U.S. OPEN

August 31, 1996

Arnaud Boetsch

ARNAUD BOETSCH: Well, I was 4-1 up something, yeah. Made his game, 4-2. I start to be a little bit tight, you know. I start to think, "I'm very close to win." After that, my serve was not as efficient as before. I miss some first serves. He was changing his tactic, you know. He was just pushing the ball in the court. The balls were very used, you know. I couldn't hit the ball as I did before in the first two sets. He didn't make any mistakes so I start to be a little bit tight. I lost the point, I was tight, tighter and tighter. Finally I lost my serve. It started to be very difficult at this moment. He played much better than the first two sets. Didn't miss any shots. He was just pushing the ball. Sometimes he was rushing. I got a bit nervous, you know. The game started to change a little bit. I'm very happy to win this third set. Start to be very tough at this moment.

ARNAUD BOETSCH: Yeah. I spent a very difficult period. I didn't win any match. Well, I don't know exactly. I was in a routine, routine state of mind. I didn't change, I didn't improve my game. I was continuing my career, but not, "Okay, I want to improve this and this and this." Do you know what I mean? I started to lose, start to lose again, and again and again. Suddenly, I have to wake up and say, "What's going on in my tennis?" I changed a few things. It started again to be -- I start again to win. That's a beginning this. That's a good thing. I had to change my state of mind.

ARNAUD BOETSCH: Yes. I was working with Marc Rosset. At this moment, I need to change that. We were sharing the same coach. I need to have somebody just for my own. I think it was very -- it was a good decision. I just changed that like two weeks ago. I start to gain a lot of confidence again and feel okay, I'm like important again or something like that.

ARNAUD BOETSCH: It's a coach from the French Federation. His name is Eric Deblicker. He helped me a lot here. It's very good. I feel much better.

ARNAUD BOETSCH: No, I did not.

ARNAUD BOETSCH: No. I was trying to concentrate on my serve, you know, for the next game. No, I didn't notice that. You know, Jeff is a person who sometimes it's very tight to play against him. He's looking at you saying, "What do you want?" Sometimes it's tight to play against him. I was not looking at him; trying to concentrate on my own.

ARNAUD BOETSCH: Yeah. Well, it was nothing really angry. It was just asking me why I was doing that before he served sometimes (indicating). He was rushing the game so I was "Give me the one second just to be ready." He just asked me that when we ended the match.

ARNAUD BOETSCH: I told him, "Sorry, I was not ready. I need some more seconds." That's it. Didn't say anything.

ARNAUD BOETSCH: No.

ARNAUD BOETSCH: I don't live close to him. I don't know him very well.