. I think they did it because they were happy to see me. But I also interpret it as a way of, yeah, a form of respect that I hung in there so long for like 20 months, and, yeah, that was a good feeling. So that was already big, yeah, push for me and a big reason for me why to come back also. I mean, it's great. Yeah, it's good to come back and to be in the arena again.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: Well, maybe it's like wine, you know, you have good and bad years. Maybe we have physically a bad year somehow, '71. But I think -- I think it's, yeah, wear and tear. Bruguera, I don't know. But Sampras, Ivanisevic and myself, we're big servers. And, yeah, it's tough, you know, to serve all the time. It's tough on your body and in a way, I think if you measure all the forces that are on your shoulder only, I think it's per square centimeter, it's an enormous amount of kilograms, I don't know, 1,000 or something. It's amazing that it holds -- your shoulder or elbow, whatever, holds together for so long. So I think it's normal. It's more not normal that it stays good so long. That's maybe how you should look at it. But, yeah, we're all getting older. It's a shame. You keep on playing. What I notice now, okay, at my elbow, but the rest of my body is actually pretty good. Because for 20 months I didn't do so much, so the body was able to recuperate. So that my knees and, yeah, my -- I had some heel problems also in the past, and it's all gone. So for the rest of the body, you really notice that playing year in, year out, plus the age, it's difficult.