GREAT AMERICAN INSURANCE ATP CHAMPIONSHIP

August 10, 1997

Thomas Muster

GREG SHARKO: First question for Thomas.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, I don't think that somebody is unbeatable. But it's very difficult. Because he has a good serve, he has good groundstrokes. His only weakness maybe is his backhand. But this one he covers very well at any time. And just every time he gets a shot it's a winner. Every time he gets a forehand it's -- I mean it's not only that it's in the corners and it's very good placed, it's a very hard shot. I mean there's not much you can do.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, yesterday after this match, I went to sleep at 2:30 in the morning. I mean you don't sleep in the morning until 11:00 or whatever. I slept until 8:00, I mean, whatever. Same as everyone. I mean there no way you can sleep, so I just get like five hours of sleep. And that's really hard when you have five hours of sleep and then he you gotta come out and play and you feel the concentration is a little bit off and you're a little slower in reacting. So that's the difficult part. And he hasn't lost a match all week. He had easy matches, not easy, but not really long matches. And I had two really tough matches. Just one after the other. And that's something you feel a little bit and your not as sharp. Which is not an excuse but I probably could have done a bit better on my own service games and could have put a little more pressure on him.

THOMAS MUSTER: Yeah. I mean he doesn't give you anything on his serve. So you have to concentrate on your own serve, maybe to get in the tie break. And there's -- I mean I broke him once and he immediately broke back. That's something when you're really fresh that shouldn't happen, because you should get confidence out of this.

THOMAS MUSTER: Yeah. When I broke him, when I broke back. I said okay this could be a point where I could possibly put pressure on him. Get him a little unsecure and shaky. But I played too bad on my own service game.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, he just doesn't allow you to do any mistakes. I mean you really have to play that way so that he always feels the pressure. That he has to do something he has to hit a winner or -- so you cannot give him any doublefaults or anything.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, you just have to see which speed he's serving, which is about 120, 125, between this area. It goes up into 130, his first ace was 130. It's a different level of speed. And, no on the groundstrokes -- if you can move him around it's all right. And then he starts missing a few shots, but off his service it's very difficult. And if you return the ball quite good, he's so quick at the net that he punches the ball on his volleys, so you never get to a second shot a or third shot. It's impossible.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, you see, I mean that ball was clearly on the line. Why is should I take it away from him. It's the finals, I mean he was leading. I just felt that way. That's the decision you make. It's not something you have to prove that you fear a guy. You see the ball is on the line, why wouldn't you give it to him? Why should I take it away?

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, with his game, it's very hard to survive two weeks of playing claycourt tennis. Because he's used to playing fast, he's used to playing fast points, but -- he's a quick guy, but I don't think he has a great endurance. But that's my personal opinion. But I've seen many, many times that he's facing that problem. I mean, I don't know. The I way he's playing right now, and the game he's playing, I don't see there's a chance to survive two weeks. Because at the end of the day he's going to miss too many balls. But if he everything works fine, why not. You never know. Clay is much different and he has to work a lot harder on his service games. And if he has two or three tough matches over. Going meet some Spanish players and it's going to be difficult. There's always a chance. I mean never say no. But if he's going to do that, that's the most difficult part in his career is winning the French.

THOMAS MUSTER: Yeah. But you I didn't expect to play well, because I played on clay. But now, I came back on hardcourts, so. My favorite surface. I expected to do better. It's good for the confidence. If I just see my claycourt season is quite positive, and it was a good week for me. Also last week I played good tennis, but not as successful. I had my chances, but this week I suddenly turned it into results and that's pretty good for my confidence, too.

THOMAS MUSTER: Do you think it hurts that Tiger Woods drive 350 yards? It's good. If you get somebody who's a great player it's good for tennis. It's the same in golf. And you have exceptions, and there are there. And he's one of them in this sport.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, I don't know him too well, but he seems pretty mature and pretty quiet and he knows what -- it seems like he know what he's doing. And he sees his job serious and a player like this deserves the No. 1 position. It comes back to your question before. We need somebody who's steady guy who's leading tennis as the No. 1 player, and he is the No. 1 player at the moment.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, I think he pushes himself to lay on that level, because he could be over the other way around. What the hell, you see, I'm just going to play up and down. But he's pushing himself to play on a high level which is very difficult.

THOMAS MUSTER: Because I don't want to sit.

THOMAS MUSTER: Getting bored. What do I do? I mean I had my drink, took my towel. That only takes ten seconds. What should I do, wait for better times? I don't know.

THOMAS MUSTER: What's that?

THOMAS MUSTER: Yeah. For some players. 80 percent say that's it's already too fast. But it doesn't really matter, because if you're standing there and if your sitting there and your attitude and what you're used to.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, I think he was dominating the match from the beginning on, and there was never really a moment which -- there was never a point where the crowd maybe thought it could be a turn around. They would maybe like to see third set, but realistically I just have to say that I played a good week, almost three sets each day and at the end of the day I was a little bit tired today because I had a real long match. I would probably not change anything. I would have slept 24 hours.

THOMAS MUSTER: No. I'm just taking it step by step. I had two good weeks now and I still, you know, I'll be able to play with the best still in the game. And after the good hardcourt results in Spring, I continue to play well on this surface, so there's no worries about the Open. I'm going to be confident.

THOMAS MUSTER: Yeah.

THOMAS MUSTER: No. I'm going back to Europe tonight.