U.S. OPEN

September 2, 1993

Patrick McEnroe

PATRICK McENROE: He said I played extremely well?

PATRICK McENROE: You are asking me how I rated how he played? He played unbelievably well. But luckily I just played a tad bit better. I thought it was a great match. Even when I was way ahead I knew that Paul would never give up. He is a great competitor and I knew that I was going to have to beat him 'till the very, very end.

PATRICK McENROE: I thought I played very well. I thought it was a very high quality tennis match. I thought we both played well and the points were good. The points were long and tough, and I felt good the way I played. I felt very good about it.

PATRICK McENROE: It was.

PATRICK McENROE: How many.

PATRICK McENROE: It was -- I didn't feel -- he came up with great shots. That was the way it was, and I felt like I didn't really play any bad points. I mean, I tried to come in and make him pass me and he passed me. I tried to stay back and make him hit a couple of shots and he hit a winner. So that is just the way things went. I mean, I was -- in a way I was enjoying it because it -- it was -- it was great points all the way. Of course, I wanted to finish it as soon as possible, but I knew that Paul didn't want it to be like that.

PATRICK McENROE: No, I wasn't.

PATRICK McENROE: Well, obviously he is playing well. He beat Krickstein so convincingly, but it is not his best surface. And I feel like I have a very good chance, I mean, the way I am playing. I feel like I take the ball early and I know he won't like that and -- but he is another guy, he won't give up 'till the bitter end but I won't either, so I think it will be a great match.

PATRICK McENROE: Yes. It is good to win matches, and I think it helped me more in the beginning of my career. Now I don't think it one way or the other. It is good to play matches. When I lose early in singles in some tournaments you stay around and keep playing matches, it is always good for you, but you know, it is hard work off the court, on the court; off the court, that has helped my singles more than my doubles.

PATRICK McENROE: There was a couple of points in the end of the first couple of sets where I got excited and then he came back, I was way ahead in the third set; he came back and just trying to save it for the right time. If you do it too much, it loses its, you know, effectiveness. I try to 'till the end and do it as much as I could to help it. It was fun. I felt it was a great match and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it a lot more since I won.

PATRICK McENROE: Well, I felt that I was really, you know, this summer I felt like I played really well, and I had some good wins. I lost to -- I played well against some real top players, but didn't win any of those matches, but I felt like I was right there and that if I could you know, do a little bit more and step it up just a notch, that I was playing good enough tennis to really do well here. Going five sets, I feel it is good for me. So I felt like -- I have played well all year really. This summer I felt like things were coming together and I just kept working hard and hopefully, you know, you never know, I could have lost first round, but now I am in the third round and I think I have a good chance to keep going.

PATRICK McENROE: You mean as far as actually playing the points?

PATRICK McENROE: Yes, a little bit, but I knew that I was -- I was going to have to come to the net to beat Paul and be aggressive, but you have to be aggressive at the right time, especially against guys like Bruguera and Paul who pass very well and if you just come in, rush right away, they are going to beat you, so I felt like, yeah, I have been doing that better. I thought I did it better in my first round and here and I am going to have to do the same thing against Muster because he passes very well and he is very solid from the back of the court, so it is going to be the same type of thing.

PATRICK McENROE: He helps me quite a bit. He knows all the players and anything he says I will listen.

PATRICK McENROE: Not to my knowledge.

PATRICK McENROE: Why don't you ask him. Thank you.

Q. Thank you.