TMS MONTE CARLO

April 19, 2004

Tim Henman

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

TIM HENMAN: I think it was. First match of the clay court season, and, you know, playing a tough opponent, playing Spadea, yeah, it has the ingredients for a difficult match. But I think with the conditions out there, it is, it's very, very difficult. The last time I played here was two years ago, and it's totally different. It was very slow and heavy, and you felt like you'd be very aggressive with the ball and play a lot flatter. Here, now, with the ball, it's very, very difficult to control. I don't think I'll be the only person saying that they're having difficulty controlling the ball.

TIM HENMAN: I felt that I was getting much closer to the match finishing, and that was definitely a good thing (laughter). But I think the one advantage is, with the quick conditions, is it does help the serve. So at that stage, I was very keen on my serve not coming back. I hit an ace, I think, on the first breakpoint, and a couple other big serves. It was certainly a critical game. But it shouldn't be forgotten about the other opportunities I had in the third set at the last stage.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I thought I was extremely controlled with the shout on one occasion (smiling). If it had been a practice match, I think we would both have stopped through lack of racquets or lack of desire to continue.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, it is, it's very difficult because there's still the aspect of trying to play the right way. And, you know, I felt that the times that I did do that and remained aggressive, that that was the most effective for me. Having said that, if you don't stamp your authority on the point immediately, if somebody gets an aggressive or good quality shot, you just feel that it's very difficult to play defensive tennis. So it's a match that, you know, I didn't get through in Miami when I lost 7-6 in the third, so certainly I think my level of tennis can improve a lot. But I've got the opportunity to do that on Wednesday, and that's definitely a good thing for me.

TIM HENMAN: It's very, very hard. The compression is much harder and, therefore, it's really flying around the courts. If there's any bad bounces, it really accentuates that. As I said, I'd be surprised if I'm the only one that's, you know, saying that they're struggling to control the ball after, you know, a few conversations we've had in the locker room.

TIM HENMAN: I think there's an element there. But I think with -- you know, what I would say is relevant, that he obviously was very clear in the way that he felt he was developing his game. I would say 18 months ago, obviously a lot was dictated by my shoulder, there wasn't a great deal of direction. But certainly, you know, I feel in the last six months my game's turned around so quickly, and I feel that the way that I'm playing, the way that I'm beginning to use the abilities I've got, there's no reason why I can't follow a similar path. You know, let's face it, if it's 25 or 35 years of age when you win a Major, I don't think anyone's going to complain. It's important, you know, through the ups and downs, there's some difficult times, you've got to make sure you don't let yourself down mentally. I think that's something that I've always been good at, and I think something that Mickelson has obviously shown.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, anything could have happened out there (laughing). Vince was pretty unlucky, actually, to get a point penalty in the tiebreak. I don't know if there was too many out there that would have heard it. He got given it for lipreading. I just thought, you know, the crowd were probably making quite a lot of noise by then. But if you guys heard it, I was pretty happy to accept it (smiling).

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, not a great deal, and I think that is an aspect that I don't want to be kind of too hard on myself at this stage because I only practiced twice in London, and the relevance of that practice compared to the conditions here was pretty much irrelevant. So it's going to take a little bit of time to adjust, but, as I said, most importantly, I get the opportunity to do that on a match court on Wednesday, so we'll just hope that I can play a bit better then.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, absolutely. But I think, you know, still coming in to a clay court swing, I appreciate that, you know, on other surfaces I feel that, you know, I can work my way in to a certain extent. But here, you know you've got to be ready to go from the start. Vince has certainly been playing well, he's had a lot of wins under his belt this year. I knew it was going to be pretty close, but not quite as close as it was.

TIM HENMAN: A little bit, yeah. He competes very well. Sometimes, you know, his shots don't look as orthodox as others, but, you know, when you see how effective they are, then that's the most important thing. It was a tough match. You just have to find a way to -- you need to find a way to get through those types of matches. It's easy to play when everything's flowing, you're timing the ball well, and you're used to the conditions; that probably only happens 5 or 10 percent of the time throughout the year. You know, when you win a lot of the other matches when you're not playing your best, that's a big positive for a sportsman.

TIM HENMAN: It's difficult. I think that you sort of turn up at a lot of these tournaments, and you just, as I said, there's a question mark about what you're going to be playing with next. You compare the conditions and the speed of the ball from here to Indian Wells and Miami and, I mean, they're just opposite ends of the spectrum. I think from the players' point of view, that they're making in some respects improvement because we're using Penn, I think, pretty much throughout the Masters Series. But now you speak to the guys that played last week and they played in Valencia and Estoril with this ball, and I think a lot of people have probably been shocked about how extreme it is, this ball has become. So it is, it's very difficult to predict. But at the end of the day, what are we going to do about it? You might as well get on with it and find a way to play as best you can with it because I'm sure it's not going to change over the next three weeks.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, it's the ultimate. It's always been a pretty big test, but now you've got no idea where you're hitting the ball, which makes it pretty difficult.

TIM HENMAN: I felt that in previous years when it was heavier, it was almost a contradiction; it wouldn't really suit my game. I felt that I could be so much more aggressive and I could flatten out my shots a lot and -- instead of big margin for error. It's almost like you have to forget about that game and, you know, work with the conditions.

TIM HENMAN: No, nothing's clear today (laughing). No, it's just about competing as hard as you can for every point and playing some horrible-looking tennis - but if it wins, it wins.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, yeah, who knows if we even play tonight. I think there's been two matches completed in five hours on center. So wouldn't mind coming back and just having another go tomorrow.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, there's no question I can play to that type of level. But as we all know, in a Slam, it's not about playing well for an hour; it's going to take you a lot longer. His level probably increased a little bit in that match but stayed, you know, higher than mine. That is another challenge. But I still appreciate that the work that I do over the next four or five weeks always stands me in very good stead when we change the color of the surface, but that's always something to look forward to.