US OPEN

September 1, 1998

Jonas Bjorkman

Q. Is it hard fought victory, sort of nice to get this sort of victory; you have had some tough ones this year?

JONAS BJORKMAN: Yeah, I mean, it is definitely nice to get through in the fifth set. I lost a few in the Grand Slams after being two sets to one up. So that is definitely something that will -- that it feels really good to still win the match after coming back a couple of times in the fourth and had my chances and still lose it. So I feel very good about it.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Yeah, I just think that that is the way it goes. I haven't done too much different. It is more that I think I got a little burned out from last year. I played 160 matches and I think my first mistake was that I didn't recover and had more time off after the Davis Cup and I started maybe too early and that had been the case that I haven't been able to get my fitness back. You have to be fit and stay on top every week to beat all the guys out here. I think that is the main case. When you start losing matches you are losing your confidence as well.

JONAS BJORKMAN: I mean, it is natural. You are losing matches that you feel that you should have won last year and you feel that you should do it and you still don't manage to win it, so definitely it is frustrating to lose those kind of matches. So definitely you are losing it, but it is much better right now.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Well, I was kind of frustrated after losing the tiebreaker because I felt I was coming back twice and then the first couple of points in the breaker didn't go my way at all. And it felt like, you know, it is going to happen again two sets to one up and still can't manage to finish it out. I was trying to be really aggressive again in the beginning of the fifth to maybe, you know, get up a break and then from then on just keep going. That is what happened. Even at 40-Love, his game at 3-1, I was still fighting and I got back and sometimes it pays, that you never really give up even if it is 40-Love down. That was nice.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Well, of course, I mean, I have been losing like four or five times in this way and Australia had two sets up against Korda and had my chances in the third and then in the fourth I started cramping. So that wasn't too much to do. But still I had my chances and like last year against Rusedski it was the same case. So you try to avoid thinking about it, but sometimes you can't do anything about it. It is nice that that is gone right now.