ATP TOUR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

November 20, 1994

Boris Becker

BORIS BECKER: Well, I do remember. I played many, many matches in my career and I had matches when I had many doublefaults. Unfortunately, I did that in the second set while I was just playing really well. I can't really explain; probably a combination of things. I had extremely good first set. I had a good last couple of days and my level of concentration just left me for two, three minutes. I really -- I was trying hard not even to risk the first serve, but for five minutes I lost my touch completely and, you know, since he is a true professional, he took the opportunity and he broke me then. But the match wasn't lost there. The match was lost in the third set.

BORIS BECKER: No, I just -- for some reason I lost my touch, you know, in that service game. Everything until then was going very smooth. Throughout the whole match I served great. I risked a lot on my second serves, so I expect some doublefaults, but in that particular game I just hit five or six in one game and it was a hard apple to swallow down.

BORIS BECKER: To tell you the truth, no. I am a professional. I go out there to win; doesn't matter who I play. And I told you already then, that I didn't go out there just to win one set, but to win the whole match. And Pete, you know, obviously came after the match and thanked me again for beating Edberg on Friday, but, you know, he is -- what can I tell you? I won four matches. Was probably too much to ask to beat the No. 1 player twice in a week. It is something very uncommon and unusual in a tournament, but, you know, I produced great tennis all week long and even today I played great. You know, I had set point in the third set and he comes up with an ace and I had my chances today to win.

BORIS BECKER: I would say I caught up with him over the past couple of months and I think Andre did as well. He was playing on a different level for the first six months of the year and then through him being injured, wasn't able to play in a couple of months and we got a little bit better and we caught up with him. Obviously, in the match today, obviously, you are in the final and you are two sets to one up and you are up a break obviously that all lifts your game, and I think anybody who is in that position just is flying at that moment, and Pete was flying for the last 20 minutes of the match. But all and all, he is not a level better anymore than me or than two, three other players.

BORIS BECKER: It was really late of last year where I couldn't produce any good tennis results anymore and I said it all the time that I cannot concentrate on the tennis anymore when my wife is pregnant. Once he was out, you know, everything was nice and healthy, everything was well, I could again refocus on my profession. I got together with Nick Bollettieri and we started to build up and each month we had progress. I improved my playing and I was very pleased the way I played throughout the year. It wasn't just one particular week where I played great. But I played all year long on a very good level and I -- especially at the end, I played my best tennis of the year and it is all in my opinion, due to finding a base now; having a home where even after a tournament, you know, after a tough loss like today, I can go home and just other things seem to be more important, you know, it doesn't bring me down anymore as it used to and so that really helped myself to find a balance in life.

BORIS BECKER: You kind of work every week and you hope to improve and then, you know, I won my second tournament of the year in Milan. I won that, and I was in the final of Rome and another couple of results, but I wasn't playing as good yet, and all of a sudden in Wimbledon, it started to change for me after reaching the semifinal again and all of a sudden I just, you know, reached another level which allowed me now to reach, what was it, five -- six finals and winning three tournaments and I was really playing excellent tennis the past couple of months.

BORIS BECKER: Well, I am over that stage already --

BORIS BECKER: -- (cont'g) where he is right now. I said that three, four years ago that I am going to play more clay and that my main goal left is the French Open. That is over. But still, I don't see as one particular goal. I want to improve as a tennis player again for next year. I want to play well on all different courts, in all -- especially in the Grand Slams, I would like to do better than I have been this year. I am going to play hopefully all four if I am not injured before, and so I really would like to start where I left right now, which is on my peak and so I cannot say one particular goal. I want to altogether improve as a tennis player and play the best players every week and just be able to win big matches.

BORIS BECKER: No. Unfortunately the Australian Open starts very early in January and -- but I will go down there in time and play a couple of exhibitions; I have one right the week before, where Pete is also playing, but my year is not finished yet. It is sort -- I play a few more exhibitions. I play the Grand Slam Cup as the last big tournament of the year. So I don't really have a big, big break between now and the Australian Open, which is good for me.

BORIS BECKER: I am planning to.

BORIS BECKER: If somebody would have asked me at 17 if you would still be playing at 27, I would have said no. So it is really difficult to see so much ahead. At the beginning of the year I didn't know how good I am going to get at the end of this year and I -- everything is dependent obviously on how much you win and how much pleasure you still have and competition and in practice or how much tougher it gets to work everyday a couple of hours. So, but I said before, I want to reach 30 in my profession. I want to be playing, you know, at, say, three more years, but it depends really how good I can play. If I can be a factor in major championships, then I'd love to play until I am 40, so it really depends on what level I am going to continue playing.

BORIS BECKER: Well, it is not going to be easy in the future, that is for sure. I actually would prefer him to play some basketball because I am a bigger basketball fan than tennis. And he has already pretty big feet, so I figure he is going to be tall son of a gun, you know.