US OPEN

September 5, 1997

Nicklas Kulti

Jonas Bjorkman

Q. Despite losing, this puts you in good position for Hartford, up about No. 5 or so.

NICKLAS KULTI: Yeah. I'm not really sure.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Yeah?

NICKLAS KULTI: Okay.

NICKLAS KULTI: Yeah. It was a good effort to qualify for the World Championships. Eight best guys in the world for singles. Doubles, eight best teams. So I think it's very good in that case. We haven't qualified yet. Hopefully we will.

JONAS BJORKMAN: No. We got broken straightaway. That's what happens. We had a lot of opportunities today, and we didn't make the opportunities. If you don't make them against the top teams, it's tough to win matches, definitely.

JONAS BJORKMAN: We have two for sure, and maybe one more. It all depends. Nicklas, unfortunately, lost his ranking a little bit. He wants to try to get it back as fast as he can to be ready to play some good tennis again. I think we're going to play Paris and Stockholm for sure, and maybe Stuttgart.

JONAS BJORKMAN: I think we've been playing the same. You mean that I played with Apell?

JONAS BJORKMAN: I played on the forehand side with Apell, now I play backhand side.

NICKLAS KULTI: Last year we played the same as we did today. In the beginning of the year, we tried to change that.

NICKLAS KULTI: We always like to be better. I mean, always try to improve all the time. We try that. We agree that we played a little better when it was done me on the forehand and Jonas on the backhand.

NICKLAS KULTI: He looks the same to me (laughter).

JONAS BJORKMAN: More cocky.

NICKLAS KULTI: I mean, single-wise, he's moving much better than he did last year, I think. Of course, his confidence has been building up. With that, you play a little better. I mean, you can take more risks and you're confident with that. I mean, Jonas has improved a lot, actually.

NICKLAS KULTI: Yeah, of course. I mean, I like to see it when Jonas is playing good. That makes me want to play good, too. Jonas is trying to give me confidence. We practice together. We give each other some tips. Of course, it helps when he's playing good.

NICKLAS KULTI: Well, yeah, they're both very solid tennis players. They both serve very big, return big, especially Kafelnikov returns very big. They won French Open two times and the final here, so, of course, they must be good tennis players. To beat them, you've got to play really good and convert the chances that you get. We had our chances today. We didn't convert them. If you don't do that, then you're not going to win.

NICKLAS KULTI: Of course, it's very important that you get along good. I mean, me and Jonas, we are very good friends. I think that's important. We enjoy playing with each other. We like to be with each other off the court, just have fun. I think that's very important.

NICKLAS KULTI: Favorite thing is to see my soccer team beat his soccer team.

NICKLAS KULTI: Djurgarden. Champions league for two years (laughter).