WIMBLEDON

June 20, 2005

Alan Mackin

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

ALAN MACKIN: Tough going. Tough draw. He's a class player. He's pulled off some unbelievable shots there when I've had him under pressure. But altogether he's just got a big game, so it was always going to be a tough match for me, you know, to beat someone at his level. But I thought I performed pretty well. As I said before, try and take away the positives from it.

ALAN MACKIN: Yeah, I've had -- injured both my ankles last couple years, so it's just prevention against rolling them again.

ALAN MACKIN: It's a hot day, but I play a lot abroad and it's warmer there. I feel like usually I play quite a lot of my tennis on clay so it's a little bit more physically demanding than grass. Obviously on grass the rallies are quick and comparatively short if you compare them to a clay court match. Yeah, it was hot, but I don't think it was a factor at all to be honest.

ALAN MACKIN: Yeah, I felt, you know -- I felt I matched him quite a bit of the match. I thought it was pretty even. But he just raised his level in those important games when he needed to, and that's why he's as good as he is, because he can do that.

ALAN MACKIN: Yeah, well, I think I've got to improve my game. I've got to get better. I've got to play higher-ranked guys on a regular basis because that's the only way you can improve your own game. A lot of the guys I'm playing are, you know, satellite, future level, and you get maybe three, four chances a set against them. They're playing maybe a couple games loose. The higher you move up, the players are more match tight with their games; they don't give you as many chances and you've got to win more of the points against them if you're going to take games and sets off them.

ALAN MACKIN: Well, I'm still in the doubles. I'll play doubles here and then, well, after Wimbledon finishes I've got a couple of challenger tournaments in Nottingham and Manchester. After that, I'll probably look to head over to the States to play a couple of challengers and maybe some warm-up ATP events before the US Open starts.

ALAN MACKIN: Yeah, it is a great tournament. I love playing here. You know, it's great support for all the British players that play. Yeah, it's a special tournament.

ALAN MACKIN: Yeah, I hope they do well. I don't really -- obviously, I haven't looked at who they play against, but I wish them good luck, yeah. It's always tough matches here, though. There's no easy opponents.

ALAN MACKIN: I think it is, yeah. Obviously, I played in Queen's and I played a couple of tournaments also on the grass before Wimbledon. So, yeah, I can't really complain about my preparation this time. I felt, you know, obviously, I qualified at Queen's so I was playing well there and I'd lost, you know, earlly with Andreev in three sets. So I've been playing well. Just tough draw getting Gonzalez in the first round.

ALAN MACKIN: Yeah, I show emotion. I like to do that. You know, in football, in other sports, they show emotion, so I don't see why you shouldn't be allowed to do that in tennis. I wear my heart on my sleeve. That's just the kind of person I am.

ALAN MACKIN: Oh, no, that's old information. I left there when I was about 16 years old. I practice, I do a bit of practice now in London with Andrew Richardson and, yeah, that's going well for me.

ALAN MACKIN: I practiced in a group there that was based at the University of Bath when I was 15 or 16 years old. But then I moved abroad to practice for a couple of years. I was in France and then in Spain for some time. But, no, I'm practicing quite a bit with Andrew in London, so that's where I am really. I'm not in London a lot, but whenever I'm kind of off tournaments in a training phase, then I probably practice here.

ALAN MACKIN: Yeah, yeah, going very well. Obviously, Andrew's got a higher ranking. I think he was up to about 130, his best ranking, so he's very knowledgeable about tennis. He's working together with Mark Petchey and David Felgate. So, yeah, we're getting on very well, and they're doing everything they can to help me improve.