THE LIPTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 18, 1995

Todd Martin

Q. How much of it did you feel was you tonight and how much of it was he responsible for the result?

TODD MARTIN: Well, I really think Todd played great and when your opponent plays great, that makes you have to make you play better. And I didn't play better. He kept forcing me to come up with better and better shots and do more and more with the ball and I never did that nor did I ever cause him any grief to where he was missing. So my answer is, he played great, and unfortunately, I wasn't able to play -- raise the level of my play enough to -- well, at least get through that second set.

Q. Do you believe in momentum, that if it had gotten out of a tiebreaker you might have --

TODD MARTIN: I think if I had won the tiebreaker I am certainly in charge of the match, yeah. He had some opportunities in the second and -- especially, after losing the first matchpoint, I felt like I was in pretty good shape. He just played some good points and you can't really -- I can't really complain too much about that; just getting to the point where I am at 6-All in the second set tiebreaker just to stay in the match, I think nine times out of ten, hopefully I do not put myself into that position, but tonight I was.

Q. Any particular reason why you couldn't raise your game tonight?

TODD MARTIN: I don't have the reason. I am sure there are plenty of reasons. The reason is not known by me. Do you know? If you do, tell me.

Q. What is next on your agenda?

TODD MARTIN: Doubles tomorrow at fifth match. After that, I have got a few weeks off until my next -- well, after that we are going to play again on Wednesday, Monday or Tuesday, one of those days, hopefully.

Q. Next tournament?

TODD MARTIN: My next singles event is Bermuda in a few weeks, so I am going to head back up to Michigan and spend some time with my folks and do a fund raiser for the National Junior Tennis Chapter up there.

Q. Didn't the fact that you are now sort of a top 10 status type player, is this sort of thing that shouldn't happen, do you think -- is this kind of a let-down --

TODD MARTIN: Well, like I said, I really think he played great and -- geez, three or four years ago when he was playing very well, he was doing this fairly often, I think, beating some of the better players, this is, by far, the best I have seen him play in a long time. I don't think it was too much a let-down, but, you know, there is certain things that didn't work out there that I usually can rely on and a that gets you down within even more than just being down. When your bread and butter doesn't work and your opponent seems to be playing very well, things really start to look blue.

Q. How do you assess your confidence level right now?

TODD MARTIN: Well, my confidence level, I think, is fairly high. I played poorly tonight, but I felt like in the past few weeks I have played pretty well. I have never played well here before and maybe it is the conditions; maybe it is me, I don't know. But my confidence level, is, I think, fairly high. It is not as high as I'd like it to be, but I think in order for that to happen, I need to start enjoying myself a little bit more and being -- be a little bit more willing to do the work to get through these tough first round matches instead of going out and letting myself get into a hole like today. I have done a pretty good job of it so far this year not starting tournaments poorly, but this one I can't say the same about.

Q. Is doubles going to be a good way to relax...

TODD MARTIN: Doubles will be fun. I am looking forward to it, but it's going to be hard to sit around here this week and only play doubles. These nine events that the ATP has, Super 9, they are fun events to look forward to and when you get your hopes up and then run into Pete last week and having Todd play well against me today, it is just pretty disappointing and I haven't had too much success in them in the last couple of years since Montreal in '93 and I don't know if it is my preparation or if it is just some bad luck, but it is getting to be a little disappointing.

Q. How often do you get to participate in your NJTL?

TODD MARTIN: We have two fund-raisers-- I am sorry, this is only the second year of our existence. Last year we had two fund-raisers and we have two fund-raisers planned for this year and then I have a chance to spend a little bit more time in the summer back home between tournaments here and there. And so I go out and spend a day or so every time I am back in Lansing; going out and seeing how the kids are progressing and then in the winter there is just maybe two kids that are scholarship students that get to take classes throughout the winter at a private club and I had see them over Christmas the whole time I was home; all their classes were canceled. It is not as much time as I like, but it is enjoyable when I am there.

Q. How much did you raise last year?

TODD MARTIN: Fortunately enough, I am not too involved with the money, so I knew at one point and it was more than enough to keep the program running for the rest of this year, but we are going to keep needing to have fund-raisers and hopefully they will keep being successful. If I start to win a few more matches here and there, maybe they will be, but. . .

Q. You play an exhibition with --

TODD MARTIN: One is just a weekend of sort of me in different situations with just a mixer clinic, ProAm type things, and that is the one that is coming up in a couple of weeks and the other one we have an exhibition with another player. Last year was MaliVai. This year I have talked to a few players and we haven't decided on who is coming yet.

Q. How many kids are involved?

TODD MARTIN: Last year a little over 100. Hopefully, the number will keep going up.

Q. How did you get involved in this?

TODD MARTIN: Well, my coach from Lansing Rick Ferman talked to me a couple of years ago as I started to do a little better suggested that that I think about doing something like start a charity now that I was getting a little bit more publicity in Lansing and it was starting to be a possibility of me being able to do something for the community, and when he suggested that to me, we came up with this Todd Martin Development Fund which our primarily goal was to start NJTL chapter and then go from there. Hopefully a few kids from the area will benefit from it as far as athletics in tennis go, but more importantly community and personal growth go.

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