US OPEN

September 6, 1999

Richard Krajicek

USTA: Questions for Richard.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: I don't know. I was serving very good. He was somehow not trying to adjust to it. I was serving a lot out wide. My coach told me before the match that's the place to go against him. I just won a lot of free points. If I serve such a high percentage first serve, it's very difficult to break me.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: In a way, I didn't try to think about it too much. Yeah, it's the last time we played. He really beat me badly there. I had no chance. You just don't want to lose twice to the same guy in a Slam in one year. That really made me sharp from the beginning.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: Yeah, I think so. It's not nice. With my serve, it doesn't happen too often that I have no chance. I always have the feeling I'm in the match. You'd have to play very bad or the guy has to play really good, which I think is what happened in the French, I didn't play that good. But I thought he was hitting all the passes, hitting all the returns. At no moment I had a chance to win even one set. That's very frustrating. Yeah, it motivates you for the next match. I'm happy the next match wasn't on clay.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: Yeah. Maybe the same thing happens what happens to me, he's sharp because he lost the last time to me. Last year I think he wasn't playing very good tennis. I mean, at the end of the year we played a very good final in Stuttgart. He was starting to play better. I played very good there also. I don't know if I'm favored. I mean, he obviously has a year than me so far. He's playing good. He's confident. Finals in Washington, semifinals or finals in Montreal. He's had a pretty good hard court summer. I'm happy after six months to be making results again. It gives me confidence also. I think we both going to play this match -- going into this match with a pretty good and confident feeling.

RICHARD KRAJICEK: I think I serve so much wide that Kafelnikov is just going to sit on the wide serve, that he's going to figure it out a little bit sooner. I think Vincent just didn't want to - I don't know - change his position on the court. I cannot rely on winning so many points in one space. I think I'm just going to mix it up more. I think Yevgeny, yeah, is going to get more returns back. I think when they get on the ball, I think Vincent has a better service return. I think Yevgeny covers the court better. I have to mix it up a lot, maybe hit some harder serves also, so maybe I'm going to get less percentage in, I don't know. Mixing it up is going to be a big key.