TMS - MADRID

October 14, 2003

Jonas Bjorkman

JONAS BJORKMAN: Yeah, I've been playing very consistent the whole year. I've been feeling almost that I've been getting better and better through the year, as well. No, I have no complaints. I'm very pleased with the way everything's been working. Today I was also very pleased because that was one of the matches where I felt really, really well from the beginning, then I completely messed up tactically, played stupid, sort of lost my rhythm. To come back and manage to sort of fight my way back, change, start to play better feels really good, when you can come through matches like that. That definitely helps me even more.

JONAS BJORKMAN: It's hard, because he's so talented as a player that you can't worry too much and think too much what he's going to do. "Is he going to miss after four or five shots?" He can do that when he's in his best form, as well. It's all up to his mental stage. I think today it looked like he was hitting the ball pretty well. I mean, he was serving good. Not because I beat him, but it felt like that was probably his best match since he started. I mean, it is always hard to play him. But I was always trying to sort of more focus on my own thing because otherwise it's tough if you focus too much on what he's going to do.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Yeah, I'm like wine, you know, only get better (laughter). I think you go through stages in your career where I got to say since '97, '98 was actually a good year, but from then on, I didn't have the right people behind me, it wasn't working. Now I'm very pleased, me and Gary, my coach, he's having a great relationship both off the court and on court. I think he's been helping me a lot, especially mentally. But also behind that, I have two, three guys that I've been working with. Since, like I said, I'm getting older, you have to work a lot harder, and I have been working a lot harder to get back into the position where I belong. Everything comes pieces here and there, comes together. When you enjoy everything around you, then it's also easy to enjoy it on the court. I think also the fatherhood for me helped me a lot in January. So disappointed losing to Roddick in quarters in Wimbledon but I go back home, get the greatest smile ever from my son, and all of a sudden that match is gone. I think that could help you a lot. You don't think too much of matches anymore that you maybe would have done earlier in my career.

JONAS BJORKMAN: It's a physio guy, Daniel Hedin, who works in Sweden. H-e-d-i-n. Nickalaus Lantz, L-a-n-t-z.

JONAS BJORKMAN: One of the guys is helping me with all the physical training off the court, and then the other guy's helping me with all my treatments. He's like a chiropractor.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Quite surprised, actually. I'm surprised it's been coming out. I haven't really been paying attention to those things. Yeah, I read the articles, but at the same time I'm at the stage where I have to focus on my own things. If it's guys out there, that's very unfortunate, because I think that's not good. At the same time, that's the whole drug testing situation. If it's guys out there cheating, that's no good either. I guess every sport is having their problems. Hopefully we can deal with them and make it as good as possible for the sport. I hope the guys on the ATP Tour hopefully do as good as they can to clean this up.

JONAS BJORKMAN: I haven't heard that really. But I can say that I like horse racing back home in Sweden. If I go behind the scenes, you ask a little bit from the trainers, "What do you think? How does your horse look," obviously I'm going to have more feedback where I'm going to go and bet on than maybe the people who sits only up there and can't sort of get to these guys. That is about the same way I think in all sports. You've got to deal with that.

JONAS BJORKMAN: It's only a two-horse race, that's true. It's a little easier. I actually haven't heard too much that people go in the locker rooms and speak about if he's injured. If that's true, that's very surprising to me. If it's guys that can focus on their tennis and at the same time are calling people. Today, I would not even have my phone on from the moment I'm going out here. I'm here to play. But if guys can do that at the same time, it's too good. But I doubt that. I would be very surprised.

JONAS BJORKMAN: If I was not involved in tennis at all?

JONAS BJORKMAN: Let's say I'm a gambler, I have no connection to tennis, I probably would like it, yes. I would probably try to find the stats through ATP head-to-heads, stuff like that. That's like the horse racing, you know. I think I'm the greatest every time I go there. I still haven't won what I've been expecting. Even though with background, you can sort of thinking you will have the best idea, sometimes it goes wrong. But yeah, I mean, it's a nice setup. Like soccer, it's great. You sit back home. We have the premiere league on Saturday. It's awesome. You can bet on four or five matches. At the same time you watch one of the bigger matches, and you have that little sound coming up with all the results from other matches. It gives you a little bit more excitement of the day watching that match if you don't support the teams.

JONAS BJORKMAN: I don't think so. I mean, it's two teams. I mean, even if it's 11 guys out there.

JONAS BJORKMAN: No. I'm just saying, soccer, it's two teams fighting there, too. Obviously, you can have one guy in soccer that calls in and says, "We're going to lose today." But that guy can't do too much because he has 10 other guys. He can actually be really, really bad and the team still wins. So even if he's trying his best to not make them win... I would be very surprised if that's in tennis. It's too serious. You can't afford tanking or losing on purpose. For me that would be very surprising.

JONAS BJORKMAN: It always helps me. That's why I always try to tell, especially the young guys in Sweden, that it's very important to play singles and doubles. It will always help me. If you have a mental stage where you're prepared to play singles and doubles, you can always go through it. It has been a few times - not so often this year because I think I've been very consistent, I've been always hitting the ball pretty well - but it's always going to help you. After US Open, even if I had a good run in singles, it still gives you a confidence boost going into the indoor season in the fourth round of singles, but winning also the US Open. It's a Grand Slam. I think it will always help me. Sometimes it helps me more depending on how I do in singles, sometimes less. But for me it is very important.