U.S. OPEN

September 4, 1994

Jonas Bjorkman

JONAS BJORKMAN: I feel great.

JONAS BJORKMAN: I don't know. I was serving -- serve and volley was, I think, the key for my game. I was really solid in my serve and volley, and never did any easy mistakes. And in the third, I finally got my returns going also; then everything was there.

JONAS BJORKMAN: I don't know. It was hard conditions, and Stefan didn't play his best tennis, maybe. And I think it-- I can have a little bit, but not much, not yet.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Yes. He's the best player in Sweden for the moment, and he's one of the best players that's been on the tour for a long time. So this is great for me.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Yeah. I mean, you just have to -- you always have to think that you're going to make it. But there's a lot of good players, but of course, I will try for it.

JONAS BJORKMAN: He said it was like five or six years now, and so for me, it was when I was a junior, end of my junior and that was a great opportunity for me to learn me, and give me a lot of experience for that, and then -- I mean, now he lives in the same town and when we meet up together, we try to practice, but normally, we used to have the same schedule, but it could be different. But at home at the same time we practice.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Yeah, of course, and when you play a player who you've never seen before, then you're really not sure how to play him. And I know Stefan really well, and I know how he plays and, of course, it tells me a lot.

JONAS BJORKMAN: I've been playing well the last week here before, also and I had a lot of confidence, and I was thinking that I just go for it lately, in the beginning, and try to be aggressive and go for the big shots and I was lucky today and I had a lot of net and over, but that's the way you have to beat these guys but that was good.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Yes, I beat Sergi Bruguera the week in Schenectady but, I think this is much bigger for me because this is Center Court and Grand Slam and third round and especially when I play Stefan also. So this is the best I've done, I think.

JONAS BJORKMAN: I don't know, Wilander is coming from the same club and maybe Wilander was the big idol in the beginning when he won the French Open like that, but the game I play is exactly -- it's more like Stefan's game, so I've always been looking at him, how he plays and try to do the same thing.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Yeah, I mean he's not been having as good a year as he normally used to have in Grand Slams. He's been losing early in Paris and Wimbledon, but he was for sure hoping to do well here. He's been winning couple years ago here and he was hopefully going for the title here.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Ha?

JONAS BJORKMAN: Yeah, we play practice sets and I've been-- few times I've been winning couple sets and few times I got really killed and that's the way it goes and it's been both sides.

JONAS BJORKMAN: I don't know, he may be losing -- his power is maybe the same in the serve, but maybe his spin is not the same as he had before. Couple years ago I said he had the best second serve on the tour and maybe he's not having this big power in his serve anymore. I don't know, could be the key, maybe.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Yeah, I've been practicing here now two days and practice a little bit going to the court and trying to take the ball on the returns and try to, like, maybe scare him that I'm coming in at the net, and that was working good today.

JONAS BJORKMAN: His?

JONAS BJORKMAN: Maybe. We just-- maybe he lost his rhythm a little bit and-- but he still made some good returns in that game, so, could maybe have been a little bit like that.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Actually, we haven't seen each other after I won my second round because he lives in Long Island. I think he's been practicing out there and he's trying to get away from the press and media, maybe, I don't know, to concentrate on the match, and so, we never saw each other before we came to the locker room.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Vaxjo.

JONAS BJORKMAN: V A X J O.