PILOT PEN INTERNATIONAL

August 15, 1996

Mark Philippoussis

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: It was very important for me to win that match confidence wise. I think things went really well in the match. Lost a bit of concentration, served a couple double-faults. In tiebreakers I served really well, and that was the key I think to winning it.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Yeah. You know, I've been working on my game to have an all-around game, not to just rely on my serves. I'd like to think if my serve is not working, which it the past in the hasn't, that I can rely on ground strokes or coming into the net. I think I played smart today. I didn't go for too many stupid shots, kept it going on the rallies. If I had a chance to go for it, I would. Sometimes it paid off.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: I said it before, I'll say it again. In men's tennis, the depth is so great that anyone can beat anyone. Like I said, it's not like the women's where the top women dominate. I slipped my ranking, my ranking was 21. I'm starting to play some good tennis now so I'm looking forward to the beginning of the year.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: I think the only thing I'm missing is match toughness, just concentrate on the match. Today I think I concentrated really well, you know. There were some times when it didn't work. I just took a few deep breaths and really concentrated, just, you know, played some tough tennis.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Exactly, you know, feeling great on the court at the moment. I mean, it's just mentally for me.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: In tennis it takes one point to turn something around. You could be up a break, next thing you know you're down a break in the third set. It's very easy. I think the crowd, obviously I knew was going to be with him being an American, but I think the crowd is very fair here, which is great. I also have some support, too. Like I said before, I just hung in there tough.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: It's definitely one of the -- the biggest was in beating Pete in the Australian Open. I think it was extremely important for me to have a win like this because I haven't had a win like this in a while and I needed a win like this just to get my confidence up. At the moment I'm hitting the ball really well. The thing is with me, if I do get my confidence up, I think I can do some damage then. See how it goes.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Probably would have been Pete.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: My serve was up and down a lot in the match. I started off serving well, got a few double-faults. It happened in the second set as well. I think the important thing is when it really mattered, that's when I got the big serves in, free points.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Well, not then. I mean, before the Australian Open, the Hopman cup, I didn't take the pressure too well, pretty much toppled down. Didn't win a match at the Hopman, lost first round at Sidney. Just really sat down and had a look at everything and just really tried to relax out there, not worry about what everyone thinks or expects of me, just go out there and enjoy tennis and play tennis. That's what I did. You know, that win I think was really great because I had my family there, my friends were there, just the support was unbelievable. Something you won't forget for a long time.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Hard to say. A couple years ago it was Patrick Rafter, a lot of pressure on him. That showed. This year it went to me. It's hard to say, though, because Pat came back from an injury and he's starting to play well now, as you can see. Stoltenberg is also playing well. There's a few guys up there. Hard to put it just on one person. We're all playing great tennis at the moment, beating some top players. If we keep on going, I think -- I'm sure Australian tennis will improve over the years.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Sorry?

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: No.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: I don't remember, sorry.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Well, I was thinking I got up to 2-Love. Jim Courier is not going to give me anything, I know he's going to fight back. I'm going to have to play some great points and keep my first. A couple of double-faults, he was back into it. I was very frustrated with myself for letting him back into it. I think there were four double-faults from him. I broke straight back. I knew I couldn't do that to Jim. If I gave him an opportunity to get back, he'll take it. It's very hard to get any free points from him.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: No, I don't think I'm at the top of my game right now. The good thing is that I'm winning matches without being at the top of my game. I think that's very important. To win matches, if my serve is not working well, I think at the moment everything has not come to together. The important thing is I've found a way to win the matches, and I think that's more important than being at the top of your game.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS: Well, I'm not going to really think about it that much. I'm just going to go back and relax now, hit tomorrow, just try to concentrate for the match. I won't get too worked up about it. You just go in there and work out a game plan to play and just play that game plan.