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XXVI OLYMPIC GAMES


July 25, 1996


Thomas Enqvist


ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Q. Thomas, I am wondering why you think it is that not very many of the top ranked players men's players showed up for this tournament at the Olympics?

THOMAS ENQVIST: One of the reason is the injuries. Sampras have injury, Becker have injury. Other reason is that you are not allowed to have -- I mean, you can't have as many players as you want. Sweden, we have Larsson and we have Tillstrom and other players that wanted to play, but we can only send three guys so, that is why and it is the same for the States. They have, I mean, almost ten players who can play Olympics here, but I mean, they only allowed, I think, to have three.

Q. Is it a sacrifice, though, with the U.S. Open a month away?

THOMAS ENQVIST: I don't think it is a sacrifice for the U.S. Open. I think it is maybe sacrifice a little bit maybe, I mean, you can lose ATP points. I mean, if you play well, you can play L.A. which is next week. I think another tournament is going on this week, so some players maybe think that they don't want to lose any points and take the opportunity to play this week, but most of the players I know and Swedish tennis players, we really want to play the Olympics and play for our country and Olympics is a big thing in Sweden for us and I mean, this is one of the biggest tournaments this year.

Q. Some of the players have mentioned that maybe they would like to see it in more of a team fashion, like Federation Cup or Davis Cup-type style.

THOMAS ENQVIST: Yeah, I don't know, you are competing individual in every other things, like athletes here, so I like it like it is right now. Maybe you can have both, like one week you can play team competition and next week have the individual.

Q. What happened in the first set today?

THOMAS ENQVIST: I didn't hit the ball that good today, I think. The whole match I was not comfortable on the court. I was always tried to stick in there and do my best and fight for every point and see how I did and it was very close and I was lucky that I won.

Q. Were you having trouble with your groundstrokes or how did you feel about them?

THOMAS ENQVIST: Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, that is normally -- forehand is normally my best shot and today I didn't put it in and I felt uncomfortable on the court.

Q. When the second set started it looked like you were going to have him and then the rain came. Did that affect you?

THOMAS ENQVIST: Well, I mean, it affects both of us. I mean, it is not fun to play a couple of games and then go out and you lose your rhythm, but it is the same for both players. You are used to that. It is not the first time it happened to me, so I just didn't feel comfortable on the court. I didn't see the ball good today. I was not hitting the ball good.

Q. Were you having trouble concentrating?

THOMAS ENQVIST: No, not at all. I just felt I didn't hit the ball good.

End of FastScripts...

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