THE LIPTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 15, 1994

Stefan Edberg

Q. How do you feel you are playing?

STEFAN EDBERG: I feel I am playing pretty well, actually. I had a bad start to the first three games, but after that, I played pretty well and I thought he played very well in the first set. Once I got the first set, I got a bit stronger in the second set and started to play really good tennis.

Q. Do you think it is more difficult for you to start the matches now because --

STEFAN EDBERG: It's just been this week. It was the same yesterday against Stoltenberg where I was struggling in the first set down a break and won in the tiebreak and then felt a lot better in the second set. But some weeks you get off to a great start, then you start off -- this week's been a slow start.

Q. This court, the problem for the serve and volleyer?

STEFAN EDBERG: It is not easy to play serve and volley. I am playing good serve and volley now. It's really -- you have to put volleys away unless you are really sharp. You are little bit off; they are going to run it down. That is what he did. Especially the first set and with the wind, it is not easy.

Q. Have you re-prioritized your things since you have been a father? How important is tennis, as important, a little different?

STEFAN EDBERG: I feel good playing tennis at the moment because I am hitting the ball well and I am working as hard as I have ever done. It is just, I think in order to play top tennis, you need to concentrate on tennis, I am, but the time that is left over, I am concentrating playing, you know, spending with my family. It works very, very well, where we travel all together in most of the tournaments. It keeps me very happy on and off-court. I am just feeling good about my life. That is one thing why I am playing well now.

Q. Do you think that to stay at the top of the game you need something like a second life or to change your mind or --

STEFAN EDBERG: Well, I think once you are at work, I think it is very, very important that you really are focused on what you are doing; that you work right from the beginning, from the start until the practice is over; that you are organized in what you are doing. Just make sure that you always go away from the tennis, it can just be for three, four hours in the afternoon. Maybe you take the car and go somewhere just to do something else. It takes your mind off of tennis. You got to live and eat with tennis most of the day. Now it is time to prepare for the next match, okay, I got a day off, so I can relax a little bit today. Get my mind on working on what I am going to do tomorrow in order to prepare against a guy I am playing. So once I am at the tournament, I am really trying to focus as hard as I can. Then once the tournament is over, fine, do whatever you want.

Q. Where would you take the car and drive?

STEFAN EDBERG: Oh, I can go down to -- I can take the tram and go to the beach. I can take the car and go to a shopping center or whatever you want to do, just in order to get away. Go to the movies and, you know, it is just that I find it is important, just for a couple of hours. Doesn't have to be more.

Q. Have you done that this week, and if so, have you been bothered or stopped or --

STEFAN EDBERG: No, it's been very, very quiet. Can you imagine in Palm Springs, I went to the shopping center with Annette for an hour and nobody recognized me. That is the first time in a very long time.

Q. Did you like that?

STEFAN EDBERG: It was kind of nice, actually. It was really -- didn't have to sign one autograph.

Q. Things are slipping?

STEFAN EDBERG: Things are slipping. Yeah.

Q. Stefan, was there a time when you were completely focused on tennis, where you didn't -- obviously, you didn't have a family -- completely focused in and was that not a good thing?

STEFAN EDBERG: Well, you need to. I think I have always been pretty focused on what I am doing. Sometimes you are not for periods, but you can soon see it in the results by not playing well. I think I am being very disciplined with what I have been doing, always been working hard. For me it hasn't really been a big problem, not being focused, because if I want to do something, I want to try to do it the best way I can. Whether it is tennis or something else, I really want to do a good job.

Q. Do you feel you control the attention you get from the public, to a certain extent, because I mean Andre obviously has -- you kind of have a private life?

STEFAN EDBERG: Sure. You can control how much you want to go public, or what you want to do. I mean, he is in a different league, what I call, and I am quiet about what I am doing. I am living pretty normal like anybody else, maybe Andre or even Boris shows up with 10 people around him and you sort of -- that draws attention, but once -- it is like sometimes it is even better just to walk around on your own here. When you have the security guys, it creates attention and people start looking. You walk on your own, you have less problems. So it is a matter of not drawing too much attention and it is also how much time you want to spend on television; how much time you want to spend with the press doing feature stories and things like that. It is really how much you want to push yourself. I try to keep my level pretty stable; doing a few pieces here and there, but pretty conservative, to say the least.

Q. Tennis is not the most important thing in your life anymore. Do you feel you can keep focused in spite of that, the eagerness to win and to succeed?

STEFAN EDBERG: I think you can to an extent. Okay, tennis is not the most important thing, but it is still very important because I feel if I am playing well on the court, I am going to be a lot happier off the court. That really works. If I am not playing well, that means I have to spend more hours working trying to put things right. That is sometimes a little bit frustrating so you might as well keep yourself in good shape and you are happy on and off court. It is pretty simple.

Q. It would work the other way as well, wouldn't it?

STEFAN EDBERG: Not playing well or --

Q. No. If you are happy off-court, you are going to be happy on-court?

STEFAN EDBERG: Yeah, that is what it is. I am playing well at the moment. I am happy off-court, but even sometimes, you can be happy, if you are not working, you are going to let it slip and usually have to spend more time working your way back, so for me it is pretty simple.

Q. Thank you.

End of FastScripts....