WIMBLEDON

July 3, 2002

Mark Philippoussis

MODERATOR: Please.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: I wouldn't say it's the toughest circumstances, but it's just -- you know, obviously it's tough for both of us. You know, you got to expect that here at Wimbledon. It's tough. You've got to get on when you can get on. I mean, it was fine at the end. It was definitely a lot lighter the second time we came out than the first time. The first time was pretty dark. But, yeah, what can you do?

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: I mean, I double-faulted once. Besides that double-fault, I did nothing wrong. I left the ball, which I thought was out. He hit a forehand winner. He hit two backhand winners. You know, what can you do? What can you do? Nothing you can do about that.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Hard to tell. I'd never think about it like that. I mean, I would never think about that. If I would look back on anything in the match, I would look back at me serving for the second set.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Like I said, you know, this is Wimbledon, and there are delays. We expect this. Anyway, it was a tough match out there.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Nothing much you can do. You know, just relax. You've got to see when you can get on, get on the practice court, try and have something to eat. Just, you know, you're warming up, get ready to go back out, then it rains, so you have to cool down again, then you warm up. You know, you've got to do whatever you can to get yourself prepared for the match.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Not at all.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: I'm 25 years old. I want to come back stronger. I'm going to become a better tennis player. When I go home, I'm going to train hard and get ready for the summer. I have plenty of years ahead of me.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: I mean, I know I can. I know I can. You know, the difference is I'm going out there and I'm playing tougher tennis. You know, I've lost -- in the last few weeks, I've lost some tough matches. One or two points, that's all it's taken. You know, sooner or later things will start going my way. So I've just got to hang in there, train hard, keep committing myself on the court, keep fighting, and it will turn around for me - I know it will.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: I came out and I fought as hard as I could. Like I said, one regret, the double-fault, you want to make him at least play a breakpoint. But what can you do? I came out after that and fought. I had Love-30 a couple times. He came up with some big serves. You know, it was his day. He deserved the match.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: No. I mean, in this weather, I mean, what can you do? You've just got to hold on and just wait. You know, obviously we knew that under any circumstances they wanted to get our set out of the way. So, yeah, we knew we'd be hanging here all day if it took that to get on.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Yeah, I didn't want to go out first. You know, if I knew it was going to rain -- if I knew the weather was going to be the way it was, I would have also wanted to go on first. But you never know. I mean, I wanted a bit of a rest.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: I play some Team Tennis, go to Canadian Open, Cincinnati, just get ready for the US Open.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: No. When is that?

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: I have a few other things to think about before that.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Yeah. I planned to go to Costa Rica for the week, but I'm not sure now. I'll see.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Definitely, the way he played. The way he played in my match, I think he can do some damage. He's definitely the favorite. You know, it's going to be a different game for him to play Malisse. So, you know, Malisse won't be serve-volleying. You know, he hits the ball well off the ground, very flashy, very talented. It will be a different match for him. Who knows how he comes up from today and yesterday for tomorrow's match.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: I mean, I must say, I thought he played pretty good. I mean, seeing the way he played, I wouldn't have imagined, you know, he was injured or this is one of his few times back. I'm sure he's feeling good.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: It's tough. You can't call. I mean, Lleyton has to play against Schalken. He's not an easy opponent, even though he did beat him at Queen's. And then maybe Tim. So, you know, as you can see, after two weeks of tennis, you can't call any match. Anything can happen on any given day.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: You know, you always want to think that you're playing today, at least get yourself mentally prepared. So I knew, no matter what happened, they're going to wait as long as they could, you know, to get us on. I definitely knew that I had a 70% chance we were going on today.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: I mean, I'm disappointed, yeah. But, you know, I want to keep my head up high. I'm going to go home, take a few days off, and train hard. I can't -- I'm not going to, you know, think about this at all. As soon as I'm out of this center, I'm going to forget about it. I came here, I gave my best. You know, next time. What can you do? Like I said, I'm 25 years old. I've got another seven -- who knows, six or seven years ahead of me. I have no doubt in my mind that I'm going to win this tournament in that time at least once.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Like I said, it always comes down to the big points. In a match with four tiebreakers, you know, there's plenty of matches like that. I'd love to win the match, even if I win 30% of the points. I'd still love to win. Doesn't matter what you do, as long as you win. Won't make me feel any better winning 52% of the points out there.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: No, no. Next time maybe if it's a hundred I'll feel a little better.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Well, I mean, the whole match was like that. I was serving for the second set. 15-40 at 5-All in the fourth set. I'm going to have plenty of matches like that in the future. But as long as I try and learn and keep fighting... Like I said, next time it's going to go my way.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Yeah, you know, they're tough players. Obviously Sjeng is a tough player, too. Every time I go out there, I know it's not going to be an easy match. You've got to fight. Men's tennis has such great depth, as you can see at this tournament, with so many seeds going out. There's no easy matches. You've got to be prepared to fight, you know, all the way when you get out there.