U.S. OPEN

September 2, 1995

Jason Stoltenberg

JASON STOLTENBERG: Everything was feeling pretty good. I was hitting a lot of serves, missing a lot of them and combination of me missing a lot of first serves and him missing no returns and, you know, I just couldn't serve there for a while. I picked it up for a little bit, got a couple more there in the last set; that made me happier. In the third set, it was -- gave him no pressure at all.

JASON STOLTENBERG: I think he hits the ball well from the baseline. I think if he serves well enough, he certainly can. I have played him a few times now, and I find it a little bit hard to pick his serve; however, today I did get a few returns going there for a while. He is just that much harder to play when he is serving that well and covers the net well; really hard to get ball past him; got to take your chances. Sometimes you -- in a split second you got to make that pass. Today, I think it took me a little bit to get used to the court at the start. First time I played. Once I got going, I felt comfortable, but he played the big points well.

JASON STOLTENBERG: If he serves well -- if he serves as well as he can, I think he has a good shot. That is his weapon, and he gets in the net and covers the net well, so yes, I do, I think, if he serves well enough.

JASON STOLTENBERG: My shoulder is fine. You know, I can't -- I got no excuses today. He played very well, and like I said, my shoulder felt fine. I wasn't making enough first serves. Made a few unforced errors at the net which normally I am able to make, and -- but that, you know, that is the way it goes. He makes you feel a bit more pressure because you have to take your chances when you can and you don't get many. And I didn't convert on a lot of those today.

JASON STOLTENBERG: It was pretty good. I had always wanted to play there and I practiced there earlier this week, earlier in the week, and the court itself is a little bit smaller than I expected. I mean, the stands are certainly being enough, but the court surface itself was nice. It is a great court to play on and the atmosphere out there is fantastic. I wish I could have maybe pushed it a little bit longer.

JASON STOLTENBERG: Yeah, I didn't know if I was going to hold another game for the rest of the match or not. Like I said, couple of games there where I had easy volleys in the first points of the game; I missed them and straightaway, I am under pressure again and I can't afford to make those unforced errors, and he capitalized on my mistakes and I didn't capitalize enough on his, so -- that doesn't happen very often in tennis but sometimes it does.

JASON STOLTENBERG: The wind was a little bit tricky, but, you know and the sun didn't matter or the wind wasn't a factor at all.

JASON STOLTENBERG: No, I mean, it doesn't happen much in men's tennis and I think we both went for a period where we weren't making many first serves and paid the price, both returning quite well at that stage and in the fourth set we both served a lot better; made more first serves; it was as better set. That is tennis.

JASON STOLTENBERG: His serve?

JASON STOLTENBERG: Yeah, missed a lot of first serves, but I was reading a little bit better than I had when I played him in the past, but still, like I said, you have to take your chances and I had some first serves -- if I got 15-30, 4-All -- 4-3 in the fourth, I missed a backhand and so that was my chance right there and if I had been able to get 15-40 maybe win that game, perhaps I would still be out there. I just missed and that is what tennis is about; miss by inches, sometimes.

JASON STOLTENBERG: Well, last two Davis Cups matches we had -- I had been picked; I couldn't play because of injury and I guess in all fairness to the team and to the captain and coach, I had make a decision whether I could be 100% fit or whether I wasn't going to be and I couldn't tell them that I was going to be 100% fit and in fairness to the team, it was better if I had -- they pick the the team who was 100% healthy. I am at the moment, but I didn't know that, you know, a month ago, and who knows what is going to happen between now and then. I feel good, but we still have a good team. We should be able to do it certainly with the guys that are playing.

JASON STOLTENBERG: I had some trouble with my shoulder and arm injury at the end of last year and start of this year, and it has been playing up a little bit this year, but recently, it has been feeling good.

JASON STOLTENBERG: I don't know. At this stage, no. Like I said, we have got -- there are other guys who can do just as good a job as I can. I'd like to be playing, but right now, I am playing better and I could have more of a chance to play some more tournaments and hope to get my ranking down to where it was last year and they are understanding of that and I was going to try to see what I can do rest of the year as far as playing matches and the points.

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