TMS - INDIAN WELLS

March 14, 2000

Patrick Rafter

MIKI SINGH: Pat wins today 3-6. Next up is Alex Corretja. They played here in 1995, which Pat won in three sets. They'll play tomorrow. Don't have the schedule yet for time. First question.

PATRICK RAFTER: I think you've got to put in it perspective a little bit. I'm pretty happy with the way it all went. The shoulder felt pretty good. You know, I missed a lot of easy stuff. That's just coming back. After I missed those easy shots, I just sort of look at myself and laugh. That's just part of coming back, probably the concentration. But I'm pretty happy with it overall.

PATRICK RAFTER: Definitely vulnerable. It's still a day-to-day thing. I think if I can keep doing the sort of work that I'm doing, and keep hitting the balls and get the strength there, but also having my days off, you know, I think another really good month away. I think I'll be strong again. Then it's a matter of if I can deal with everything mentally.

PATRICK RAFTER: I was very happy with the way I could pop the serve today. I had good pace, pretty good direction on it. The only thing that I haven't been doing that I normally have done in the past is I've been doing half an hour serving every day. I've been keeping the rhythm up. When I go out to play matches, 95 percent of the time I'm going to serve a high percentage, I'm going to serve very well. That's the thing that I haven't been able to do. I just don't do the serving practice. That's something that's going to come in the next couple of months.

PATRICK RAFTER: I don't think these courts are kicking as well as they have in the past. It's probably taking the slice better than the kick out there. I'm not taking this court as a gauge on how I can kick the serve.

PATRICK RAFTER: Last week I had to. It was far too cold. The conditions were a bit brutal there for me to go after my serve. I'm not in a position right now. If it feels a little bit sore, I'm not going to go out a hundred percent on it. Today I went pretty hard on it. We'll see how it pulls up tomorrow. I'm pretty confident it will pull up pretty well.

PATRICK RAFTER: Yeah, mate. I'll be out there ready to go hard again. As I said in the last couple of weeks, we'll just see how I pull up in the morning. I'm pretty confident it will feel good in the morning. Another really heavy day for serving. Listen, Alex is a great player. But I still think I have a very good chance of winning.

PATRICK RAFTER: Yeah, in a match situation it is. So far, yeah. Some of the practice days have been really good in the past, as well. But this is matches; it's different. Probably on the court in match situations, it's my best.

PATRICK RAFTER: I didn't really miss anything. All I know is when I retire, it won't be too hard, I don't think (laughter). Put it this way: since I've been back on the tour, I've really had a good time. It's been great hanging out with the guys, catching up with my mates, doing that. That's what I miss, in the locker room, having fun, the jokes. That's probably the thing that I probably did miss. But the grind and the travel is the part that I haven't missed.

PATRICK RAFTER: I certainly didn't miss my Stars Programs, let's put it that way.

PATRICK RAFTER: They'll probably change throughout the year as it goes on; and my results, I don't know how they'll go. I've always said at the beginning of the year, if I can get through this year with having good weeks and maintaining a pretty respectable ranking, my shoulder to be healthy and strong, for it to be a hundred percent for next year, I think I'll be very happy if I can have an outcome like that at the end of this year.

PATRICK RAFTER: Listen, I don't think it's really fair for me to put that sort of pressure on myself to maintain a Top-10 ranking. I'm just going to go out there and see what happens. At this stage, it's definitely health first.

PATRICK RAFTER: Today I think the court is a very fair court. I find it quite quick. I think it's a very nice court. I think you can play both styles of games on it. To be a serve-volleyer, you have to work very hard on it, it's very hard to develop at a young age. For me it was anyway. Listen, it's not necessarily going to be dead, but the tendency of the players these days is to stay back more, and the courts suit that in general. You know, you're always going to have your serve-volleyers out there making the game different.

PATRICK RAFTER: Thank you.