ATP TOUR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

November 15, 1994

Boris Becker

BORIS BECKER: Well, you know, in a tiebreaker in the third set if you start thinking about so much, you tend to get so nervous that you end up losing it. You have to really focus on the next point and you cannot think back of the chances you may have had, and you just have to look forward and concentrate on the next point.

BORIS BECKER: Yes and no. He gave me a couple of second serves. He gave me a couple of second serves in the tiebreaker and actually throughout the whole match and -- I wasn't able to take my opportunity then and I took the first break in the tiebreaker and then I had 4-2 and I had another chance to make it 5-2 and almost to finish the set right there. But he fought back. He made some good shots and at the end it was just a question of me being one point better.

BORIS BECKER: Well, especially in the latter part of the match, he just started to click his serve. I had many chances; actually in the set I lost I had many more chances to break him than he had to break me, actually. That is how tennis is sometimes funny, but then in the third set I barely won points off his serve. He hit two aces a game and it was impossible for me to make a break and I just have to -- I had to concentrate on my serve, somehow stay even with him, and get to the tiebreaker.

BORIS BECKER: I had a very good first set and I had many chances at the beginning of the second and I couldn't convert them and in the caliber what we are playing right now, you have to take the chances; otherwise, Goran is such a good player that he is going to get his chances and then he took his thing in the second set, but I really should have broken him early on in the second set.

BORIS BECKER: It was getting harder at the end to play some decent tennis. They sort of scream too early in the points and a couple of shots I had a really hard time to just to focus on the point and they were really getting into it which in one hand is great and in a way I expected it that they get really into the match, and I thought they were fair. I thought they were behind Goran as well, but they were really getting so noisy at the end; it was difficult to play good tennis.

BORIS BECKER: Isn't it amazing that the last two matches I played him, it is 7-6 in the third and it is hard to explain. It is inexplicable almost, you know, why we play so close matches here and that I come out 7-6 in the third both times, I cannot say that I am the better player, definitely not. Winning 7-6 in the third is a question of being better maybe one point and I was the one in the last two matches.

BORIS BECKER: Probably. But on the other hand, he has beaten me also in important matches, you know, just recently a semifinal Wimbledon I had my chances too in the second set tiebreaker; he came up with the big serve, but in general, people have to beat me when it is close. I don't really get nervous much and I don't give it to him. He has to come up with aces or with great shots in order to beat me.

BORIS BECKER: Well, the umpire has a hard time and the linesmen also have probably the worst match to be a linesmen and an umpire at with two of the fastest serving guys, and we had some problems in the first match, and I watched it on television and that already made me a bit nervous and they had some faults in our match, and it just a very unfortunate because the difference is really so small that every mistake counts, and, you know, especially with his serve, I am -- sometimes I just wish they are out, in a way, so I have a chance to play his second serve, but it is very hard for everybody out there.