US OPEN

September 7, 2003

Jonas Bjorkman

JONAS BJORKMAN: Yeah, it's nice. I mean, it was a great position for me when Todd came and asked me because everyone didn't know that Mark was gonna retire. So I was very quick to sort of say yes to get into this position, because playing with Todd is a great honor, but is also a great opportunity to win big majors with such a good doubles player. So it's been a great partnership so far. Hopefully - hopefully - he wants to continue now with the success so we can even win a little bit more. But, I mean, we got his records. I think we both sort of want to -- I want him to get through and make it, and I think he wants to sort of come to that stage as well. So, you know, we are looking forward for the rest of the year and, hopefully, maybe for next year as well.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Got a pretty full schedule. We got Vienna, Madrid, Stockholm, Paris, and then Houston. So five more to go. That's alongside for me, hopefully, the Davis Cup semifinal. Then if we could win that, let's hope the final. So I still got plenty of tennis for the rest of the year.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Not really. The beauty for me now is I can pick and choose what I want to play and win. When I'm playing great, I sort of (inaudible). Occasionally I've got to play some of the smaller ones to get into some form. I'm in as good a position as I could possibly hope to be, really. I can pick and choose. Right now, neither goals -- goals just probably changed today. Now we got to win the French and try for a career Grand Slam. That's the next thing to look at. Before today, that really wasn't there. But now let's try and do that.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Yeah. Today means we have Australia, Wimbledon, US. Let's see if we can get all four of those majors.

JONAS BJORKMAN: (Inaudible). That's what shows today, you know. We've been winning two majors. I'm glad he changed his mind. I think I don't have to work that hard to convince him for next year. It seems like he's sort of very keen to play next year. As well, we've got the Olympics coming up. (Inaudible). Obviously, those are goals we can create. It's gonna help to get the team together and not making him to sort of stop. So I definitely hope we can continue the success.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: No, and still playing pretty well. No, I've always said that the time will come when I (inaudible) in quarterfinals, a semi here and there. But while I'm still winning, I'd be crazy because you retire too young from this sport.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: I think we've done the right thing in terms of getting the singles guys. Giving them access to be in the draw has been one of the biggest things. This tournament alone we've played Robredo, Portas, Lapentti, Lopez, Schuettler, all guys that wouldn't have been in this draw previously. That's healthy. It's healthy for their games, to help improve their games on the court. They're taking advantage of it. The fans are getting to see them outside regularly on the court more often.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Ancic, Ljubicic.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Ancic, Ljubicic into the quarters, so that has worked. Then the next thing is all of the powers-that-be in our sport politically have realized that doubles isn't a problem that needs to be fixed; it's the whole picture that needs to be fixed. And it's creating more stars, it's creating better publicity, all of the things that go with marketing and creating tennis as a property. That, in my opinion, is the step forward. It's not nickel-and-diming ourselves worrying about where the doubles situation is, it's getting to the big picture.

JONAS BJORKMAN: I totally agree. I would say that's been helping me a lot in my situation, playing both singles and doubles. You have some bad weeks, but if you do well in the doubles, not doing well in the singles, you still work on the sort of my game in singles. If I'm successful one week in doubles, that could create the change and I could play well in the singles next week. Definitely it's something we need to work on, to get all the kids to play more doubles.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Yes, absolutely, absolutely.

JONAS BJORKMAN: It's all about coaches.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: That is where sort of the problem starts, is that they keep trying to mollycoddle their players and protect them too much. They don't actually let them grow. When you're talking about serve-volleying, you got to look at Rafter. He's a guy that would serve to a position to get a volley at a position. That's what you learn to do playing doubles - you serve to a corner to get a particular spot. That's why we're always talking to each other. "I'm serving it here so you can get the volley on the middle, cover your line." That's what it teaches young players to do for the singles game. It's not just serve, run in, go to the middle. It's serve to a position to try to get a particular shot off the next ball.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Yes, for me, it's very disappointing that the US Open tanked on the junior doubles so quickly. There's still four days we had of sunshine. Yeah, they had a backlog of singles, but there's 20-odd courts out here. Make it a country week. They're Juniors, they've got to learn (inaudible). I think the officials here jumped too quickly and said, "We won't have it." That's part of the reason. Like today with the Bryans, the USTA or the federation here hasn't had a Davis Cup stalwart team to back them up and continue through the Davis Cup (inaudible). Junior programs, junior tournaments, they don't have doubles as a priority, and they don't make their players play it. They should be making their players play both events when they play nationals.

JONAS BJORKMAN: I mean, you always need to have a good form going into the big ones. We missed Australia this year, and then going into Paris we wasn't on a good run. We were struggling, and we didn't play as good as we were expecting. Then once we got on a roll, I think you always look forward to the big ones, obviously. In a position of Todd, who's been winning so many tournaments, the peak is where you want to win the big ones. I think you always, as you get older, you look forward to those and try to sort of be more focused, a little bit more extra focused on it. I think the good, positive way is that we're experienced. We've actually been quite relaxed. We know how it is to be in the final. That's why we've been playing our best in the big matches.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Yeah, quite a lot. Not so much here this week.

JONAS BJORKMAN: We play golf together. I beat him in golf.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Rubbish. That's a load of rubbish (laughter). That's one of the key things for me staying out here, is to be able to play with someone, travel with people that I still enjoy it with. Otherwise, it's nasty, you know. It's not fun. And I had that relationship with Mark Woodforde. We knew when to go our separate ways, but we also enjoyed each other's company and enjoyed the challenges of playing together. I've enjoyed that with Jonas as well. We're similar age, both started families, our wives are the same age. There's a lot of things that we balance. If he was 20 and I was 32 with two kids, I'm sure he wouldn't understand. He has his own and understands certain things you got to do and what takes priority sometimes. I guess the smaller tournaments don't take priority over your family; these ones do in a sense of what's important.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: They're happy for us to go to Houston, yeah.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: They do say that and then there's been several times when they've had singles finals that have been a wash-out that then they've had no match. We have tried to promote playing the doubles first at tournaments as the lead-in event, as you would at a concert with a pre-match -- sorry, pre-concert band leading up to the Rolling Stones or whatever. In our case, that works. It really is the best way to do it. But tournament promoters won't use it because they want to leverage us at the end just in case they don't get a match or the match is no good. So they need it. It's an insurance policy for the tournament. In actual fact, you know, we go to all the tournaments - Cincinnati, Miami, all of the Masters Series in the States. The first four days, the doubles are one of the most well-attended things on outside courts. They're the tennis fans that are there at that time. I hear and understand what the tournament directors say, but I don't agree with them.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Yep.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Just need to get the chance, once in a while at least, to promote it on TV. I think we actually would have a better chance. If we never get the chance, then, obviously, you can never say it's not good for the game or bad for the game. So that's what Todd says, you know. Everything around, actually, that we need to sort of get into the position and maybe start helping the game. It's gonna help the game. It's a matter of helping tennis.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Well, it certainly helps. Not "the" main reason. That's for certain. The quality of players has improved dramatically. The quality of coaching with sport science has improved. But it's learning to play the game tactically is what a lot of players don't learn. That's what, you know, I said before - placement of serving to a particular spot to get a volley. You know, a lot of guys say, "I'm gonna serve volley, serve and run in." Well, you can't cover the court properly in that respect. I think you go back to the coaching of young players then and teaching them how to play the game. You know, one of the great players of the game who got overpowered was Martina Hingis. She knew the whole court. She'd come in at the right time, she did everything. Tactically from a young age she either had it or was taught to play it perfectly. It comes down to good coaching at a young age as well. Technically, technique is important. But also tactics are important.

JONAS BJORKMAN: It also was an issue for the courts. Because at the time, everyone was talking that all the courts are too quick, everything is just too quick, it's boring tennis. Then they changed it to the opposite, and we've been playing hard court tournaments that have been slower than the clay courts. Obviously, then, it's a lot harder for someone like me or anyone who plays serve and volley to come in and play serve and volley. You got the bigger balls, slower courts. It's not gonna be easy when you have guys hitting the ball a lot harder, a lot stronger these days. You need the mix, the balance of a medium surface where it's a medium pace with maybe with a quick ball, and the other way around. Like if you ask the Spanish guys on clay this year, they thought it was too slow. They don't get advantage of having the topspin because the balls were too heavy. Obviously, the serve-and-volleyers don't like it either because we want to have the balance. If you have a slow court, then maybe a quicker ball. That's what we need to work on as well.