ATP TOUR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

November 18, 1996

Richard Krajicek

At Wimbledon, if it only happened one time, I still have that moment to remember and I still have the title.

I was playing at the top of my game at Wimbledon. If I have to think about luck, it has nothing to do with luck.

My sister can hit the ball. If you play a lot of hours, especially when you are young, you can probably do it. It is tough to. You never know, but, yeah, she is trying. You can do it if you play a lot of tennis. Misa, with a "v" over the "s", is my sister's name. And, my father coaches her.

(Regarding Ivanisevic and him being favorite of the group) I don't know if the surface is quick enough. Normally on a quick indoor surface, maybe you can say. I mean, Chang was last week finals. Muster won Essen last year, Super 9. Depends how you play, but, at first you look at the big servers who are favored.

(Regarding speed of the court and the balls) It is very fair. You can play serve and volley. You can play from the baseline.

I have to say last couple of months since Wimbledon I have had tournaments that I have been less fired up than I should be. So, in that way, maybe it was a problem. But, yeah, in the end, I qualified for this event and I have now a couple of weeks off and I feel very good about myself and my game

(regarding winning Wimbledon) At that moment, it is the happiest feeling. And, after that, there is nothing special. At the moment, when it happens, first one or two minutes, it is the best feeling in the world. You are so happy. You feel so good and then, yeah, the expectations are so high about something, I don't know, that you wake up different. But you wake up as the same guy the next day and a little bit happier. But, yeah, everything in two days, it is already two days later on Tuesday, only two days that I won the event. Now, it is more and more time ago. So time goes pretty quick

I have the feeling with my game after Wimbledon, I should do more with my game. Winning Wimbledon meant a lot to me. It is tough to say what you expect, but it has been my first Grand Slam title. It has been a great feeling and everything has been great about it. As I was explaining before, some tournaments after that, I haven't been as fired as I would like to be or as I should be to win the matches. That is about the only negative thing. What I have to do to overcome it, I have to take my time and set new goals. I think basically what happened was that I achieved a goal, a lifetime goal since I played tennis that I have achieved and since then, you have to take your time and set new goals. Subconsciously I was inwardly satisfied and now I can think about what I want and, go out there on the court and decide that I want to win an another Grand Slam title, maybe become No. 1. I think that is probably what happened.

You don't want it to happen, but in a way it is stronger than me. You have guys like Lendl, Muster, those guys, any tournament is the same for them. I think they win a Grand Slam next week, they are playing -- they have one goal: They want to win as many tournaments as possible. But, to me, I think what happened was that I achieved some kind of goal, a big goal and that sometimes, okay, it was: I have done it. Now, I need the time to make new goals

I can tell myself I am going to win another title. But you have to feel it in your heart.

My new goals are trying to win another Grand Slam title. I try to tell myself that it has to come from inside. It was not my idea to say, okay, now I won the title.

I had a reception later, two months later back home.

Tennis-wise I am hitting the ball better than ever, even though I didn't touch the racket in the last several days.