THE LIPTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 20, 1999

Boris Becker

MIKI SINGH: Questions first in English, then in German for Boris.

BORIS BECKER: Yeah, I guess that was the key of the whole match. All of a sudden his confidence went up and mine went down. He's a very loose player. Once he's very confident, he just goes for all the shots. You saw in the second set. He really can hit the ball well. But that was the key of the match. I hit three double-faults on a breakpoint. That was it.

BORIS BECKER: No. I mean, obviously against a caliber like Safin, my concentration, everything has to be at a very high level. Without really any matches, the first 30 minutes was good, but then I had a lapse of concentration, made one or two easy mistakes, all of a sudden the match is almost over in ten minutes (snapping fingers). I think that's due to not playing matches in the past couple of months.

BORIS BECKER: He has very raw power. I mean, you sometimes don't know how to use it yet properly. If he's able to use it in a proper way, he's a future No. 1. I haven't seen anybody hitting that hard from both wings for a long, long time.

BORIS BECKER: Probably because I haven't done it that much. I've commentated a match maybe twice in my whole life. Maybe one was at Wimbledon last year, the longest match of the tournament. I was able to practice over four hours my commentating. I think John, in my opinion, is still the best commentator.

BORIS BECKER: I enjoy it, yeah.

BORIS BECKER: I've played a few matches in the United States. Probably my finest moment was the US Open win in '89 against Lendl. Hartford I liked very much. The win at The Masters in Madison Square Garden against Lendl as well, 7-6 in the fifth, I liked very much. I think those, more or less, are my three outstanding results here.

BORIS BECKER: My father has all the tapes. I will watch them later (laughter).

BORIS BECKER: Probably the toughest match of the whole draw. But we have to face it. You have Kafelnikov, Safin. Everybody saw how he can play. It's a different atmosphere. I think you saw in the first set when there's a bit of pressure, he also is able to miss from time to time. It wasn't any pressure in the second set for him, so he just swang out, hit the lines. Davis Cup is always different. It's best-of-three. He's supposed to win his matches against Kiefer, and Haas is ranked a bit higher. You see many, many guys playing these days. Once the pressure comes in, once they have to play well, very few are able to do that. With Safin, he's still a young player. Obviously he has incredible potential. But he has to prove himself. He has to win under a very difficult situation. That's a different ballgame. He hasn't done that yet. We'll find out. We'll find out.

BORIS BECKER: Yes. You mean tomorrow?

BORIS BECKER: If the captain wants me, I will play (laughter).

BORIS BECKER: He wanted me to play a couple matches down here. I'm not just with the name and the team. I have to play some. Ideally, I'm not even playing doubles anymore, but we don't really have a doubles team right now. We have a few singles players, Haas, Kiefer, Dreekman. In doubles we don't have a doubles team. Last year Prinosil and I did very good. Hopefully if I stay healthy, I'll be able to play.

BORIS BECKER: I think it's great for all the guys, there's opportunity to still perform. The crowd likes it very much. They come sometimes to the matches than to the current ATP Tour. I think there's definitely a market for it. Talk about myself, I doubt very much that I will participate because once I've quit with the men's Tour, I think I had enough. I have a long career. I don't want to continue.

BORIS BECKER: I think it all depends on being able to play now a couple tournaments in a row, singles and doubles each week, and improve while playing matches. I think grass is going to help me. I think even tonight's match, if it would be played on grass, I think a set will be possible for me, even tonight. The surface plays a big part. But the key is for me to stay injury-free and now play the next two or three months in a row, more or less, and then be ready on the grass.

BORIS BECKER: No. I mean, from my body speaking, if I really put down the work, I'm still able to play. But just my mind doesn't want to do it anymore. It's 15 years doing the same things. It's something I liked obviously very, very much. It still is a great passion of mine. But to do it like I used to do it, six or eight hours involved every day with tennis, for 45 weeks in a year, from that part I've had enough.

BORIS BECKER: I do many other things, as well, which I like very much. They satisfy me very much. Everything is a bit involved with tennis, as well, tennis-wise, from a player's point of view.

BORIS BECKER: Yeah, that's more difficult with a big family.

BORIS BECKER: To tell you the truth, I'm very glad I'm 31 right now. Looking back, I had 14, 15 years. Obviously, you know, I had a great time doing it. I had lots of success and everything. They were very hard years, as well. I'm ready to pass on to a next stage in my life.

BORIS BECKER: I will stay. I'm the manager of the German tennis program all together. I have a company, as well, who is involved in tennis. I'm going to stay involved in the tennis business, plus obviously there's a new old tour going on and I have my fingers in it, too.

BORIS BECKER: No, I'm not here to talk about that.

BORIS BECKER: I think it's tough to tell for me. You have to ask the young players whether they have a lot of fun doing it. Obviously, it was a different system then. The entourages and the groups were smaller. The players were much more closer together. Plus there weren't so many tournaments all together. It's obviously much less media, much less television, everything, not to be compared to today. But I can't tell you whether it's more fun now than 15 years ago.

BORIS BECKER: -- lendl.

BORIS BECKER: I wasn't good enough then. I'm usually -- if I have the chance, I'm going to take it. I'm not going to slip through too many chances. I reached the French semifinal three times, the quarterfinals a couple times. Every time I lost to a guy who was just a bit better. One year I had a chance with Edberg. I had him a break in the fifth, but that's all. That's all yesterday (laughter).

BORIS BECKER: I couldn't tell you one thing that I should have done and haven't done it. Obviously, winning a clay court tournament is something I haven't done. I've had match points a number of times and everything. That comes with the territory. I've won many matches where I was match points down. The few I lost, I take.

BORIS BECKER: I had an opportunity to really do what I love doing. It's a great passion of mine; always will be. To reach a point where I have to have the possibility to choose what I want to do now. I have the freedom to say no. I have time to think about what I want to do next. That freedom gave me tennis. I appreciate that very much.