US OPEN

August 31, 2000

Richard Krajicek

MODERATOR: Questions for Richard.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: I had a little bit of an upset stomach. Woke up feeling not that great. At the beginning of the match, got warm pretty quick. When you're not feeling a hundred percent, the heat affects you a little bit more, in combination with the humidity. In the beginning, I felt it would go away by itself. Sometimes you just have to sweat it out a little bit, which you do enough on these kind of days, these kind of conditions. Beginning of the second, I thought, "I'm just going to ask for the trainer." Most of the time they have a simple anti-acid pill, whatever. That helps quicker. I just got enough of it. You know, I felt like stomach more and more. I didn't want it to break my concentration. As soon as you start to really think about something or feel it all the time, you lose the focus of the match a little bit. He came on, yeah. I waited at the changeover. It took a little bit longer before he came. Then I had two and a half, three minutes time-out, so I think I was sitting for about six minutes. I think the clouds came a little bit, I got the medications. All those things really helped me. As soon as I got up, I felt fresh and much better, much sharper. I think it's only temporary, like for a couple hours, that I feel a little bit like that. It's nothing to worry about. What the trainer thought, because the stomach is upset, I drink water, but the body doesn't get it. Basically you are dehydrating pretty rapidly, especially in these conditions. That's why you have to get the stomach working as quick as possible.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: With Tim?

RICHARD KRAJICEK: I think we only played three matches.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: One was in the States on neutral ground. I beat him, of course (laughter). I think all three were pretty memorable. Tim beat me in my title defense at Wimbledon. It was a very close match, tiebreaker in the third set. I had chances to go two-sets-to-one up. I didn't make that. He beat me the next day in the fourth set. In London, I was serving for the match against him, one set up. I lost it like 7-5 in the third, I think, or even 7-6 in the third. Then in the States, he had like eight or nine match points, and I beat him 7-6 in the third. We've had really, really tight matches, especially the one in the States I have good memories about. I remember there was a night match in New Haven. It was -- I remember the crowd really enjoyed it. In general, we have very nice, competitive matches, good battles, even though we have similar styles, sometimes contrasting styles, sometimes nicer to watch. We both like to come in, we're both very aggressive. Yeah, normally I always have a good memory of Tim. Somehow he brings out the best of me. I think I bring a lot of good out of him also.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: I think I'm playing pretty good. Obviously result-wise I'm not that happy with what happened. My ranking dropped a little bit. I was struggling a little bit with draws. First round in Toronto, I played against Magnus Norman. First round in Cincinnati, I played against Yevgeny Kafelnikov. It's tough. Even though I felt I was playing good, in Toronto I won two rounds, and Cincinnati I felt I played a pretty good match. You play Kafelnikov, sometimes even if you play good, you can lose to him. Tennis-wise, it always felt good, but the results weren't that great. Last week I won two matches. This week already I won two matches. It's getting better. Yeah, in a way I feel good. It's nice to have maybe a final or a semifinal in the recent past. Yeah, I had one in Long Island, but it was with a walk-over in the quarterfinals against Moya. It's not really a great achievement. I feel okay. I think Tim has achieved more in the summer, of course, a better summer. But I think it's going to be a good match. Today I already was far happier with a few things that I was maybe doing less good in the first match.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: Yes and no. I mean, he's got the ability. For me, when I see in Cincinnati this year, I think that that's maybe a very important step. I think he beat Sampras there. I think he made his best result in a Masters Series. I think he made a step there. Sometimes guys can make a step in a very short period. For him maybe it took longer. He's been very consistent over the years, but... He's been making good results, but not really winning tournaments. I think what he did in Cincinnati maybe is going to, in the next six months, going to prove that he really made it to the next step. I think he's going to do better than maybe he did even before, which I think he did very consistent. It sometimes takes longer with guys. But I think you just have to wait and see.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: I think he's pretty good on grass. It is a little bit -- hard court is a little bit nicer because you can really, yeah, play a different kind of style of tennis. Maybe if you're not feeling that good on your serve-and-volley, you can stay back a little bit more, try to get the rhythm like that. On grass, even if your serve-and-volley game doesn't feel so good, you're still forced to play serve-and-volley. There are less options. But if everything goes good on grass, grass is a great surface to play on. Hard court, yeah, gives you more chances. Obviously he feels good with his all-around game, that maybe he feels less pressure to always come in. I mean, he's done well in the past at Wimbledon. Maybe this year was a little bit disappointing. I'd have to say in general, I think so far he's done better on grass. Maybe it's because in England the people support him. He's a good hard court player, but for the moment he's done better on grass.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: The courts I think are okay, just the balls are always very quick. It's by far the quickest balls of the year. I'd say Australia this year I remember I thought was very quick also. Especially coming off the grass where they make the ball so slow and so heavy, it's always a big change. It's funny, at least that's what I see, the first couple of days in practice. In Toronto, the guys are really missing the ball by a long way sometime because they have to get the touch of the ball, they have to change the stringing to go a little bit up in tension. I think it's more the balls that make the play quicker than the courts. The courts I think are okay, but the balls, if they wanted some more rallies, maybe they should have made the balls a little bit slower. I think it's still a relatively fair court. I can play serve-and-volley. If I don't play good serve-and-volley, I still get punished by a baseliner.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: Good, thanks.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: No. At the moment I'm very happy. Played a couple weeks on hard court now. I've been very good.