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U.S. OPEN

September 9, 1995

Jim Courier

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

Q. Jim what made the difference today?

JIM COURIER: Same as always in a close match - big points. Big points didn't go my way, and, you know, that is my responsibility to make them go my way.

Q. Did you feel your groundstrokes stopped him from attacking as much as he would have liked?

JIM COURIER: Well, basically, that is the same kind of match we usually play. He tries to get a lot of free points with his serve and I try to make him work as much as I can when I get a serve back.

Q. Do you think after the way you have played in this tournament, that in the next couple of months when players approach playing you, that the level of respect will be back to, maybe, where it once was?

JIM COURIER: Doesn't really matter. As long as I am playing, hitting the ball well, doesn't matter what the players think. I am going to win most of my matches, if I am playing well, doesn't truly matter if they respect me or not. But the big thing for me is to take this momentum here and carry on with it and continue on for the rest of the year, try and play a good tournament, on good tournament, on good tournament; try and just build like a steamroller.

Q. Is it just a feeling or can you point to something specifically, something tangible, say, that is where I got it back; that is where I got started back on the right track?

JIM COURIER: I know where I got it. I know where I got it. I know when I got it and I have got it and I hope I don't lose it.

Q. How do you assess your year at this point? I mean, it has been a pretty good year.

JIM COURIER: Been a little bit of a roller-coaster. Three tournament titles under my belt, which is always good to have, multiple titles and got quite a few tournaments left the rest of the year and hopefully, like I said, I will continue on.

Q. When you play Pete, is there anything that you try to do, attack? Does he have a weakness that you try to do or are you just going to play your game?

JIM COURIER: How many times have you seen us play, Richard?

Q. A lot of times.

JIM COURIER: And what do I do?

Q. You play your game.

JIM COURIER: There you go.

Q. So are you saying that he doesn't have, you know, a real weakness that you can attack or try to attack?

JIM COURIER: Well, Pete is pretty solid. He has a pretty sturdy game and, you know, basically just, you know, try and basically -- only thing you can do against the top players is you got to stay in there all the way and try and win the big points and get on -- Pete doesn't play that great from behind, so if you get on top of him, you are in better shape, but he is a tough competitor, no question.

Q. What is your mathematician mind's say as far as making it to the Final Eight at the end of the year?

JIM COURIER: I don't know where the points are. I would say my chances are pretty --

Q. You are about 1600. Got to get around 23.

JIM COURIER: I'd say my chances are pretty good. I got a lot of tournaments, too. It helps. Best of 14 system (JIM POINTS THUMB IN UPWARD DIRECTION).

Q. He came up with really big second serves.

JIM COURIER: Pete's got a lot of confidence in himself to go for the big shots at the big times and when that works out, you look like a genius; when it doesn't work out, you don't look so great. For him, it has been working out most of the time and today was no exception.

Q. Jim, what is your prediction for the Agassi/Becker match?

JIM COURIER: Pain. That is going to be a tough match. I haven't really seen Boris play too much this summer. Good mental matchup after what happened at Wimbledon; should be interesting to see if Andre gets ahead again; how he responds. I like Andre's chances better than Boris, but never discount Boris in any match. He plays big matches pretty well.

Q. Do you think Pete is playing with the same confidence he had when Tim was on the road with him?

JIM COURIER: Ask him. Seems to be playing fine to me.

Q. Jim, can we talk about some of the big points. I think it was third game in the fourth set you had three breakpoints. A second serve ace down the middle, but the other two he hit, I think, a 75 mile an hour; then 85 mile an hour second serves in your backhand. Were you trying to play aggressive there, try to put the ball back in play? What were you thinking?

JIM COURIER: As I recall, I didn't really get great hit on either of those balls and I got my racket on, you know, just trying to play that point solid and I think he came up with shots, if I remember it.

Q. Jim, maybe one of your past stretches is the break game in the second set. Talk a little bit about that; particularly, the running forehand that you had dipped down; Pete missed the volley; you had a winning backhand volley, backhand service return?

JIM COURIER: Yeah, well, it is just -- right there is a great example of the match -- he was up 30-Love; then all of a sudden just a couple of quick points and bang, I have a break and the set is over and it is just like that. We didn't really have any early breaks in the match. All of them came at the end of the sets. And, you know, when it happens like that, it can go pretty quickly, or, you know, it is just interesting to see. That is pretty much a good little synopsis of how the match went which is kind of weird.

Q. Tom Gullikson said today for Davis Cup he would consider putting a team together featuring at least one very strong singles player. Would you be interested in playing doubles?

JIM COURIER: I am available. Tom knows that. I don't know if he has made his decision, but I am not playing that week and he knows that I am available.

Q. Would you like to play with Pete?

JIM COURIER: I think we are a good team. We have played well together in the past. We will see it. That is all Tom's call. We will see what he comes up with.

Q. How do you think you volleyed at this tournament?

JIM COURIER: Some matches good; some matches not so good, but I think overall, I know where I am going. I am heading in the right direction so it is a good feeling.

Q. In the first set in your first five service games I think you lost maybe three points total and then you lost four in the 6th game, so you won 7-5. Could you just talk a little bit about, given the way this tournament has gone, and how good you felt, how not being able to get on top of him at that point, the first set affected maybe how this thing turned out?

JIM COURIER: I think it was fairly similar. Neither of us were doing much damage on either guy's serve, so it was pretty even. We were both serving fairly comfortably through the first set and I think pretty much continued through the early going in the second set and then, you know, I had a few early chances. He had a few early chances in the third and fourth set.

Q. Is it momentarily deflating to have that happen?

JIM COURIER: It's pretty deflating to have a let cord winner on set point, but "thems the breaks," you know.

Q. What was your feeling right then?

JIM COURIER: Second set- here we go.

Q. Jim, fourth set you had a struggle to hold your serve. Did you have a problem with your serve?

JIM COURIER: No problem. Breaking his serve.

Q. Did anything happen in the locker room between you and Michael Chang after yesterday's match?

JIM COURIER: No. We didn't play yesterday, anyway.

Q. The other day, didn't have an exchange with Michael?

JIM COURIER: No.

Q. But he came in after you Jim and read him back some of the comments you made about -- he seemed sort of pensive for a moment; then said Jim said that, I can't believe Jim would say something like that.

JIM COURIER: Like what?

Q. About the gamesmanship he was playing --

JIM COURIER: About gamesmanship...

Q. On the serve.

JIM COURIER: I think Michael was a little bit miffed that I even came up which was -- the question was to me. I didn't bring it up. I was asked about gamesmanship, and, you know, for example, talking about asking the umpire about time; get me to play on time and hit the ball at me, at the net, and you know, I don't -- there is not -- it is not unsportsmanlike at all. Do whatever you can to win the match. And maybe Michael thought that I was thinking he was being unsportsmanlike which is not at all. Gamesmanship, as far as I am concerned, is competition and competing; there is nothing wrong with it. It goes on. If it ain't going on at this level, there is something wrong. So, you know, there is no malice or no mal-intention of me saying that and I didn't bring it up in the first place.

Q. Is Boris the best at gamesmanship?

JIM COURIER: He is pretty good.

Q. How interested are you in this next match, this women's match?

JIM COURIER: Should be very interesting, but unlikely that I will be watching much of it.

Q. Oh, come on.

JIM COURIER: I got to shower. I got things to do.

ANDRE CHRISTOPHER: If Jim doesn't mind me saying this, after Michael left here they passed in the holding area; there was no problems. Everything is fine.

JIM COURIER: We are big boys.

Q. Any problem with the umpire today?

JIM COURIER: No.

Q. What did you say to Pete? What did you and Pete say to each other after the match?

JIM COURIER: Oh, just, you know, talking -- he said he was glad that I was playing well again. It was about time; kind of gave me a hard time a little bit, and, you know, we talked a little bit about some close calls and just general stuff. Wished him well in the final.

Q. The fact that you all practiced together; maybe not so much recently, but in the past obviously that has to add to this a little bit, doesn't it, when you all play?

JIM COURIER: We haven't practiced a lot together in a long time, but we have played a lot of matches, a lot of close matches.

Q. What is your immediate next schedule?

JIM COURIER: Possibly Davis Cup and if I don't do Davis Cup then I will be going to Europe, play Basel, Toulouse.

Q. You are going in two weeks, what is on tap for you? Are going home to take some time off and practice?

JIM COURIER: Yeah. That is -- just going to go back to Florida and hope no hurricanes come through while I am there, and just kind of wait and see what Gully wants to do and then make my schedule accordingly.

Q. Jim, on the Sampras serve scale. How good was that today.

JIM COURIER: Real up and down. I don't think either of us served that great, really.

Q. Jim, if Andre wins it is going to be, you know, No. 1 versus No. 2. This is the match everybody wanted to see, the best player in the world against the second best player in the world. You don't really believe that, do you -- those two guys stand apart --

JIM COURIER: I think they are both playing excellent tennis and I think the ranking clearly reflects where they stand and in the game today.

Q. For you to play Pete as tough as you played him today --

JIM COURIER: There is not a big difference -- believe me, there is not a big difference between 1 and 10. There is not a big difference, but on any given day, those guys can lose, but obviously day-in/day-out they have been doing it and that is the difference.

Q. How do you feel about your performance overall?

JIM COURIER: I feel really good. I feel like I go out of the tournament with a positive feeling.

End of FastScripts....

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