EUROCARD OPEN

October 30, 1998

Jonas Bjorkman

Q. Is it perhaps fair to say that that was a quicker match than you had expected?

JONAS BJORKMAN: Well, you always expect every match to be very tough. You don't get any easy matches in the game now. So definitely it went a little bit quicker than I expected. But I am just happy that you get the matches like that sometimes.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Well, I think we played a lot of times and I have been managing to really serve quite good. If you manage to put the pressure on Greg, you know he is going to try to hit it harder and that is what he was trying to do and that worked for me perfectly because I got more opportunities on his second serve and it is a different ballgame when he doesn't make his first serve as much as he normally does.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Well, it is going to be tough to make the Hannover, I have to say that. I have to win this week. I have to win Paris. And I have to win Stockholm. And that looks on the paper quite tough, I have to say, but, you know, I still have the chance even if it is not a big percentage. But I still got it. So I am definitely going to try to do it. But I still - what I think I still need is to have Tim and Karol playing awfully -- play not so well so they are not going to make any points. If that happens, that is going to be great. But that is nothing that I am going to think about too much and I am just trying to play solid tennis here for the weeks just left and hopefully have a strong finish like I did last year. And then after that, then I will think about the Davis Cup.

JONAS BJORKMAN: No. I will not say that, but I haven't, you know, I don't have time to think about that right now. I am going to get time to get motivated and concentrate on that match later on. But I got this week here now and I got two other good weeks coming up. And I played very well there last year both in Paris and Stockholm and that is something that is much more important for me now.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Well, we have been having this as a four week -- as a test here now to see if it feels okay for both of us, working together. If that is going to work out - which I think we both hope - hopefully, that could be something for next year full-time after this test. So, so far it feels very comfortable to have Larry around me and he is having a lot of experience. He is a player and a coach, and so definitely I hope that he is having things that can help me to improve my game.

JONAS BJORKMAN: No, I was alone since Wimbledon and it felt really good. I didn't have any plans to find someone for the rest of the year. It happened a few things and all of a sudden Larry was available and I thought that was a good opportunity to see if he was interested to help me out. And it turned out to be that way. So if he wouldn't show up and Larry wasn't available, I would have gone by myself for the rest of the year.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Well, I might have a little different personality then the other two guys, but I still have some chances to improve skill that McEnroe had, so we will see what happens. He might get me on that personality as well, who knows.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Well, we had a Top-10 player since 1974, so I mean, it is maybe me in the best position so far, but we still got Johansson and Enqvist behind me who maybe could help me out if I am not going to make it. So hopefully we can continue that success we had and hopefully one of us will be in the Top-10 to continue that.

JONAS BJORKMAN: It will be very different to this one. I think it will be much more rallies from the back and I played him in Hannover last year which I lost and he played extremely well at that time. So definitely going to be a tough one, but I am feeling very relaxed and I got a lot of confidence for the moment. I have been playing very good before this week and now I have been able to put it together even in this tournament so I am very hopeful to go in tomorrow and see how it will be.

JONAS BJORKMAN: Well, I don't know either. I asked myself that too. But I haven't found the answer yet. But that is what happens, I don't know. That is something you have to live with, I guess. It is going to be there for a couple more days. Hopefully it will be gone after that.

End of FastScripts….