U.S. OPEN

August 31, 1995

Patrick McEnroe

Q. How do you feel about your match today, Patrick?

PATRICK MC ENROE: I feel great about it. I had my game plan and didn't make many errors, tried to attack. I don't think he played his best, but I think it had something to do with that.

PATRICK MC ENROE: You know, the draw in my section has opened up a little bit, so I feel I am playing well enough to go pretty far and physically I feel good. I know I can play as long as I have to, so I like my chances to keep going.

PATRICK MC ENROE: It would be great. Obviously I have always wanted to play well here and I feel like this year I have prepared very well and I played well in the summer tournaments and so I feel like, you know, I am going to play my best and if I am going to get beat; then I will get beat playing my best. I can't complain about that; whatever happens, so obviously, I'd love to get in that position. But I still have a couple of tough matches to go, but I feel like, realistically, I have a good chance.

PATRICK MC ENROE: No, I didn't. I was missing out. It was too bad.

PATRICK MC ENROE: I don't abide by the general consensus. I feel like I have just learned a lot as I have gone on and started to realize what I am capable of doing, you know, and improving and I know I am improving, and I am 29 and I can, no matter what happens, win or lose, I know I am getting better, and if I can do that, then that is why I think I will continue to improve. I think part of the reason is I went to college and I started late. I started on the Tour basically at 22; whereas, most of the guys now are starting at 17. So maybe for me, it is just my peak has come later. I think most athletes in other sports, they reach their peak at 30. Basketball players, runners, what have you, so I don't think there is any reason, physically, why you can't do it. I just think it is mentally tough for a lot of the guys you are seeing in tennis because they have been playing since a young age, 17, 18. All over, I think mentally it wears on you more than physically.

PATRICK MC ENROE: I think it was steadily. I think my first couple of years obviously on the Tour were difficult and I just had to learn a lot of things about what I need to do; how I needed to train and I am still learning that, and really the last two years, I think I have made another progression, so to speak, and I think the next year or two I can keep going.

PATRICK MC ENROE: To be honest with you, I don't really think about it that much. Either way, he is always John McEnroe, no matter what, and you guys still know him. People still talk about him, and he is still involved in tennis. So it is not like he is completely gone. I mean, he is not playing, but he is still around and he is still my brother, and he is the first guy that congratulated me when I came off the court. I know he supports me, and he supported me from when I first started and I was really struggling and wondering myself, hey, can I make it in pro tennis, and he was always kind of my biggest support saying, you can make it. You have the talent. You just got to work hard and work on certain things, so...

PATRICK MC ENROE: I didn't hear him. I saw him, obviously, a little bit. I know he was pulling for me just as he was today.

PATRICK MC ENROE: No, I think that was the first one he called the other night. So a few of my friends were saying that they were entertained by it, and that he was, you know, pretty unbiased in his commentary. I think people enjoyed it.

PATRICK MC ENROE: It has been something that I think it is just like anyone that has an older brother and older sister if you go to the same school and people are asking you, you know, the teachers are expecting -- it is the same exact thing except on a bigger level, so it is not like just because the media talks about it a little bit, because you are an athlete; you are in the public eye a little more than a kid who is going to school, but it is just as tough for someone who is going to school or who is trying to get A.'s like their older brother or sister, whatever. In that sense, you know, it is always there. I am not going to lie and say it is not there. But it is something that I have certainly been used to since I was, you know, when John first came on the scene at Wimbledon, I was 10 or 11, so people have been asking me about that for a long time. Sometimes it has been tough for me, but in the long run, I wouldn't want to be anyone else.

PATRICK MC ENROE: I think probably both. I think that obviously I mean, you can't make accusations like that about an official or something like that without knowing for sure whether or not it is true or what have you in any sport - in anything, really. And so I think he did that and I think maybe that was going a little bit too far. It is his opinion. He is going to have his opinion, but at the same time, I think, you know, that is a big thing and also walking off the court in the middle of a match. That happened at Wimbledon, where there is a lot of matches going on, so the people can say, oh, okay, maybe we can go to another match. Just imagine for a second if it was, I don't know, some indoor tournament in Madison Square Garden; it was Monica Seles playing 15,000 people there and one of the players decide, I am going to take off; I am going to walk off the court. And I think that is a bad precedent to set. Obviously, it is not going to happen too much. I mean, if that does happen at that time; then all of a sudden that is the whole thing; that is the whole show. And I don't think you can separate well because it is Wimbledon because there were other matches; from the fans' perspective, they paid to come and see tennis, and just as fans who go to a hockey game, you know, the hockey team is going to get a couple of bad calls; they are not going to just leave the ice. The people are going to be a little upset. They paid their money to come and see a game. So I think that is why I don't think -- I think the fines have to be, you know, significant.

PATRICK McENROE: I wouldn't say that. He got defaulted out of a tournament. He got enough of, I think enough flak, you know, but sure, he got away with some things. A lot of guys get away with things in everything, but he never walked off the court in the middle of a match. I just think that is a bad precedent to set for that reason, because if you are at another event and that is the only thing going on, I think the people would be upset if you did that. If I were a fan I would be-- if I were at a Knicks game and they decide in the first quarter to take off and that was a thousand bucks a seat - we are not going to pay that anymore.

PATRICK MC ENROE: Well, at least it was after the season.

PATRICK MC ENROE: Maybe a little bit. I guess the same thing kind of happened to Vilas way back when. He probably got more of a raw deal. Jeff is at least not missing six months which they they suspended him for. He shouldn't complain too much about the -- maybe the fines are heavy, but what can you do. He brought it on himself. As much as I like Jeff and, you know, wish the best for him, he brought it on himself.

PATRICK MC ENROE: Talking '91 or --

PATRICK MC ENROE: 4th round. Talking about when I made the semis?

PATRICK MC ENROE: I still think, you know, last year, some people kind of asked me a similar question, you know, and I think one thing that makes pretty clear is that, you know, last year when I was ranked let us say 60 or 70 I felt I was a better player than I was when I made it to the semis in Australia and I think I was -- 31 was my highest ranking, so I felt like I was a much better player and I improved. Now everyone else is improving. Obviously, guys are getting better and better all the time, but from my own perspective, I have improved my game. I am still trying to do that and I still think I am. That is the most important thing. Obviously, I'd like to move up in the rankings. I think I am going to and be at my career high, so to speak, but the bottom line is you have peaks and valleys all the time and you go through some tough stretches, but I think from that time I still worked on things to try to improve my own game and, you know, that is the most I think you can do. I feel like I have done it.

PATRICK McENROE: Sure. I definitely feel like I get support here and that is nice. But I have never done that well here. A lot of times you feel a little bit more pressure. You feel like you want to do well. I have played some good matches here, but never made it to the second week, so, obviously, that is what I hope to do and I think if I can keep going I will -- I think I will get more and more support. But it is nice to play well and have my buddies who come out there who help me, you know, tremendously with my tennis and getting better and my family and so to see them -- to have them see me playing what I think is good tennis and really improve, I think that is real satisfying to see that my work pays off.

PATRICK MC ENROE: Pretty slim. Why, they want me instead of Agassi and Sampras?

PATRICK MC ENROE: I think they are slim. But I will go any time anywhere. They know that. So above and beyond that, it is out of my hands.

End of FastScripts….