ATP Tour World Championship

November 25, 1998

Yevgeny Kafelnikov

Q. Are you satisfied with your match tonight?

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Yeah, pretty much.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: You don't work for ATP anymore or what?

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Okay.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Yes.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Yeah. It was different match than the match yesterday. But, you know, as you said, there was a lot of breaks. I think the only explanation is because we both returned really well. Like I said, you have no other option but just to go for every serve, first and second. You got to do both. I mean, that's why everybody saw again a lot of double-faults, a lot of aces in the meantime. But, you know, hopefully I won't do that mistake when I play on Friday.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: He's definitely not an easy guy to play because, you know, you have one game plan. You know, that game plan not every time working. You got to change your mentality completely upside down to go with another game plan. That's basically what happened. I had one game plan. It was working for four or five games in the first set. All of a sudden, he starts to play better. Then I had to go with the other game plan. Sometimes it's not an easy thing to do. But, you know, I'm happy that I didn't show a lot of frustration when I lost the first set, I kept my composure. Second and third set, it was pretty solid.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Yeah, I'm hoping. "Hoping" is the wrong answer for me right now. I said yesterday I was going to make it. I have to stick with my same answer. I will make it, yeah.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Two more, two more.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Moya, I just said on Eurosport, whoever is going to be physically ready and focused from the beginning will win the match. Our game is pretty similar to each other. We both like to create the game from the baseline, then look for the good approach, then finish the point at the net. Like I said, whoever's going to be ready and solid from the beginning will win the match.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: I lost the point, yeah (laughter).

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: In the beginning, I was zero for seven. Seven times I tried to go to the net, and seven times I lost the point. But hopefully I can turn things all the way around when I play Moya. You know, it's going to be, like I said, a very interesting match.