MONTE CARLO OPEN

April 23, 1997

Mark Philippoussis

Q. Mark, how much did your game change when you come and walk on this clay stuff?

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: I mean, it changes a fair bit. I mean, not a lot. I mean, I'd like to think I have a good game for clay. There's no reason why I can't have good tournaments on clay. I depend on my serve. I've got good groundstrokes to back it up, too, especially the forehand. If it needs be, I'll serve and volley, if I have to.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Yeah, they're both great guys to be in contact with, have a relationship with. It mainly was myself mental-wise. My private life weren't that good, needed to be straightened out. If I'm not happy outside of tennis, my tennis is not good. Things are great outside now. Now, you know, I'm just very eager to do extremely well and get my ranking up. Every match I go into, I'm really pumped up, really focused. I say to myself, there's no reason why I can't beat anyone I play against, no matter what surface I play on. Instead of going out there and saying, "He's a good player, try your best," I don't want to be so negative. I think my mental part is also stronger than it was.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: It wasn't negative in my thoughts. I lost the love for playing. At the start of this year, I had a long talk with John Newcombe. I was very close to quitting tennis for a year, see if I wanted to play still. I wanted to not hang around 30s in the world. I thought I should be up there more. That's why I'm more eager on the court now to do well.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: The scary thing is, you're right, I'm only 20 years old. I was only on the Tour for three years. It would be terrible if I lost my love at so young an age. I mean, there's some stages where I did well. I let other influences from the outside, besides tennis, get in the way. I lost a bit of sight of who I was from the start. That's what it was. I just had to get my head back on track, you know, find out who I was; what got me there.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Yes. It was towards Europe. There was a stage where I was going to pull out of three tournaments and just go home. I won Toulouse; got me back

on track a little bit.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Australian Open.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Yes.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Yeah. I mean, the advice was, you know, how you feel at this moment, why, you know. There's no point in me keeping on playing tennis, staying around the 30s in my ranking, which is not me. I think I should be up there. It's just a waste of time if I am doing that. We had a talk of maybe stopping it.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Sure. It was extremely good to talk to someone like that. He cares for me a lot; not just for tennis, but for the person I am. That's great. He always wants the best for me, him and Rochey, included. The experience he's been through, the life he had with tennis was great. It was really good to have that talk with him.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Sorry?

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I didn't think I was going to quit tennis. Couldn't probably imagine anything besides playing until I was retired. Just wanted to fulfill the dreams I had since I was a kid. I knew I wasn't going to quit. I just had to get some thoughts together Maybe become a beach bum. (Laughter)

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: No. I mean, I felt comfortable on any surface. I feel, well, I can do well on clay. I'm a natural serve and volleyer as well. Grass is so tough. I think it's hard. I'm expected to do well this year. It's sort of like you have to get a feel for the grass. I mean, the grass is a totally different game. The game has to be different, your backswing on the shots are shorter; the way you play the game, serve and volley, where you place your volleys, everything is different. Till I get more experience on the grass, you know, it will be good. If you want to do well on the grass, you have to get a lot of practice, get there a few weeks early, get used to the bounce of the ball, string tension is different.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Playing Queen's.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Yes.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Winning Wimbledon, really. I've always just watched as a kid, just the greenery. The atmosphere is totally different than any other Grand Slam. I think there's so much more prestige. Even though I'd love to win at home, to tell you the truth, I prefer to win Wimbledon than the Australian Open. I wouldn't mind winning both. Especially watching Becker, a 17 year old kid, but like a man, winning Wimbledon two years in a row, it was just great to see. The faces of the guys holding the trophies up, hoping one day that could be me.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: When I was like 16, there's some Challengers in Perth and Adelaide on grass. We got to practice a bit on there. 12 years old, it was like in the country tournaments.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: No.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: That's going to be extremely tough. I played Richard last year, Italian Open. He's a tough player. Not only because of his big serve, but he has a big forehand as well. He'll put a lot of pressure on you. At the moment I'm feel comfortable the way I'm playing, confident. Just got to play the same tennis as I am. I feel like my groundstrokes are okay, my serve is getting better each match I play. I'm just going to go out there and give it a hundred percent, hopefully be confident it's going to be a good match.