ATP TOUR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

November 17, 1992

Boris Becker

BORIS BECKER: Well, you know, before I went out on the court I didn't expect to win. I mean, it is always tough to beat Pete Sampras, and how it turned out, it was tough. I didn't lose my serve the whole time. He didn't either. The difference was two or three points in the whole match, and he was the man who played those two or three shots just better, or on a couple of shots hit the tape with the let, or it hit the line. The match was very, very close, as everybody could see.

BORIS BECKER: Actually, that was the only way he could win the point, you know, and then I gave him a low five because I just had to take my head off on that drop shot. I didn't see that one before. But that was basically the start of the whole match. I went -- was getting close, he somehow made shots which are not in the book, and that let cord was just an example for that.

BORIS BECKER: We are one of the best servers in the game, and actually it doesn't matter on which court we play as long as it is not clay, it doesn't really matter where it is. We always serve our 15 or whatever aces.

BORIS BECKER: The court is not very quick, but our serves are, so --

BORIS BECKER: Well, I think he was taking more risk today, because he knew if he is going to miss a first serve I am going to attack his second serve, and he was really trying to go for the lines, with both serves. That made it difficult to play a normal shot from the baseline, because it was him hitting a winner or it was me hitting a winner, after, you know, one or two shots we played, and I guess that was his idea before the match, you know, just to go for his shots to try to go for the corners, and I don't think he played one loose or one bad shot today, really. He kept his concentration the whole time, and it was -- he was very strong today. On the other hand, I mean, it was 7-6, 7-6; you cannot get closer than that in two sets.

BORIS BECKER: Of course it would have been better if I would be the guy who won the match, but as I said before, here you have the best eight players in the world and any match today and then in the next couple of days can be a final of a big tournament, and while I -- I just have to make sure I am going to win tomorrow and then I still have a chance, but you know, it is not going to be easy. You have the best here.

BORIS BECKER: Those doublefaults, in my opinion, were good in the tiebreaker. So I made two, but the guy on the line didn't agree with me, so he said two more for you. You know, when we play like that, we go for the corners, we go for the lines and then the difference is that slight, and it is just -- that was the difference, you know, there is no excuse or no answer really. It is just one day like that and the other day maybe tomorrow I am going to hit that line on that important point, and today, I didn't. Today Pete hit the lines when it mattered.

BORIS BECKER: Do I support the best of 14 --

BORIS BECKER: I would -- how it stands right now?

BORIS BECKER: Yeah, I am also not in favor of that. I would like to see a system where it also counts more when you lose a match and in this system, it doesn't count in this system, it doesn't count as much there.

BORIS BECKER: Most of the top 10 agree on that issue.