MONTE CARLO OPEN

April 23, 1997

Richard Krajicek

Q. Richard, can you take us through your schedule in the last few days? We know you left Japan the afternoon of Sunday. What happened?

RICHARD KRAJICEK: I left Monday morning. There were no flights. I arrived like three o'clock in the afternoon in Frankfurt. I had a two-hour lay over. Arrived six o'clock in Nice. Seven in the evening I was in apartment. I ordered in. Before ten o'clock, I was out. Then 4:30 in the morning, I was running next to my bed. I started to hit yesterday at noon. I was hitting the ball pretty good. I got a little impatient after a while. The guy I was playing with was running the shots down that guys weren't running down last week on the hardcourts. Every year I get a little irritated, start to doubt yourself, try to hit the ball harder, start missing. At the end of the hour, I chilled out, realized it's clay, it was okay. At four o'clock, I hit half an hour more just to get the feeling. I felt okay. The legs were a little bit heavy; especially the first hour I played.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: Yeah, very happy. Started off not so good. I mean, I got broken straightaway, 3-1 down. I think Michael let me back in the match a little bit. He missed some shots at 3-2 to break back to 3-All. Slowly but surely, I got the feeling for it. I thought my forehand got heavier and heavier. I forced a lot of short balls. I could really dictate the play throughout the match.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: If I win another Grand Slam, it's better. It's better to win a Slam and two tournaments. You never know. At the moment, it's very good for my confidence. With a lot of confidence, I'm going to go into the next couple of tournaments. I think that's also the reason I won today. Maybe I had a long flight two days ago, but because things are going my way, and with Michael, you can see he's been struggling the last couple of months, things are not going his way, and I win. Confidence is very important in tennis. I like it like this.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: No. I do realize, though, that the next two months I cannot really look at improving my ranking. I just have to look at consolidating, trying to consolidate my ranking, a lot of points. Finals in Rome, a lot of results I made. In a way, I'm looking forward to it, especially Wimbledon. I can open the tournament. I think that's a great honor. Basically, that's the last piece, the whole Wimbledon cycle, however you want to call it, winning and everything that comes afterwards. Finally, you start the next year, you're the first match to go on, then it's finished.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: Two o'clock was too early for me.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: I have to say, the last two matches, I played good. A very good set I played was the first set in the Finals. I played very, very well. That was the best I've played in a long time or ever, I don't know. I was playing smart, right selection. Whatever I did, I was hitting in the court. Not that I was playing crazy; not like I was going unbelievable for my shots. I was always in the right place, very sharp at the net. I fell back a bit in the second set, dropped my serve, played a little less. Third set I played well again. The first set in the Finals I played well. First two matches I was struggling a bit with my game.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: I don't know. But, I played a very high level of tennis. It's difficult to say because grass and hardcourts are different tennis. I played very high level, the tennis, that first set.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: Have to pick the Finals of Wimbledon.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: Yes. It's nice to beat Sampras in quarterfinals, but I think throughout my career, I've had a lot of good results like that. Not that I defeat the Wimbledon Champion at Wimbledon, never had that. You have to follow it up and you have to finish it off. That's what I did in the Finals. After that quarterfinals, I was the favorite. Then actually the real job started, the tough part of the job. I did it, I finished it off, even though there was a lot of pressure on me. I felt a lot of pressure.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: A little bit. First time I've seen this interview room, first time you asked me to come for an interview, so I think that's a big change. Bigger courts, a little quicker. Last week I only played on center court. I remember last year, I started on Court 12, then to Court 9.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: That's it. It's nice to hear it. I know it, but it's good to hear sometimes. When you stand on the court, like I said, you're warming up, you know he's going to say it. You just wait for it a little bit. Maybe an extra incentive to win it again. After Wimbledon, they won't say it anymore unless I win the title again. Extra incentive for me to win it again.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: I have a little shrine almost. The trophy, you get the small trophy with your name on it, then two pictures, one holding the big trophy I got from my girlfriend for Christmas, and another one with Steffi. Those are my two memories of the day.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: That I got from someone, but it's not in the shrine (indicating).

RICHARD KRAJICEK: I didn't dance. Have to find out. That's never going to go away, I think. Every interview, "Since 1997, there hasn't been any dancing." Everybody still thinks, because it's called the Wimbledon Ball still.