PILOT PEN INTERNATIONAL

August 22, 1998

Yevgeny Kafelnikov

Q. You looked a little tired out there today.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Yeah, in fact I am tired.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Yeah, I would think so. Toronto, Cincinnati and here, yeah just, you know, everything came together, a lot of matches, a lot of type on the courts and I knew sooner or later it would happen. One day I will feel really, really tired that I could not go through.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Yeah, it is definitely better, not to feel that way at the US Open, no questions about it.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: No, just tired. Whole body feels really tired.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Yeah, I was trying to, you know, to make the points a lot shorter, so I could concentrate on one and two shots maximum on each point, but unfortunately it didn't work that way, plus Goran served unbelievably well after first game in the first match, but since that point he was playing really well.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: You know --

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: If you can look at the statistics all the time -- all those times that we played against each other it was very close matches. Although I beat him two times and he beat me a lot more, probably seven or eight times, but I feel like every time I play him I still have a shot at beating him. I think all the time we go on the court it is 50/50 chance, so it could go either way. But like I said, today I was tired and couldn't do much about it.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Is is main factor, once my body started, I am struggling with my serve, on this level you cannot only play on the baseline without the serve. You'd need a strong weapon.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: No. No. I still going to do the things what I was doing all those years before.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: You know, that is probably first time that I felt that bad, all those professional years that I was on the Tour. But no, that is what tennis is all about, once you feel tired, next day you feel like you are ready to go, to compete again. You just never know what can happen.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: No. No. Who knows. After that, even though he struggled in the first game, but then from that point on, seems to me he never -- he never had any shoulder problem even before.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: It seemed like he was serving like in a normal day, aces, one after another. Seems to me shoulder didn't even bother him before the match.

YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV: Yeah, definitely I always felt like lefthanded plays have advantage over righthanded especially on the serve. It is so difficult to read the serve, especially, you know, when you are playing 95% against a player who is righthanded you sort of expecting the shots, but against left-hander it is difficult. Difficult to read, difficult to predict, you know, which way he is going to serve, what he is going to do. Goran is a flashy player. He could come up with some unbelievable shots, but he could have loss -- made mistakes in the situation where you wouldn't think he would make mistakes. Today it was one of those days that Goran was playing really well. Even some guys who watched the match on the side they said, Goran really played well.