COMPAQ GRAND SLAM CUP

December 8, 1992

Wally Masur

Q. Did you think you maybe had it at a certain point there, 5-4 in the second?

WALLY MASUR: Well, actually I was a little bit wired, the way he played the 5-3 game, because I thought, up until 6-2, 5-3, I thought he was pretty ordinary and then at 5-3, there was something about him that just lifted, and he won that game 2-Love, and I was a little bit worried about just the way he got -- his body language, and his attitude, different change there at 5-3. That 5-3 game served out 2-Love easily. Then I made a mistake; first point I made a mistake, got back 15-All, and then he basically lifted. I wasn't-- there was no way I could dominate. I had to basically serve an ace or two somewhere in there to get out of that game. And I didn't -- I didn't serve particularly well all day. But I didn't serve particularly well, that game. I really struggled then. I struggled from 5-3. I won probably one, three, four points 'till 3-Love in the third.

WALLY MASUR: Not too many, no. He sort of is a bit of an emotional player. He tends to play according to the score. At 3-Love, he almost relaxed a little bit; at 3-Love in the third, allowed me to get back into it, and then when he got to 3-All, then he fired up again. So it is a bit of a roller coaster to play him. I don't particularly enjoy playing him, because I really feel like he dominates the match so much, that you almost are along for the ride, which is not the greatest feeling.

WALLY MASUR: Could have been nicer, but I have been very happy with my year. Making the doubles, Masters in the Grand Slam Cup, to me was two goals that I actually had at the beginning of the year, and I have achieved a lot of what I set out to do in the year and I am happy, very happy to have made it.

WALLY MASUR: It would have helped, yeah.

WALLY MASUR: Look, I hadn't thought along those lines. I am not -- I could think of something that I could do with $200,000, but I will have to wait until next year.

WALLY MASUR: Yeah, this is another thing I was talking with Gavin, my coach, and I looked at the way I played in December of this year as opposed to the way I was playing in December of last year, I hit the ball off the ground as well and I volleyed and hit the ball about as well as I could have I think today. The only thing that I was a little disappointed with was my serve, but sometimes that doesn't necessarily matter against him. Because he can hit your best serves back for winners. I wasn't totally happy with the way I served, but hitting the ball and moving, I couldn't have played much better for a while there.

WALLY MASUR: Well, obviously, you are always going to have detractors when you don't have Wimbledon champions and Grand Slam champions as we have had in the past, you are always going to have the detractors, but I think Australia tennis has to -- administrators, maybe the public or the media have to realize that that heyday, with that population, it is going to be very hard to dominate again. I feel pretty proud of our guys, the results this year have been fantastic. We have always had great doubles players and that tradition is continuing which is good. But the way the guys work, the way they conduct themselves, what they put in to get the most out of themselves, I think they can hold their heads up proud. They are not Wimbledon champions, but I think they are heading in the right direction.