U.S. OPEN

September 4, 1992

Boris Becker

Q. When was the last time you played with six linesmen?

BORIS BECKER: Well, I remember I played a junior match in 1984 at the same court. At that match, I think we had four. Yeah, it is all the time on a big court. Even here, grandstand is pretty good. To go out there on court 16, where it's very noisy, you have six people, only, to cover the court, and it takes you a while to get used to, but you know, once I settle down and I calmed down, I started to loosen up a little bit and I started to play the way I can.

Q. Were you discouraged to have been put out on that court? Have you ever played on one of the outer courts here since the last 8 or 9 years?

BORIS BECKER: I think, actually, I remember -- no. I played only on grandstand and on stadium.

Q. What was it like when you found out you had to play --

BORIS BECKER: That is fine. It takes you a while. Takes you -- I was used to a big court. It takes you a while to get used to the whole -- to the new thing there. Everything is much smaller. You feel like you don't have as much space to play on. It is -- like I said, for a guy who is used to playing on a short court, it is difficult.

Q. Were you having trouble? You were talking about how-- getting yourself to calm down. Was that the big battle in the first set, talking to yourself about trying to ignore all of that, or were you worrying more about your tennis?

BORIS BECKER: No, I didn't worry much about my tennis. I worried more, as I explained before, it was so new to me to play on a court like that, that more than anything, my mind had trouble at the beginning, you know, to get -- to stay calm as I usually am and to focus only on the match. There the balls came over from another court; the people were moving all the time. It is something which doesn't happen all the time when I am playing. I had to refocus on the match again.

Q. Have you played on an outer court at any Grand Slam?

BORIS BECKER: Usually in any Grand Slams you are playing, sometimes on a Court 2 in Wimbledon, they have the Court 2, or in Paris you have Court 2 also. And in Melbourne, also, here they don't seem to have a third big court. That is what they miss here.

Q. This court is very different from Court 2 at Wimbledon?

BORIS BECKER: Very different.

Q. Question not about tennis. In view of some of the things that happened to your girlfriend Barbara, do you have any views on some of the screens that we have seen in Germany, attacks on the immigrant hostels and so on?

BORIS BECKER: I am not ready to talk about that. Leave that for the politicians.

Q. Can you talk a little -- you spoke a few days ago about sort of emerging from the last year and becoming more focused on tennis again. I gather you have thought about doing some other things in your life besides tennis just to sort of expand on what you did. Can you talk a little bit about sort of what the feeling was during that period and how important tennis was or wasn't and what, I guess, made you realize that it is something you still want to pursue?

BORIS BECKER: Well, I realize that if I want to reach an age you know, let us say around 30, and to still be a tennis player, I cannot only focus for twelve months on tennis. It is just not -- not enough for me. I have more things in mind. I realize at the end of last year, after that long struggle of trying to be number one, and number one, and then I was more concentrating what else besides tennis, and after I made it clear for me, my mind was free to concentrate on tennis again I knew I had somewhere to go; I had another hobby or interest to focus on. And that was very important to me to find, because I like the game very much, but it is not enough for me. For some players it is, but not for me. I needed to find, as I explained, just now, another interest. That also takes sometime. I did that and once I had that, I had easier time to focus on tennis and train with more desire.

Q. What are the main interests that you have discovered you do have outside of tennis that you might pursue later on?

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

Q. What about the American tennis players-- the Americans trying for the clean sweep--

BORIS BECKER: There was talk a couple of years ago when the question was where is American tennis, but I think couple of guys heard that. Since then you have about eight of the top ten are American tennis players, basically. As you said, three American winners in the Grand Slam events this year. So there has been a switch towards American tennis and-- but still, there are a couple of European players who can match it up. But, in general, I think it is good because in tennis -- tennis-wise, America always had big tournaments and it is important that those big tournaments -- that they have American players too, who are, you know, very strong and for a game of tennis itself, it is better to have good players from Europe and good players from America, so they compete with each other and sometimes they can stay home and it is better for the tournament and it is better for tennis itself.

Q. Thank you.

End of FastScripts....