U.S. OPEN

September 2, 1993

Aaron Krickstein

AARON KRICKSTEIN: Well, maybe a little bit. I think he is a good competitor and he works hard, and he has played well on hard courts before so it is not like he is like some other Europeans who have a lot of trouble adjusting. I think his game is pretty good for hard courts. It is kind of a tough match up for me. He hits the ball pretty hard and a lot of my shots going to his strengths, so he is able to move me around, vice versa. So you know, it is a tough match up to then.

AARON KRICKSTEIN: I think I never broke serve. I mean, when you don't even have a breakpoint, you are not really even in the match, so it is frustrating. I got to 30; that is as far as I got in the serve. I think he got an extraordinary amount of first serves in, and I think that was the difference. I didn't expect him to serve that well, and you know he won a lot more points on his serve than I did. I wasn't really expecting that. So he was getting some short balls where I was having to work a lot harder on my service games.

AARON KRICKSTEIN: Yeah, beat me pretty bad in Monte Carlo last year in the finals. I thought I was hitting the ball well then. I thought I was hitting the ball pretty good today, and you know, he can take some of my strengths away from me. Like I said, I didn't expect him to serve that well, and I would have had to be a little bit more aggressive myself and maybe gotten somewhat of a lead. I was always behind, so I was always struggling to find ways to win points.

AARON KRICKSTEIN: Yeah, little bit. I mean, I would have never thought I would not break his serve in the match. Three-set match, at least, but yeah, I mean, I was starting to play little bit better on the return games at the end, but I just wasn't getting ahead in the games. I was always behind, 15-Love, 30-15. I was never a point or two ahead to put some pressure on his serve. And he was dictating and playing pretty aggressive and he wasn't making too many errors. So I think that gave his serve maybe some more confidence.

AARON KRICKSTEIN: Possibly. I think he is hitting the ball well. He has obviously won a lot of matches in a row. He has got a lot of confidence, and I think even though he is known as a clay court player, I think he can play pretty well on a hard surface, if he serves that well, I think he is tough to beat. I think a guy is going to have to come in a lot to beat him.