NEWSWEEK CHAMPIONS CUP

March 9, 1995

David Wheaton

Q. What did you do differently today than you did in Australia?

DAVID WHEATON: Not a whole not. There wasn't that much difference between the match. The one thing I may have done differently today, I may have stayed back a fewer more times on my second serve and I may have tried to attack his serve a little more, but, you know, there wasn't a whole lot of difference, I mean, the score was just, you know, 7-6 in the third or 10-8 in the fifth, so it is pretty tight. Three out of five set match is a lot tougher. I think he was a little stronger physically at the end of the last time we played because he is a strong boy. He is built big and strong, so he might have been a little stronger down the stretch the last time, but today, I felt really strong at the end and I was able just to hit a couple of big shots in the tiebreaker; especially that one point where I kind of guessed right; hit a good angle volley; a couple of different shots that kind of turned the tiebreaker.

Q. And your serve really came on in the breaker?

DAVID WHEATON: I think I served okay in the breaker. I think I served 66 percent overall in the match. That is a good percentage. I volleyed pretty well. I don't have a lot of complaints. I thought I played really well. I don't want to downplay it at all. But I thought I played real well. Could have cut down on a few unforced errors, but again, you can do that every match.

Q. How was the court surface different here?

DAVID WHEATON: Slower here. Pretty slow. This is perennially, pretty slow, and especially a few years ago I remember slower than clay. Seems like it is still medium slow surface, so, you know, he is better on slow surfaces, of course, and so that that is why I had to stay back a couple of more times on my second serve.

Q. So you are looking at the stats. (Wheaton holding stat documents in hand.) What do you look for, serve percentage?

DAVID WHEATON: I look for my aces; look at all the stats, just to see -- I know what kind of numbers I have to put up if I am going to play well. I got to serve a good high percentage. I have to, you know, more double aces than doublefaults, You know. Of course, it is important how many points I win on my second serve, percentage of that, and so I look at pretty much all of them, and these are pretty general. They are not really too in-depth. It would be nice if they were a little more in-depth. They give me a good idea of something I maybe need to work on for tomorrow or just little tips.

Q. Is there anything on that that you will work on for tomorrow?

DAVID WHEATON: Yeah, I didn't -- I only won 45% of my second return points. He won 56% for his second return points. That is the number you want to have, above 50%, where he has it; that is a good number. That is something I probably have to improve for tomorrow. But then again, that needs to be improved everyday, or I mean, all of them are important. You want to be winning more than 50% of my second serve points too, so you just look at the percentages a little bit; try to figure out where you can improve.

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