When you and Daphne will have a baby, will you teach him/her to
play tennis soon then?
I probably would take my child with me
to the tennis court once in a while. And then
the child has to decide whether he/she likes it. Maybe my child would rather
play
a different sport, because a friend also does that.
To put it briefly: I wouldn't stop him/her, but I definitely wouldn't push
my child
to go and play tennis.
Do
you also hang out with the other players when you're not on court?
For instance, drinking something in a bar?
I have to confess that I never or almost never go to a bar. But in my spare
time I do go
to the movie or the disco sometimes. If I do that, I mostly go with Daphne,
because I don't
see her very often and of course she's the best company I can have.
During a tournament I do eat with other players sometimes, but we never
go out after that.
Have you ever thought, when you were 13 or 14, that you couldn't get any
better anymore?
Oh, definitely. I think every young sports person will sooner or later
get that thought.
You have to get over that and let the people you trust, like your tennis
teacher or your
parents, help you.
What would you be doing now if you hadn't become a pro tennis player?
And what will you do after your career?
When I was still very young, I wanted to become a dentist. I thought I
would have a very
good life then later on.
When I was 16, I became a fulltime tennis player and my hobby became my
profession.
I'm not really sure yet of what I want to do after my tennis career. Maybe
others would
like to use my experiences with tennis. I would like to do that, especially
when it means
working with young people.
Do you have to wash your own clothes after a match and how often do you
get new clothes?
Normally we also have to wash our own clothes. But, at many tournaments,
they do this
for you as a sort of extra service.
When that doesn't happen, you can do it yourself in the bathroom of your
hotel or you can
go and find a launderette.
I get new clothes a few times a year. Nike comes with new clothes every
year and together
we pick out one of those things.
A lot of players blow between their fingers. Do you know why they do that?
Most of the time they don't do that to get warmer, but it's just part of
a ritual. These are
habits a player has to try to get the good rhythm for a certain shot, mostly
the serve.
Are you, just like me, also nervous before an important match? And how
do
you deal with that?
Just like you, I also do get a bit nervous. But when you play a lot of
matches, you learn
how to handle that more and more.
Sometimes you can convert that tension into positive energy and then you
can even
take advantage of that.
During Wimbledon you ate pancakes and you watched cartoons. How do you
eat your pancakes and which cartoons do you like to watch most?
On those pancakes I put, taking the Wimbledon tradition into account, strawberry
jam.
My favourite cartoons are "Bugs Bunny" and "Roadrunner". I
just can't get enough
of that.
At Wimbledon, during one of your last matches, something went wrong with
your knee. Didn't you have a bit of a fright then? And would you have continued
playing this match when something was really wrong?
You always get a bit scared when you fall
and you feel something is wrong. Especially
when you, like me, have had some real serious problems with your knee.
But experience
shows that you can feel really soon whether it's something serious or something
that
will be over soon.
Of course you will play on for as long as possible and especially at Wimbledon,
but it's
hard to play tennis with an artificial knee.
If I look into the sun during a match, I often have problems with my serve.
What can I do about that?
We also have that problem. When you practise a lot on your serve, you can
hit it almost
blind. And of course it's also wise to practise serving while staring into
the sun a bit.
Sometimes you can already solve a big part of your problem by just standing
a bit different
or throw the ball up a bit differently.
Are you the future number 1 of the world? And if you're not then: Who is?
Whether you become number one or not depends on several factors. When you
win a couple
of big tournaments in a short time, while the competition isn't doing that
well at that
moment, it's definitely possible. When you're the number 5, you can also
become the
number 1.
At this moment we all think it's only fair that Sampras is number 1. But
that can change
just like that. Just think about injuries.
Players I think could become number 1 in the future are Marcelo Rios, Mark
Philippoussis
and especially Tim Henman.