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ROGERS CUP

July 21, 2008

Boris Becker

TORONTO, ONTARIO

THE MODERATOR: Thank you everybody for attending. Very excited to have with us the former No. 1 player in the world and 2008 Rogers Cup Hall of Fame inductee, Mr. Boris Becker.
The format for this media availability, we will have a brief statement from Boris about his induction and then open up the floor to questions.
BORIS BECKER: Well, thank you very much for having me. It's a great honor what's happening for me today. I have won this tournament a few years ago, a few twenty years ago to be correct, and I'm happy to be back.
I'm playing a one-set exhibition tonight with Daniel Nestor. Hopefully you've briefed him that he's gentle to me that I'm going to look good tonight.
In the afternoon I play with a few gentlemen from the tournament, so I will open up the floor now to questions.

Q. When you look at the past list of Rogers Cup inductees, how does it make you feel to be included in that list?
BORIS BECKER: Well, very, very proud and honored. It's one of the biggest tournaments in the world. I've seen the list this morning who's attending again. It's just a who's who in tennis, and that's been the storyline for this tournament for over twenty, twenty-five years.
Back in the day when I was playing in that final I won against Stefan Edberg, my rival for No. 1 and No. 2 at the time, and that really hasn't changed until now.

Q. How much tennis have you been playing recently, and how competitive of a match should we expect from you tonight? Any dive volleys maybe?
BORIS BECKER: No. I've done that in the '90s. This century I haven't done any diving volleys anymore. I've practiced and I'm in good enough shape to play a good match tonight, but that's not what this day is about. It's about celebration and me being inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame.
Hopefully though I'm able to hit a decent backhand and a good serve, but it's not about the result tonight.

Q. Was it hard for you at the end of your career to let tennis go? Did you stop cold turkey, or did you keep a racquet in your hand every once in a while?
BORIS BECKER: Actually I didn't pick up a react in two and a half years after I stopped. That's always difficult when you stop something you love so much and you've been doing for so long.
But that's the case with everybody involved in sports. There comes a time because of your age and your body that you have to stop and find something new.
Today I probably enjoy tennis more than a long time because it's my hobby. I don't play every day anymore, but I have some exhibitions and some senior tournaments that I'm playing. So I do enjoy it a lot.

Q. What was it like when you picked up a racquet again after two and a half years?
BORIS BECKER: It felt good. Felt like I haven't lost the strokes. I have a lot a step or two, but I haven't lost the strokes. It was fine.

Q. You know what it takes to win this tournament, so do you have any prediction for this year's tournament?
BORIS BECKER: Well, everybody's playing that is supposed to play here. Obviously our focus will be on Roger and Rafa, how they recover from the Wimbledon final.
I was in London and I did television for BBC, so I was in the first row basically. It'll be exciting how both men recover and how others will come close and challenge them.

Q. When you were playing in the public eye, intense, on the court and off the court, when you retired was was there an urge at all to slink away from public life and shield yourself from the glare?
BORIS BECKER: Yeah, there is always an urge that you're not -- you don't want to be the paper every day and on television every day. That wasn't all happening with me because Germany doesn't have many other good tennis players or good sports stars, so natural I was in this the spotlight.
But that's not why we in it in the first time. We in it because we love the game and we want to be successful in tennis. The other stuff is happening on the side.

Q. I read on a few websites and I was surprised to read in the book, a book called Greatest Jewish Athletes, that Boris Becker is listed as one of the greatest Jewish players of all time. You never defined yourself as being Jewish. What's the situation? Are you Jewish or not?
BORIS BECKER: This is not a situation or a point to discuss those type of things.

Q. I wanted to ask you, with the tennis that is being played today, can you compare it to your era in terms of rivalries. You mentioned the Wimbledon final. Do you see that rivalry coming to the same scope that you played in when you were active?
BORIS BECKER: Well, tennis needs rivalries. Tennis is in a good place right now having Federer and Nadal really at the very top of their careers. You know, back in the day, in was my time was Edberg and myself, it was Lendl. At the end of John McEnroe's time Connors was still involved.
Tennis needs players that bring the best out in each other, and I think today we're again in a situation where, you know, whoever saw the Wimbledon final, I was just amazed at the quality of play from both players.
I think that's important. Therefore you create stories. You know, you create superstars. I think tennis has that right now.
Because not only tennis lovers who watched Wimbledon final, everybody who is involved in sports was all of a sudden glued to the television. I think that's a great example of the sport.

Q. The Hamburg trial starts today. I know you're friendly with Carl-Uwe Steeb?
BORIS BECKER: Actually, I saw him two days ago in Spain, and he was about to fly over today or tomorrow. I don't know quite frankly. I'm not involved in the details.
Obviously I support the German Tennis Federation, but I can't tell you the latest scope of who's wrong and right and so forth. I just hope they solve it for the best.

Q. Are you worried about the after effects if either side wins?
BORIS BECKER: Once you go for trial there's bound to be a winner and a loser. I don't think that's so good in that scenario. Hopefully those two sides will find a way before there is a final verdict to find a solution.
But at the moment obviously both parties couldn't agree with each other beforehand, so that's why they all went to trial and looked for an answer that way. It's not ideal. It's not perfect.

Q. I believe you wrote after the Wimbledon final that tennis had a new king, that you basically thought that Rafa had ascended beyond Roger. Do you still think that way, and why?
BORIS BECKER: Well, if you have been watching the French Open and watching Wimbledon, and I'm sure you have, there was a lot of talk obviously about Federer going into the history book as the first man winning six Wimbledons in a row or Nadal being the first since Bjorn Borg winning the French and then Wimbledon in the same year. Both would be incredible achievements.
You know, the winner is known now so you have to give credit. Obviously in the world rankings, there is still a No. 1 called Federer, but I think if you talk to anybody in the world of tennis who is considered for now the No. 1 player in the world it's the winner of French Open and Wimbledon.
I think there's a change in position at the moment.

Q. Have you seen any shift in Federer's game other than you were earlier in in the year when he was sick in terms of his game? Because you see tennis differently than the rest of us do. Or is it just that Rafa's gotten better and improved that much?
BORIS BECKER: I think it's a case where Nadal has just improving to a level that nobody expected him to play. I mean, we all knew that he's great on clay, but nobody expected him to play that well on grass.
I think even now on the hard courts he's going to have big improvements. It's because of the serve. He has a much better serve and much better positioning on the court on a hard surface. I think that's the reason why he's at the position right now.
Federer is playing as good as always. You know, he hasn't dropped a set in Wimbledon through the finals, so you cannot really blame him for playing badly. You can only give credit of Nadal really raising his game to another level and winning.

Q. Tennis fans and many members of the media are calling that Wimbledon final the greatest match of all-time. Would you agree with that statement? What would you consider greatest match perhaps of your career?
BORIS BECKER: Well, I said it right on TV after the final that I thought it was -- I saw the best Wimbledon final I've ever seen, and that includes my finals and somebody -- other great finals we all remember.
Why? Because there was so much at stake. Very rarely you see two players fighting for the No. 1 spot, fighting for history, fighting for something that usually doesn't happen every year. I think that was such a unique situation at the Wimbledon final.
Again, the match altogether, two sets to love, Federer is coming back, the rain breaks, the 9-7 in the fifth set, it was just so outstanding.
The quality of play wasn't really because somebody was playing worse, it was winner after winner after winner from both players, and that's why it was such a great final.

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