US OPEN

September 6, 1998

Steffi Graf

Q. 33 unforced errors. Felt like you never got in a rhythm? What happened?

STEFFI GRAF: Obviously I made a lot of mistakes, easy mistakes. I just couldn't -- I don't know. Yeah, I just never got the rhythm, like you said, just never found my game.

STEFFI GRAF: Yeah, obviously I was trying. But I couldn't really get any depth in my shot. Like I said, I made very early on mistakes, right from the return on. So it was difficult to get a positive attitude.

STEFFI GRAF: The rallies weren't long enough to really set up the point to come to the net. Sure, I think that's something I was thinking about, but I just didn't know which shots to come into because I made just too early mistakes.

STEFFI GRAF: What is misgivings?

STEFFI GRAF: No. I just knew that it's not going to be an easy match. I knew I had to play well from the beginning on. It wasn't like I didn't feel good about going in or something.

STEFFI GRAF: Yes, she uses it pretty well. She uses her serve pretty well, even though I felt she didn't even serve so well. I mean, she served conservative today. I just couldn't take advantage of it because usually she goes for the faster ones in between. But she does use it off the baseline pretty well, too. She has good angles.

STEFFI GRAF: Yes, that's correct.

STEFFI GRAF: Excuse me?

STEFFI GRAF: Just, you know, I didn't have any power on that side at all. I played extremely short. Like you said, I couldn't take advantage of it at all. Usually you can take the speed and try something. But today I couldn't.

STEFFI GRAF: Well, I mean, disappointed, yeah. I'm disappointed right now. But more about the way the match went rather than anything else. I've been playing better the last few weeks than this. I'm still having my setbacks. I feel I can do so much better than that. So I just need to stabilize my game more and more.

STEFFI GRAF: Hopefully.

STEFFI GRAF: Well, during changeovers, I just tried to calm down. Then in the second set, I was trying to push myself a little bit. Just said to myself, "Come on, keep your feet moving, just try to play them somehow in the court." But it didn't really work very well.

STEFFI GRAF: You know what, I always worry about my next opponent, whoever it is.

STEFFI GRAF: Towards the end of the year?

STEFFI GRAF: I'm taking a little break after this tournament. I've played a lot the last few weeks. Probably play a couple of tournaments in Europe. I haven't decided exactly which ones I'm going to play. But I'm taking a rest for now.

STEFFI GRAF: Yeah, I think that probably has to do with it. I've been trying to work in between tournaments. I haven't really had so much time to do that. If you look back at the last two, three months, I was trying to play a lot of tournaments because I felt what I was missing was a lot of matchplay. But, you know, even though I was trying to get a lot of matchplay, I didn't have a lot of time to really work on things. That's one thing I'll try to do once I get my break now.

STEFFI GRAF: She's good (laughter).

STEFFI GRAF: Top 5, in the future or now?

STEFFI GRAF: Yeah, she has a lot of potential. There's no question about it. She's got so much talent. The thing, you know, what maybe sets her apart right now from the top players is that she doesn't really hit the ball that hard. She uses the court extremely well. But to beat the top players, I think, you know, you need to be capable of really going for your shots, too. I think she has a chance to do that, but at what time I don't know.

STEFFI GRAF: I don't know yet. I have to see. You know, I guess I've never watched a lot of tennis on television. I don't know. We'll see what's up during the day.

STEFFI GRAF: You know, when I started playing my first tournaments in England, I had no expectations whatsoever. Really, it hasn't changed very much. I've been really going into the tournaments with no expectations whatsoever. Yeah, it has been -- in times, it has been difficult to accept it's going -- that it is going to take a certain time. But then again, I mean, there were good and bad moments. I knew that they would come. But in general, I've been pretty happy the way it's been going.