EUROCARD OPEN

October 30, 1998

Richard Krajicek

Q. Give us the good news, are you at more peace now still?

RICHARD KRAJICEK: Yeah, I think so. I put some more glue in my joints and it is still okay.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: Yeah, at the moment it looks like it almost - it is very strange, I mean, it does happen in tournaments sometimes. It has happened this tournament before with the flu. I think it was in 1993, when I lost in the final to Stich, I think like three or four guys pulled out including Becker against me in the semis with the flu, so, somehow suddenly a couple of guys got injured in a row, got sick, and yeah, it is a shame for the crowd and yeah, suddenly looks like it is going to be a long day and then the day is finished already at 4:30 at least the singles day.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: I didn't know it was that long. I knew it was that many matches. Yeah, I didn't know it was such a burden for me. I know it happens so many times and now it is the feeling. The last couple of times it was very close. A lot of times he came out with good shots and not that I was very happy with the loss, but it helped me accept it a little bit more. But today, I really felt when I was ahead; that I was starting to get really nervous. I could think about it, about not letting it happen again basically and yeah, normally I don't get so nervous. That was really a sign that it has been in my head and that is in my head that he had my number. I hope I probably got rid of that and I hope maybe next time that I will think less about it when I play him and that it will be -- I will just finish it off already without a tiebreak in the second set.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: Yeah, I think I did play pretty good. I didn't make not too many unforced errors and I came up with some good volleys, also some good pickups. He was passing pretty good actually and sometimes a little bit of luck, but I somehow got them over the net. That frustrated him a little bit and made him go for more. I think that is why sometimes he missed a couple of passes. I was covering the net well and I think that was very important part of the match, maybe that made him miss a couple of passes, maybe. Maybe like the one at 4-3 in the tiebreaker it was relatively easy, he saw me maybe covering the crosscourt; he prefers to go crosscourt and he missed it in the net down-the-line. I think those were positive things and those gave me a couple of free points at the end of the match.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: I can think about it a little bit more, but I would like to have the one more victory, I mean, one more win, then I can think very seriously about it. Now, I mean, if I would lose tomorrow, then I still have to make the Finals next week, so still -- if I can manage to win the next match, then yeah, then I think I will make the other guys sweat a little bit.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: No, I think I mean, we are extreme cases, Goran and myself, and we just serve very big. I think what they have done with the court this week is very good for tennis. I think almost any court we play on, including clay, you are going to have some short point. I think if you look at the most matches, the matches have been very good and I think the balls they used here have also been perfect. I mean, they are pretty fast, and not too heavy and because I think if you slowed the court down and the balls, then you are going -- for starters going to be very slow, but the worst part is that heavy balls really cause injuries. By just slowing the court down as much as possible, I don't think you can make it much slower-I think they made it fair enough already. I played Andre yesterday. He didn't play his best tennis but I still had to attack him very well to win. If I wouldn't have done that, then he would have beaten me and maybe on a normal indoor court, I don't have to play my best tennis and probably would have beaten him also. -. So I think this is a fair court and I don't think you can judge the court and the balls according to the match against Goran because that is just -- that is just normal, you are going to have a lot of easy service games. But I think they have done a good job and I hope that the other tournaments will pick it up with this court, that we are going to have all the indoor events on this court. It is a lot tougher for me. I suddenly have to work in my matches. I am not used to it, to work indoors, but I think for the crowd, in the end, it is the best thing. And we always talk about pleasing the crowd and trying to make it more interesting. One of the things is of course grass tennis which is difficult because you cannot change the surface there, but indoor tennis you can. I think Stuttgart has made the first good step towards that discussion and that problem.