INTERVIEWS

Semifinal: Defeated Petr Korda.....6-4, 7-6(4)

JOE LYNCH: Yevgeny Kafelnikov, after making his third semifinal appearance here, is in his first final in New Haven and will play the winner of Patrick Rafter and Greg Rusedski tomorrow at 2 o'clock. First question for Yefveny, who will be playing doubles?

QUESTION: You've never lost a set to Rafter or Rusedski. Does that give you extra confidence?
KAFELNIKOV: Actually, I played Rafter three or four times, played him once '93 in the quarterfinal in Palm Springs, he beat me. Then I played him in exhibition in Hong Kong, but not real tournament. He's very dangerous opponent. Huge serve, plays volleys solid. If I play him, would be very interesting match.

QUESTION: But I'm wondering if you're feeling now finally, after missing three and a half months earlier this year, as if you're finally back?
KAFELNIKOV: Well, I'm playing all right. I'm hitting my balls well and I'm just glad to be on the track again.

QUESTION: Yevgeny, how much of a factor was the heat today?
KAFELNIKOV: Very much. Very much. You know, 95 degrees, you know, 92 percent humidity, it's really -- I almost hit the wall. I was glad that it finished in two sets. I don't know if I would have standed the third set. I'm sure Petr was tired too. Basically impossible to play. I don't know how we managed to play, you know, one and a half hour, two sets. It was really difficult.

QUESTION: Did you give any thought then to not playing doubles tonight?
KAFELNIKOV: Well, I got to be nice to my partner, although maybe I will practice some aspects of my game during the doubles which will be coming up soon which is going to be very necessary tomorrow. For instance, the serve. Serve will be important key for tomorrow's match. If I will serve well, things are going to be very easy for me, I think.

QUESTION: What was it that kept you going out there today?
KAFELNIKOV: I don't know. I just wanted to win. That was it. That was all that was going through my mind at that time.

QUESTION: It seemed like you tried to conserve your energy whenever you could. If there were big points, you'd go for it, but on other points you'd conserve energy.
KAFELNIKOV: I was able to break Petr in the first game of the opening set, which was good enough. I was trying basically to hold my serve all the match through. And from that stage on we never had any breaks; however, everybody had couple of break opportunities but we were unable to convert it. Like I said, you know, we were both battling with the heat. That was the main factor. We couldn't move, you know, from side to side three times. Just, you know, we were making one step, that was it. It was very difficult to do anything.

QUESTION: There were a lot of unforced errors. When it's hot like that, your opponent's hitting, spraying all over the place, do you get like sleepy almost?
KAFELNIKOV: The key today, I just wanted to play the ball into the court. And I think I did it. Maybe I'm wrong, I think I made a lot less mistakes than Petr did, and that was the key. You know, I just wanted to put the ball in play. Not to give them any chance to feel like, you know, I was going to give the match away. You know, I was trying hard and, you know, that was the main factor.

QUESTION: Was the heat so bad that you might have had trouble getting through the third set?
KAFELNIKOV: It was really difficult. It was the main factor. The heat was -- when the heat is like that, you cannot do anything.

QUESTION: Suppose it went to the third set, would it have been difficult?
KAFELNIKOV: It would have been very difficult for both of us. I don't know what would have been happening in the third set. I'm just really glad that it was all over in two sets.

QUESTION: You talked about being a bit of a different player this year than last year. With the talent you have --
KAFELNIKOV: Let's not talk about my talent.

QUESTION: -- what's the one thing that you think can make the difference for you between after the injury and before?
KAFELNIKOV: It's difficult to answer that question, I guess. I guess the experience.

QUESTION: Last year people were saying you should plan your schedule differently when you get to the top, that you played too many matches. Is that a factor?
KAFELNIKOV: Still I was able to finish number three in the world. I missed 20 points from being number two in the world, which is a huge effort.

QUESTION: It suits you play a lot of tournaments?
KAFELNIKOV: I think playing a lot of matches helps my confidence. I was struggling. When I was coming off the injury first, I think, six or seven tournaments I was unable to win a set because I was unconfident. After that, you know, I was able to win one match. And then from that particular point I started to feel like, you know, I was back on the track again, you know. I felt like, you know, I could have beat any other guys. Like before that, you know, I was so shaky you wouldn't believe it. But now winning so many matches, it helps my confidence. I'm going on the court, I know that only a few guys can really beat me. And that's the main factor. Confidence is the most important thing for me.

QUESTION: What would it take to beat the few guys that can beat you?
KAFELNIKOV: I guess it's you have to be really fresh to be able to do that. That, I think, is the most important thing.

QUESTION: Why is it that you don't want to talk about the talent thing?
KAFELNIKOV: Because everybody keeps talking about my talent. I have so much talent not only playing tennis. I have so many other talents.

QUESTION: You don't want to talk about those?
KAFELNIKOV: No.

JOE LYNCH: He's a modest one.

QUESTION: You talked about confidence on the court. What does it do to your confidence, you had him in so many break situations and he found ways to come back. Is that frustrating to have a player do that?
KAFELNIKOV: You feel you're going to have so many of those break point opportunities again, although it is a little bit frustrating when you're not making those. You feel like if you're in the game, you're going to get those chances again, you're going to be able to break him. But, like I said, it's important to hold your serve. That's the most important thing.

QUESTION: Were you surprised when he didn't in that first game? He double-faulted.
KAFELNIKOV: He double-faulted twice. Maybe he wasn't really ready for the match. Maybe he was too cold, although it was 95 degrees. It's difficult to have a good start, especially on your own serve.

JOE LYNCH: One or two more questions?
JOE LYNCH: Yevgeny, you've spoken quite a bit about the conditions today. When was the last time you might have played in these sorts of conditions?
KAFELNIKOV: As far as I'm concerned, was last year in Cincinnati. I think I played Henman and Woodruff, it was really warm. Even more than that. It was hot and humid. You can never find those -- maybe it was in the Australian Open this year, but fortunately for myself, I wasn't there, I wasn't competing. But I guess those are the two times that I was facing those difficult conditions.

QUESTION: What do you think was the major difference in the tie breaker between you and Petr?
KAFELNIKOV: Well, he double-faulted and he made a couple of -- he made a couple of easy unforced errors on the returns. Like I said, you know, I think I was more concentrating. I knew, you know, that's going to be the turning point, this tie break. Either it's going to end soon or we're going to struggle again in the third set. So I just put everything what I had in those few crucial points.

QUESTION: Among the major championships, the Grand Slam events, which of the four do you enjoy the most in terms of the cities that you get to stay in?
KAFELNIKOV: Well, the most easiest one I think is Australian Open because, you know, there's nice atmosphere there, not a lot of people bugging you. You don't see a lot of agents, you don't see anything like that. It's good to win any major, no matter if it's Wimbledon, French Open, it's a very big honor.

QUESTION: You like Melbourne out of all the cities?
KAFELNIKOV: I like all of them. I like Melbourne, Paris, London, and New York, of course. As far as for the benefit of players, you know, I think Melbourne is the best one.

JOE LYNCH: Okay. Yevgeny will be out in a couple of minutes for doubles.