U.S. OPEN

September 2, 1993

Stefan Edberg

STEFAN EDBERG: I lost.

STEFAN EDBERG: I mean, it is one of these days where Karel played a good match. He played very solid, and I -- I was struggling a little bit today with the timing. But I wasn't feeling bad at all coming in here. I have been hitting the ball pretty well, but didn't really generate any power today for some reason, and he played it good when he needed to. It is-- last point I hit a great volley. He served a flat lob and it was good.

STEFAN EDBERG: Yeah, missed a lot of easy shots. It wasn't just the forehand. I think it was the timing that was a little off today. If you are not there, I was pushing the ball instead of hitting it and the ball was flying a bit on me and I was a little bit tentative. That was the problem today, otherwise I did what I could, I was fighting. It wasn't enough. I mean, I thought I had a good chance coming back winning this match, but it is -- it just ended very quickly.

STEFAN EDBERG: Well, the court played very slow today. It was sort of heavy conditions, but it was pretty much the same right from the beginning. There was wind from the beginning, so it was good tennis conditions, no doubt about that.

STEFAN EDBERG: Yeah, it is sad because obviously you know, I had a reasonable draw this tournament and I have been playing reasonably well, and once I get going, I probably would be pretty tough to beat here. But well, you can't bring it back now. I did what I could, and there is nothing else really to it. It has been a great place to me, the last two years. I have a lot of great memories, and even today, you know, I felt like I was fighting out there. Suddenly, within five minutes the match was over. Very quick ending to it.

STEFAN EDBERG: Maybe. I mean, the way I look at it, there is always going to be upsets in Grand Slams. There has been, maybe more than normally this week and I haven't given too much thought about it because I am sort of looking after myself. So I don't know, maybe the lower ranked player thinks they got a chance, but Karel, he is a good player. There is no doubt about that.

STEFAN EDBERG: Yeah, it happened before, so what can you do. You gain them back another time. So that is the way it goes.

STEFAN EDBERG: Obviously there is a lot of depth. It has been pretty tough playing conditions here. A lot of things can happen when the weather has been really hot like when it was hot yesterday. It is really difficult to produce your best tennis when it is 90 degrees and very high humidity. A lot of players are going to suffer under those conditions, and it varies so much today, it is a cool day and tomorrow maybe we are back to 90s again. But that is what the U.S. Open is all about.

STEFAN EDBERG: I doubt it. Maybe.

STEFAN EDBERG: Yeah, like I said, I thought I had a good chance coming back because okay, I got-- third set and I got off to a good start in the fourth, but I lost my serve immediately which was a bad thing; then I came back from 4-2 and it was sort of going my way for a while where I really-- I played some good points where I needed to. He just put in -- within five minutes the match was over.

STEFAN EDBERG: Yeah, I had my chance at 4-All and I missed some easy shots. Had a couple of breakpoints and I didn't do anything with it. And then he just hit two great returns to get up Love-30. Missed an easy volley Love-40 and then like won the next two points. I hit a really good volley at 30-40 and he just hit a lob which nobody can take.

STEFAN EDBERG: I didn't really return very well today. On the other hand Karel was serving pretty big. He was hitting a lot of -- especially first serves, close to the lines.

STEFAN EDBERG: No, not really. I said to myself, okay I lost first set; that is not a problem. Second, you know you are in trouble. But I never gave up and I got to the third set and then suddenly I had a lot of belief again. I really did. I thought I could come back off of that.

STEFAN EDBERG: No, I sort of -- it is always a little bit of pressure when you come back when you won the year before. But I was sort of looking at it the way we are back here again and you know, I got good memories from last year and I was sort of looking forward to come and play here, and try to perform as good as I did last year. So I didn't feel that much pressure.

STEFAN EDBERG: No, not really. I mean, it was great tennis conditions today. It wasn't too hot and not too much wind. It was just a bit heavy today. The court played pretty slow, I thought. But it is always the same on grandstand.

STEFAN EDBERG: I am not sure. It is just one of those days, I guess where you know, I didn't really get going. I played well in patches today, but like I have said before, it was the timing with my shots that I was struggling. Normally, you sort of-- you see the ball pretty early. I was hitting the ball a little bit late and I hesitated a little bit; on a lot of occasions; that is when you don't feel like you are hitting the ball well out there. That was the case today.