US OPEN

August 26, 1997

Steve Campbell

Q. Did you ever wonder about the draws at the US Open?

STEVE CAMPBELL: What do you mean?

STEVE CAMPBELL: Yeah.

STEVE CAMPBELL: That would be nice. I like to play the big matches, play on the big courts. It's a lot of fun. The crowd always gets into it. It's a different experience for me, playing mostly Challengers all throughout the year. I don't mind playing the big names.

STEVE CAMPBELL: He was just returning so well. He just totally took my serve away from me. The harder I served, the harder he hit the return back. So I just tried to make some adjustments in the third set, tried to mix up speeds on my serves. That started to work a bit.

STEVE CAMPBELL: No.

STEVE CAMPBELL: He was the first two sets. It was ridiculous.

STEVE CAMPBELL: Just mixing up my shots a little more because, I mean, when your serve is taken away from you, you don't have a chance. Just mixing up my serves, getting in more points that way by mixing up my serves. Once I got into the points more, I started loosening up, crowd got behind me. Started feeling looser out there.

STEVE CAMPBELL: When he was serving?

STEVE CAMPBELL: Was it seventh game? Yeah, it was. I think I had a double breakpoint. I don't know what happened with the first one. I think he played a pretty good point the first one. Second one I had a second serve and I wanted to attack it. I was just a little bit early on the return. I'm never really unhappy if I'm going for my shots. I went for it and I missed, so I'm not unhappy with that.

STEVE CAMPBELL: No. I mean, the New York crowd always wants to see more tennis. I pretty much could count on that. I mean, it was like I was entertaining them and they were entertaining me right back. It was a lot of fun out there.

STEVE CAMPBELL: Can't remember.

STEVE CAMPBELL: Oh, yeah. He said something about my earring being pretty big. I said something about he probably needed to get one that big, but he might not be able to handle it, something like that.

STEVE CAMPBELL: No. I'm not going to say anything about his shirt.

STEVE CAMPBELL: What did you say, I'm sorry?

STEVE CAMPBELL: I think so. I mean, it's a tough life on The Tour. I don't think people respect that as much as they should. We go through injury problems, mood swings. Sometimes you just don't feel like playing. For him to totally be in the spotlight like that all the time isn't fair. If he wants to take three months off, he should be able to take three months off. No one should say anything, that's his prerogative. I think a lot of people are too critical of tennis players. It's a long year. There's no breaks. I mean, a lot of times I get burned out, I just want to put the racquet down for a while. You put the racquets down, you slip in the ranking. It's tough.

STEVE CAMPBELL: Only time I remember him throwing his racquet early, I thought he was just joking. I thought he was just joking. I'm not sure.

STEVE CAMPBELL: I feel okay. I don't feel great. I think there's some things I could have done better in terms of going for some of my shots more early instead of letting him dictate. But, I mean, every match you have to learn from. I mean, anytime I can play on a big court with a big crowd, it's going to be better for me. Next time I might do a little better. Always something you can take from a match.

STEVE CAMPBELL: If he returns like he did in the first couple of sets, then he can. I mean, it's up to him, you know, so. But, I mean, there's a draw full of great players.

STEVE CAMPBELL: It's kind of hard for me to say because I've never really faced it before. It's hard for me to say.

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