GREAT AMERICAN INSURANCE ATP CHAMPIONSHIP

August 7, 1997

Thomas Muster

Q. Were you feeling like they are getting to know you here, the crowd?

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, I thought I played a good match and it was quite entertaining and the crowd liked it and that was it. It is not like I have won the tournament. It is another match.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, I thought I played well last week already so didn't -- picking up now and getting into it and my return is getting better and I am improving my speed on the court and I am placing the balls better, so I am getting quite confident in what I am doing.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, I had many chances, that is the way it goes. On hard courts you hit two good serves, somebody goes for a shot and you miss it, then it is done. But obviously I was up a break in the third. He got lucky to break me back there and just -- that is the way the game turns around. That is what is so fascinating in tennis, until the last point is played, you can't tell who is going to win in a match like this.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, I mean, he didn't really serve that great in this game. I mean, I played a great first point. He missed it -- it looked easy, but it is a difficult shot to put away especially under pressure. Once you are down Love-30, you got to do something -- I felt great and he wanted to play well and he got that first serve wide and I just chipped it in and not much you can do. I just passed him there with a good shot that was too quick for him and the last point, Love-40, I think it was a bit of resignation there, a little bit -- just went for the forehand down-the-line. But it would have been difficult anyway.

THOMAS MUSTER: Well, I felt comfortable because it suits to my game better at the moment. I am -- just the way I am playing. I am playing with a longer racket. I mean, it is just -- all my game fits better, when you hit, it is not such an effort when you hit strokes. You can play with the speed of the other. It is just different. That is the way my game has changed. In a way I might like it even better, but the fact is that all my basics from my success comes from clay, but it might have just moved a little bit, my philosophy, of approaching the game, I mean, just maybe changed more to faster surfaces, not grass or indoors, that is something different. But, saying general, faster, just faster, faster clay or hard court.

THOMAS MUSTER: The serve is better on hard court which is more important than on clay. You can get more pace out of your strokes because longer racket you get -- you can hit flat and fast, but on clay it doesn't help you because I mean, Pete has that problem. Everybody is playing more like flat as a pro because you have got to play topspin, topspin, topspin; on clay you have got to aim with the ball and run forever. It is way more difficult do play well on clay. It is more physical. It is more -- but longer racket, I cannot play the angles I want to play.

THOMAS MUSTER: More power, more flat. I can block the balls better. I can volley better. All these things, you know, that is important on hard courts and I can also play topspin. But, it is not effective enough on clay. I cannot get the angles I want to get because it is such a longer racket and I cannot flip it as I used to. That is one thing that -- I said I want to play well on hard courts and I have got to do something in that way and I just or orientated my game in that direction. A lot of points, way more points maybe on faster surfaces than there is on clay, and way more clay court specialists these days coming from Spain, they are going to share those points and you are not really getting anything out of it at the end of the day. I cannot play on clay -- I cannot get my ranking where I want it to be. It is impossible. I know that I can play well on clay any time I want to go back and I want to let my game go in there, I need to change a few things. But, then it is going to be back where it was and I am going to play two, three hard court tournaments and I don't know how many matches on clay and then that is where I have been two years ago or three years ago and I don't want to move back. I want to go ahead. That is what it is at the moment and I'd like to go and play.

THOMAS MUSTER: I think it has been always there, but it hadn't really been my desire because I just had the problems physically to maintain on hard courts for a long time and it still is. So I still cannot play five, six weeks on this stuff. Just playing one practice session a day and just doing less on this, but there is no need to because I can do my physical work somewhere else, in gyms or whatever. So, I just need to spend that one-and-a-half-hour-day practicing, keeping my timing which you cannot do on clay. On clay, you need to spend hours on the court.

THOMAS MUSTER: That is different. I have to go back because I have a few things to do in Europe and that -- it is nothing to do with my physical.

THOMAS MUSTER: We played two good matches this year. I have won both of them. With Goran you never know, when he is on fire you have a nice walk on the baseline when he serves, just enjoy yourself 'til the next changeover. You never know.

THOMAS MUSTER: I played Rosmalen and I had same problem with my muscle and my hip.

THOMAS MUSTER: Not so frustrating -- I mean, it is just I put a lot in in the last two years to play Wimbledon and I prepared well and I played all right on grass. When it comes to the point -- you know, to play Wimbledon and practicing three, four weeks you have to do really a lot for your legs, you need to bend your knees a lot and that problem is that I am just imbalanced with my muscles and my knee doesn't bend as well on the left side. So I am putting a lot of stress on my ham strings and my hip. And, that is the same indoors, actually, but have to really play on a low, low level. That is where my problem starts because the ball bounces so low. On hard court, that is much better.

THOMAS MUSTER: I don't know, I have been three times in the quarters. I mean, it is not that I haven't -- that I have never been there and I didn't have my chances. But, the Open is different. You have got to play every second day; get the best of five. I mean, I could have lost the match yesterday. I could have lost today and just can't really tell. You can lose today, you can lose to anybody, I mean, on the Tour.

THOMAS MUSTER: That is what I am saying, I cannot play too many weeks, not too many matches. It is just this year, I have really won a lot on this stuff. It is not that I played more tournaments, just played more matches; that is the whole thing. That is why it appears to be, you know, that I am taking more care for hard courts, but it is the same schedule I have always played.

THOMAS MUSTER: I don't know. I am saying I have played now two weeks and it ask all right, few problems here and there. But, like I said, I cannot go and play -- like preparation, I play an hour a day, one-half hour a day, no more. I cannot go out there and play three, four hours and then now I am playing a match two hours and go out and hit again an hour, so it would kill me at the end of the day. So, I have got to take as much time as I can to prepare and try to get really early matches to get a lot of time.

THOMAS MUSTER: Gym, I can do a little bit of weight training and running and stretching. All those things, I mean, I can do those off-court.

THOMAS MUSTER: No. Run on grass or something, it is okay.