U.S. OPEN

August 28, 1995

Boris Becker

BORIS BECKER: I did play very good. He is not a natural hard-court player, but still I was able to put upon him my aggressive game and I didn't make many unforced errors; put the pressure on him all the time. Yeah, I did play good.

BORIS BECKER: It is very important; especially when you sense that that match is going to be yours, you know, if you don't make any major mistakes, and after the first two sets, I was trying to get an early break and then sort of cruise to the end. I was able to do that. I didn't really break much of a sweat - played an hour and 20 minutes which is very, very short for best of five hard court match, yeah, I didn't -- wasn't very exhausting.

BORIS BECKER: Basically, it is the whole year, it was either basically Pete or Andre. It was not only Wimbledon or U.S. Open. For myself, I am just very glad to not be in the spotlight all the time. I have been in this game a few years. I have been many years on the very front of the spotlight. I am just happy to, you know, to do what I like very much and, you know, I hope I can speak through my wins and my matches and hopefully by the end of the tournament you will talk about me a little bit more then.

BORIS BECKER: Yeah, I don't want to go into that really. We brought out a statement together at the beginning of the week and that is all, at this stage, I want to talk about.

BORIS BECKER: I mean, it is a fact of life that he is not the youngest anymore. We had great two years almost; just he didn't want to travel to every tournament and I personally feel like a coach has to be at all the places because -- especially when you work for Grand Slam Tournament, every week you practice prior to the event or every tournament is important, and he just wanted to concentrate more on his academy, and that is the main reasons why we parted.

BORIS BECKER: Very much so. When I first contacted him in November of '93 I wasn't playing good tennis anymore and through him and through all the people in his academy and through his coaching, I am back to one of the best players in the world, and it is definitely because of him. But, you know, the N.B.T.A. is not only him. He has many good coaches; many good players in the academy and I was able to practice with them often and obviously, on many occasions, Nick was there; we could talk about many, many things.

BORIS BECKER: I think I followed him today and he seemed to be playing all right. I don't understand your question.

BORIS BECKER: You know, there is always an half empty cup -- you can see it half empty or half full. Many players wish to have a struggling a year like Stefan has had this year. On the other side, he is one of the great champions of the last year and from his standpoint, he had a tough year, but, you know, many people talk about me two years ago that I was on my way out. It is just a question of weeks now and here I am playing still pretty good. I think it is the same with Stefan. Once you are a champion you cannot lose it overnight. He had some problems with his shoulder, I heard during Wimbledon, during the hard court summer. He was injured a little bit and with the competition, which these days, you have to be on top of your game every tournament if not you are going to go out early. So I personally believe Stefan has many more good tournaments left in him.

BORIS BECKER: No, I haven't.

BORIS BECKER: Actually I was just hoping to play during the day and I was hoping to play under normal hours. Apart from that, this is probably the toughest Grand Slam of any of them and the weather conditions are always changing here. It can be very, very hot. It can be very windy here. So I was just glad to be playing on Monday; to be playing in the afternoon and, you know, played an hour and 25 minutes pretty solid match and I am 100% better already than last year.

BORIS BECKER: Actually it is my 11th Open, it is quite a long time.

BORIS BECKER: Actually would have been close, but I missed a couple on the way. I wasn't playing -- I was playing every U.S. Open and every Wimbledon, but I have missed a few French and a few for Melbourne, but I think it is important not only for us, Stefan or myself, but also for the game that successful players stay there a long time because I personally think it is important to the game that you have the young and you have the bit older ones in it, and that is -- that makes it for exciting tennis matches, and hopefully we both can stay around many more years, you know, playing good tennis obviously. That is the key line. You have to be good in order to stay around.

BORIS BECKER: Well, I actually took it with a sense of humor. I really couldn't understand it. At 25, they were talking about the "old guy", you know, so I took it with a sense of humor and I just knew that if I am able to hit a couple of months of good practice and good tournaments, you know, and obviously the desire has to be there and the concentration and good people with you, the success will come. Just cannot go away all of a sudden like turning out of the light. I was able to do that. I had good management, good coaches around me and I am back being one of the best players in the world.

BORIS BECKER: Physically, I think in his prime between 25 and 30. A lot comes -- especially in tennis, a lot comes into play with -- with your mind and you have to be focused all the time and right now the way the system works and the amount of tournaments we have to play to keep up the certain number in the world, it has gotten harder the last couple of years, you know, to stay up because you have to, you know, play your 20 tournaments instead of in the mid '80s, you had to play 12 or even 14 that were sufficient to protect your number in the world, your ranking. And -- but, you know, it is just -- it is a question of which way you want to go. If you want to do it successful, I don't think in tennis there is really an age limit until you are really in you are early '30s, but until then, I don't see no reason why good tennis players shouldn't last long and shouldn't play good tennis also at 30 years old. We had many examples. All right, maybe, for a couple of last couple of years, you don't have the Lendls and the McEnroes and the Connors anymore, but, you know, you have others approaching the 30 and still be able to play good tennis.

BORIS BECKER: French Open, probably. Obviously, Wimbledon, no?

BORIS BECKER: I think it is an extremely good effort. He is sort of an example for many athletes how you are supposed to live as an athlete and I am personally very friendly with Stefan as you can hear, and I think he -- he has a chance to go for 60.