GREAT AMERICAN INSURANCE ATP CHAMPIONSHIP

August 4, 1997

Jonas Bjorkman

Q. Problems with the first serve. Anything with the ball?

JONAS BJORKMAN: Just one of those days. No excuses. I just served really bad. That was probably the worst I have ever -- worst percentage I have had in a match, I think. I just came wrong with the rhythm the whole match. I never find the way to get back in it.

JONAS BJORKMAN: He won the match. I don't know. You have to ask him if he played good enough or if he felt confident.

JONAS BJORKMAN: He was the same like all the other guys. Doesn't matter who you play. It is the same match for me and no matter if I play Pete Sampras or if I play Marcelo Rios or if I play someone over 100 in the ranking, it is the same type of game with me. I have got to go in and do my job and if that is good enough, then it is good.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Yeah, I have been serving well this year. Been feeling quite good on the practice, but I don't know. I had a bad day with my serve, I guess.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Key Biscayne, yeah.

JONAS BJORKMAN: I felt even if it was a tough draw for both of us, I think, I still felt quite confident to go into the match with beating him the last time we played. But, I don't want to have it as an excuse, but I am having a little cold and I think the heat took me down physically a little bit. And, after that I was serving that it didn't help me to win this match. I needed a few free points in my games, that would have helped me, I think. So I had to work a little bit too hard today. I think he started to serve -- I didn't think he -- he served so good as well. I think he was struggling after the end of the first set, after 4-1, then he started to serve a little bit better and I had 15-40 at 4-3, I think, and at that time he came up with some good serves again. I think that maybe saved him to only play two sets today.

JONAS BJORKMAN: What do you mean?

JONAS BJORKMAN: We show more respect to each other (laughs). It is not the same game. In basketball you can go back and forth and your goal -- I mean, you try to go with one guy and then when you change again, then you can have a little chat. But, in tennis, you never have that chance. It is maybe in the changeovers, but you are so concentrate on your match, so you never really get that opportunity.

JONAS BJORKMAN: No. It all depends. If you are really, really good friends -- I mean, I am a good friend of Marcelo, but let us say if I play a Swedish guy, which is my best friends, it might be a few quick words. But, nothing, really -- no, I wouldn't say spectacular. Maybe it would be one or two words, but not too much.

JONAS BJORKMAN: You maybe don't know him as good as other guys, but I have a lot of respect for him. He is a good tennis player and even if people think that he is kind of strange with his attitude and cocky or whatever, you know, he never -- I never had any problem with him. He has always been coming up and says "hi" to me and we have been practicing, so, you know, I don't know why I should have a different way of thinking. So, he is friendly to me and I am friendly back to him.

JONAS BJORKMAN: You have to say it in English.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Well, of course. He is top 10 in the world so why shouldn't you have a respect to a guy who is top 10 in the world. I mean, if you are on that kind of level, then you have a lot of respect for the player that you play. But the way it works, these days, you can beat anyone and you can lose to anyone. So, some guys you maybe have more respect to when you are walking on the court, but you still feel that you can beat anyone. So it is nothing really special.