THE LIPTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 18, 1999

Cecil Mamiit

CECIL MAMIIT: Two and a half, working on my third. Turned pro at the US Open in '96. Age 22. Residing in Los Angeles.

CECIL MAMIIT: Yes, USC, University of Southern California. Won the NCAA '96.

CECIL MAMIIT: Yes, since John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors, maybe a couple of others.

CECIL MAMIIT: The last time I played Henman was in the satellites when before I went to college. It was probably like '94, '95.

CECIL MAMIIT: It was in the Florida satellites. I don't know the specific tournaments. I played him twice. Both times went three sets.

CECIL MAMIIT: He won both times. I believe he came in third maybe at that satellite. It was a tough satellite. Quite a group of guys, Magnus Norman, Andre Pavel, all the Swedes, Johansson.

CECIL MAMIIT: Florida. One could have been Vero Beach, Florida, east coast, north of Daytona.

CECIL MAMIIT: At that low, I don't think there's that big of a crowd. Maximum of 50, minimum of 10. I think it was the semis of one the time I played Tim.

CECIL MAMIIT: It was on clay. He kind of had an all-around game. We were both developing our game. One of my weaknesses was my second serve. Till this day, he's always been the time of player that put pressure on your second serve, come in. He was a little bit crafty. He was a little bit more experienced on the clay than I was.

CECIL MAMIIT: Exactly. It was long ago. I couldn't be specific.

CECIL MAMIIT: Yes, both were on clay.

CECIL MAMIIT: I was age seven years old. My cousins played at the park. I was just watching them play. My parents kind of forced me to play tennis. I didn't really like that, but it kind of grew on me. I enjoyed it. I started competing at about ten. So through my cousins, they were the first one.

CECIL MAMIIT: Just going out to their tournaments, kind of seeing how junior tennis is, seeing how they compete, practice.

CECIL MAMIIT: Exactly (laughter).

CECIL MAMIIT: I kind of juggled with it. I'm still not soaking it in. It's something I dreamed for. Having the opportunity to play a players who are former No. 1's or Top-10 players, still are, actually beating them. Right now, it's kind of good to look back at that tournament and go forth and continue it, know that I can go out against these great players. Maybe against Tim I can feel confident, take it to him and give him a good match.

CECIL MAMIIT: That's good for me (laughter). I'm actually looking forward to it. I told my coach I'm looking forward to play Tim, if I win the match, because it's been so long. I got to know him during that satellite period. I haven't seen him for two years. Pretty much after that year, he started doing so well.

CECIL MAMIIT: Yeah, yeah. To me, he was good on clay. He had a great game, back then. Maybe I'm giving him respect because he beat me back then.

CECIL MAMIIT: I favor mostly the hard courts. Before, I used to like clay. To me, being such a short stature, I want to play a little bit more aggressive, like Chang. Before, when I was growing up, I was always modeling my game like Chang. With the technology of tennis and everything, I think I have to bring my game to another level and be a little bit more aggressive. For right now, since I'm doing so well, I would prefer hard courts.

CECIL MAMIIT: Chang, he's trying to do the same thing I'm doing. He's trying to be more aggressive. I don't model one player, more to different players, like Boris Becker, Michael Chang, Agassi, takes the ball early, a couple of crafty guys like Arazi.

CECIL MAMIIT: Who is this?

CECIL MAMIIT: I didn't know that.

CECIL MAMIIT: Yeah, it was on one side. I was having trouble with the wind kind of bringing the ball down. That kind of troubled me. He broke me the first game of the third set because I couldn't bring the ball down. I didn't have a high percentage of first serves. That troubled me. But I felt good because I felt the wind didn't bother me in my groundstrokes. Usually I have to move a lot more. But the only thing that bothered me was my serve.

CECIL MAMIIT: That bothered me in the beginning of the match.

CECIL MAMIIT: It's a little tendonitis. It needs to get warmed up. Actually, it's my first match back.

CECIL MAMIIT: It kind of hurt me during San Jose, but kind of got worse.

CECIL MAMIIT: I lost to Draper, what year was that, '97, qualifying first round. But my first ever grass court tournament, I quallied at Queen's.

CECIL MAMIIT: Yes.

CECIL MAMIIT: David Nainkin.

CECIL MAMIIT: Yes.

CECIL MAMIIT: No. I'm really looking forward to that. Now that I broke the Top 100, I'm really excited to be at Wimbledon main draw. I was a little disappointed losing first round qualifying. One of the these days, to myself, I told myself that I want to be main draw at Wimbledon, play in that kind of atmosphere.

CECIL MAMIIT: It bothered me in the first set, maybe because things weren't going well for me. I kind of got a little distracted. As things started rolling, I got on this roll and started blocking out all that.

CECIL MAMIIT: I thought it was going to be one of those days, not looking good, really negative. A couple of shots here and there, holding my serve, breaking back once.

CECIL MAMIIT: Yeah. All respect to him. We travel together. We have the same coach, the same trainer. We travel together. I grew up in juniors and college with him, so we know each other. By his game, he's kind of like the same, like me, but a little more aggressive. He takes chances.

CECIL MAMIIT: Scott McCain. He's with the USTA.

CECIL MAMIIT: Yes.

CECIL MAMIIT: Yes.