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COMPAQ GRAND SLAM CUP


December 6, 1994


Boris Becker


MUNICH, GERMANY

Q. Boris, you might do it for a second year in a row?

BORIS BECKER: Well, it was very close. He had me first set. It was very close in the second up 'til 4-All. I really didn't know whether I'd come out alive even though I had my chances, especially in set 2, beginning of second set I have Love-40; I have a couple of times 30-All, 15-30, but I wasn't able to convert the important points. And then I had my set point and he missed pretty easy backhand, in my opinion, after a few changeovers, and that changed the whole match around. All of a sudden, I was feeling more comfortable and he was feeling the pressure a little bit. I started to serve extremely well then and he sort of put his head down in the first game or two of the third set and gave me the opportunity and the chances really to take the match right there.

Q. Just how fast, Boris, is the court?

BORIS BECKER: You know, depends against who you play. But it is a normal supreme court. Unfortunately, we don't play on that anymore. It is a court I really like, but it is pretty quick, yeah.

Q. Remember when you played your Davis Cup Tie here in Munich some years ago, they brought in a special carpet?

BORIS BECKER: That was even faster.

Q. I was going to ask you to compare them.

BORIS BECKER: No, that carpet court is even faster. You cannot really play from the back or only just a few people may be able to play from the back.

Q. It is much faster than Frankfurt?

BORIS BECKER: This is a normal indoor court. That is how you play all the time in all the years. Just this year, they brought it, those new rules that they have to slow down the game, and Frankfurt was slower than here obviously.

Q. Having lost in the first round last year, how important was it to you personally to do well here?

BORIS BECKER: It was obviously very important. It is a tournament I only played once before, and I lost to the same guy; so the pressure was really on today; make the same guy again, it is just something very funny; doesn't happen often in years, back-to-back. And I, you know, was trying really hard today to be able to come out as a winner.

Q. How sort of eager and ready, Boris, do you already feel about next year; the last few months you have got so sharp that you really --

BORIS BECKER: Let us stick with this year. I think everybody is glad to go on the holidays and not think about tennis for a few weeks, anyway and including myself. And obviously I am excited to go to the Australian Open this year; I missed it last year. And I saw many chance on the television, so I am going this year with my family and hopefully have a good tournament, but I really don't want to talk much about next year.

Q. Boris, can you talk about what you feel about this competition now?

BORIS BECKER: What do you want to hear?

Q. About the Grand Slam Cup.

BORIS BECKER: Kind of an old question by now. Things have changed a lot in tennis. When the tournament started a lot of players thought it was against the ATP Tour and so few players didn't play here because they have supported the ATP Tour. With their new goals how it turned out to be, the ATP, it wasn't perfect for everybody including myself and also we learned a few new things about this tournament we didn't know before, and, you know, many things have changed in the tennis scene and for the past two years, almost everybody who has a chance to -- who has qualified for this tournament is coming here and playing and I think especially, you know, I saw last year the semifinal, the final, you don't get much better tennis than that, so I think everybody is taking it really, really serious by now. Maybe the first or second year, everybody thought it was an exhibition more, but that has changed a lot over the years.

Q. Twelve months ago you were less happy and lucky as you are sitting here. Is it very different today?

BORIS BECKER: Well, I answered this question, I suppose. I am going to talk about one match at a time this week and let us not talk about last year and next year. A lot has been said; a lot has changed here in Munich and I do not want to talk about this now.

Q. Translater didn't get the question.

BORIS BECKER: I am glad I have won today, but I have been playing better than I did today. There were few very good points, but some good points, take the first set and the half of the second, I never really had two very good balls in a row. My serve wasn't very great in the first set. My goal was clear to win whatever way and when I knew ten days ago that I was going to play Wayne again, I thought that was a coincidence and I knew what was waiting for me, what I was in for, but as I said, I wasn't brilliant today, but I won. The goal is achieved.

Q. What about the next, Ivanisevic --

BORIS BECKER: I would prefer Bjorkman because he served fewer aces.

Q. You mentioned the Davis Cup a couple of times these recent days and we could read there might be a new approach about Boris Becker playing the Davis Cup.

BORIS BECKER: That is also a fairly old song and I would not like to talk about this during this tournament.

Q. There was a difficult call in the first set, in favor of Wayne. What did you think about it and did you get some good calls?

BORIS BECKER: Well, he was unlucky in the third set. He lost his first serve and so I could lead 3 nothing right at the beginning of the third set, so it sort of equalized.

Q. With the sensor systems -- you talked about the sensor systems, whether a ball is in or out. Do you think these can be improved in the future? Would this be a way to avoid these sometimes emotional calls? Wouldn't it be reasonable to go on do some research to come to results in order to do away with these problems?

BORIS BECKER: Well, a system would be great of course, if we could find it. Where there are no more mistakes being made. But until now, there is no such thing as a perfect system. Nevertheless, I prefer to talk to people at the baseline and not to a machine, which doesn't often reply anyway, if you ask a question. So I would favor people being at the service line and at the baseline. They make mistakes, of course, but then they are equivalent with ours, what we are doing ourselves.

Q. About this tournament, which is very closely linked to the money you can make here, so assuming you make it 1.5 million, that is a lot of money; isn't it, for people for everyday, for normal people, average people?

BORIS BECKER: Well, this also has been so frequently discussed I mean, there is a lot of money in many other tournaments and it is a professional sport; isn't it? And this is what we are all aiming at. Now, whether it is reasonable or not to have a lot of prize money, that is an internal discussion. I mean, if you were a good tennis player you would come; wouldn't you?

Q. Not necessarily. If I had so much money in the bank, I would think twice.

BORIS BECKER: Well, that is a question I don't want to talk about.

Q. In Frankfurt you said you are looking for an expensive part of Munich for an apartment. You said to Pete Sampras. Did you have a look at it closer?

BORIS BECKER: No, I didn't have time to talk about this. When we meet it is a 25 meter distance so we couldn't talk about it really.

Q. You could have two days off; couldn't you, theoretically? Would you like not to play on two days or would you prefer to play --

BORIS BECKER: No. I'd like to play on Thursday because three days would be too long.

End of FastScripts....

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