TMS - THE ERICSSON OPEN

March 27, 2001

Patrick Rafter

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

PATRICK RAFTER: Listen, you know, the conditions were both tricky for us. I'm not saying that, you know, I haven't had good results at night. I played at the Australian Open against Hrbaty, and I was playing very well against Agassi; don't get me wrong. But I prefer to play during the day, simple as that.

PATRICK RAFTER: Well, it was good because I was at the U2 concert and I wanted a late night anyway. So I was very happy with a night match.

PATRICK RAFTER: Yeah, it was -- my groundstrokes were something that sort of shocked me a little bit. I've been working on a lot on my groundstrokes, trying to hit them very heavy and try to put something on them. This is also getting ready for the Davis Cup next week. You know, my serve could have been a little bit sharper. I wasn't really happy with the way I was timing my serve, but I started to get a bit more rhythm as the match went on. Otherwise, I'm very, very happy with the way I played.

PATRICK RAFTER: It was very different. I don't think Alex played as well as he did tonight, there's no way. I probably played a little bit better, too. I served extremely well in Indian Wells against him and didn't give him much of a chance on my serve. But probably Indian Wells was a higher standard, definitely a higher standard.

PATRICK RAFTER: Well, I've done it before, I guess, when I get on a roll and I feel good and I play a lot of matches and I know I'm hitting the ball well that it's not really that surprising because I do get the good results. I'm trying to keep that momentum going. It's important that I keep my concentration for the next couple of weeks. That's all I have to do, then I'll take a couple of weeks off.

PATRICK RAFTER: Yeah, we'll see how little Lleyton pulls up. I think, you know, he -- I understand he's not one million percent at the moment so hopefully he'll pull up okay and we'll see what happens.