28th August, 1999

Three not a crowd

My hopes of winning the US Open for the third year in a row will revolve around my first couple of matches this week.

If I can survive the first match against Cedric Pioline, who's extremely talented and a former US Open and Wimbledon finalist, I think I'll have a great chance of having another good crack at it.

I'm a confidence-and-roll kind of guy, I tend to play gradually better and better - and it's then that my confidence builds and I get on a roll.

That was the case last year when I almost lost in the first round to Hicham Arazi - I was down two sets to love and 15-40 in my first service game in the third set - before managing to scrape through.

Once I won that match, I got on a huge roll and didn't drop another set until the fourth round, when I beat Goran Ivanisevic in four sets. I then beat Jonas Bjorkman in four, Pete Sampras in five and Mark Philippoussis in four in the final.

It seems a long time ago now, but just walking through the gates at Flushing Meadow gave me a real buzz.

I felt comfortable returning to the US Open last year because of the win in '97. It was even more comforting coming back this year. It's a case of knowing what I have to do to win. That's not to say I will win, because a lot of things can go wrong.

I'm anxious to avoid any first-round dramas against Pioline. He led me two-sets-to-love in a Davis Cup in Sydney twoyears ago. I don't want anything like that this week.

The women's event will be poorer for the absence of Steffi Graf and Anna Kournikova, but it will be interesting to watch how Jelena Dokic performs under the increased pressure she's sure to have.

I desperately want to win three in a row, but I'm realistic about it. If I lose, I lose and there won't be any complaints. If I win, I can't imagine how I'll feel.