ATP TOUR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

November 19, 1996

Boris Becker

BORIS BECKER: But, pretty much most of it, I must admit. It was a match I really played well in all aspects. I didn't dominate only with my serve, but I thought my volley was excellent; my return games were excellent and you had many, many goods rallies in the match and usually I remember the last couple of days my years round match, I was a bit more nervous. I had trouble with my timing; had trouble with my strokes, but this afternoon, it seemed to go very smooth for me. And I am extremely happy about that and I got that first win out of the way and now I can really enjoy it.

BORIS BECKER: I must admit, I was really astonished about the atmosphere. Usually, we, in Germany, say the more north you go, the more colder the people get. But, maybe also how the Center Court was built, you can, only from a spectator point of view, really see well the players and the points and everything. The atmosphere was first class and especially in the second set when everybody felt that if Yevgeny was starting to play better and better and had a couple of breaks points at my serve and they were really getting at the right moment behind me. But in general, atmosphere was fair, but it was very warm and I felt very good out there.

BORIS BECKER: In practice it seemed much slower for some reason. We all said that it is just as slow as the other indoor tournaments we played, but I think through those 15,000 people, the heat was just so much more that it speeded up the court and obviously for a serve and volley player that is a bit better. But, it is still not to a point where you cannot rally at all; which we have seen today. You are able to play from the back, if you are quick enough, and -- but it did play quicker today than the last few days.

BORIS BECKER: Yeah, which I was feeling the last couple of service games on his serve, I was feeling that was coming closer to a service break. I guess he felt the tension, too. That just topped it all off to be able to win such a point, you know, after he makes a good smashing corner; need to come up with a good reflex. It is obviously something which, you know, lifts me up tremendously, and for Yevgeny, that is just a downer. And, from then on, he didn't make a point or just one point, 15-40, that was the deciding point of the match.