TELECOM ITALIA MASTERS

May 5, 2004

Tim Henman

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

TIM HENMAN: Thank you.

TIM HENMAN: Not even in Rome (smiling). Didn't I beat Santoro here Love and 1? There goes that story, doesn't it (smiling)? Yeah, I don't think Fabrice was trying too hard that day. I would say...

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, my second most emphatic win. But in terms of sort of the performance, I think it's one of my, you know, most complete and most consistent because there were, you know, so few unforced errors and, you know, I was getting the balance right of not just keeping the ball in, but moving the ball around, hitting the backhand down the line to his forehand to open up the court. And I think, you know, the first game actually had a big impact on the match. I had, I think, four or five breakpoints and eventually got one. Played a good game on my serve to get up 2-love. I felt really, really confident.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, it was -- I think against him, it was important to be very consistent. I didn't feel like giving him a target some of the time necessarily was the right way, but I did, you know, serve a lot of balls obviously wide to his forehand. I think that's his weaker wing. And they weren't unreturnable serves, but I always felt like I was getting myself a short reply and was able to dictate with the next shot. And trying to play defensively in these conditions is not easy. I just felt like the vast majority of the time I was the one doing the dictating and picking my spots. It's fun when it's like that.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, there was that element where, you know, you don't want to rush it because you're obviously in control and he'd had very few opportunities on my serve up until then. I think it was 30-all that it started to come down pretty hard. And, you know, I wasn't gonna say anything. I looked down the other end of the court, and he didn't look like he wanted to stop either. So I thought maybe he was ready to finish the match himself. But I still say it's a couple of breakpoints and, yeah, it was a good job all around just to finish it off. It's nice to have the job done when my opponents are still - hopefully - out there for hopefully a little while longer.

TIM HENMAN: No, I don't... I thought it sort of stopped early in the second set.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, it was drizzling a little bit, but I think on clay you can probably get away with a little bit of drizzle. There were definitely stages in the second set where it was coming down a bit heavier, and I was thinking, "Well, maybe he'll want to stop." I think if you would have reversed the situation, if I was down 6-1 too or something, I would have had my umbrella up on the side of the court and put my arm bands up or something (laughter). But, no, he didn't seem too concerned. I was just happy to keep making his life as difficult as I could for him.

TIM HENMAN: No, just didn't say anything.

TIM HENMAN: Hmm.

TIM HENMAN: Absolutely. Yeah, definitely. Just to be out there and the number of balls that you hit and the movement, kind of the mental endurance that you gain from that, I think, is so, so beneficial. And I think you look at sort of beating Spadea and Sanchez and Massu in Monte-Carlo. On paper, they're sort of probably better clay court wins than Mayer and Stepanek. But the quality of my play has been much, much better this week than it was in Monaco, and that's, you know, that's pleasing, and I want to try to build from that.

TIM HENMAN: Hmm. On clay, absolutely, and in a Masters Series... It's a bit worrying, really, isn't it (smiling)?

TIM HENMAN: No. I think my game, you know, has definitely improved. I felt, you know, I felt that I've improved a lot over the last couple years, and that's been evident in my results. But, again, I feel like I've taken it a step further and, you know, playing with a lot of variety, but a lot of consistency. I think on clay, you're never just going to be able to serve someone off or just hit them off from the baseline; I'm certainly not going to be able to do that. I think that's the aspect that I've been working on - to make sure that I'm using the aspects, the attributes that I've got, using them in the correct way. And, again, I think it's the toughest challenge for me to do it on clay. And if I can do it better and better, then it still bodes very well for the other surfaces.

TIM HENMAN: Hmm. I thought Mantilla would win that, but he's down a set and 2-1. I mean, certainly nothing compared to yesterday; he was pretty much down-and-out. But they both actually play a similar type of game. I think whoever I play, I'm going to need to serve well. I think I can serve and volley quite a lot more than I did today. You know, put a lot of pressure on their second serves. That's something I couldn't really do today too much because Stepanek has got a good second serve and moves it around the box, serves into my body a lot. But against either Zabaleta or Mantilla, I think that will be an option I should use.

TIM HENMAN: It's a lot easier on clay than it would be on grass (laughter). We certainly wouldn't get the chance to be...

TIM HENMAN: It was pretty funny, actually, when we had that auction a couple years ago for Centre Court and then we played after Wimbledon. We basically just got one chance. We got one day - well, basically one morning where we've got to get the game in. And, you know, wake up, and it's just absolutely bucketsing it down. So, anyway, come 11 o'clock, it pretty much stops, so we're ready to go. We played sort of a set, set and a half, and it was perfect. Then it started to drizzle a little bit and, you know, you're just so used to that scenario when, doesn't matter who's in the way, the covers come on, umpire's chair's off. There was just no one there, so we kept playing. And we played for probably a good 20 minutes, and it was raining. It was raining like the drizzle we had there. So by the end of it, we were sliding all over the place. It was pretty dangerous. But, no, on clay, you can get away with it, and especially on a court like Pallacorda. It's pretty slippery when it's dry; it's very tough to change directions. The added water helps the movement, but it does make it pretty heavy.