PACIFIC LIFE OPEN

March 14, 2002

Tim Henman

MODERATOR: Tim improves to 18-4 on the season with his fourth quarterfinal in five tournaments, and he takes a 2-0 record against Gaudio tomorrow.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, it was. You know, it didn't start off particularly well, but I think the important thing was I was able to recognize what the problems were. You know, I think I was a little bit almost statuesque, and that's not really my style of play. I was like setting my feet and then swinging at the ball, you know, trying to play a little bit too well, I think. My timing was off, I was miss-hitting a lot of balls. Then from then on, I felt like my feet got moving a lot more, I timed the ball a lot better. You know, I think I did, I played an intelligent, pretty smart match.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah. You look at his matches against somebody like Pete or I suppose when he's played Rafter or whatever, if he's played Rafter, he loves a target. For the most part, I wasn't going to give him too many targets to aim at. But I've still got to play to my strengths. At critical stages in the second, I was able to force the issue a little bit and come in on some big points. It did, it certainly paid off. Again, the important bit at the end of the first set, I played a really good tiebreak, and that was important because, you know, he'd given me an opportunity to get back in that set. I was certainly playing much better towards the end. Once I was up a set, you know, it's a bigger mountain for him to climb.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, definitely. You know, I think on the one side of the coin, with Marat, everybody knows he's got an enormous amount of ability, huge game. The other side you tend to focus a bit more on is you know he can be susceptible to have some down patches in a match. I knew if I kept chipping away - I suppose, chipping away with my backhand - but chipping away in the context of the match, I didn't give him too much pace, I made him hit a lot of balls, once I started to move well. I think I was making life difficult for him.

TIM HENMAN: Definitely.

TIM HENMAN: That helped.

TIM HENMAN: Again, you know, that was when I felt like I was beginning to move a little bit better. Likewise, in the second set, you know, we both had some opportunities but couldn't take any of them. But then the 4-All game, I think I was playing with the slightly easier end, I've got the wind behind me. Then, you know, I was able to play a really good point on breakpoint because that is when you want to force the issue, you want to put him under pressure and see if he can come up with a passing shot. I played a patient point. When the ball dropped short, I was able to move forward. You know, I hit a good volley, pushed it back deep. He wasn't able to make the pass.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, I think so. You know, he's obviously been playing really well this year, with his performance in Australia. You know, I think where I went wrong against someone like Johansson was I wasn't quite patient enough because I kept coming in. It was a different type of match maybe. But against Marat today, I kind of knew the balance that I had to have. I didn't really have it early on, but then I was able to implement my sort of style of play on it. It is, it's definitely a big win because I knew it was going to be a tough match today. You know, I'm really pleased with the outcome.

TIM HENMAN: You know, Gaudio, I've got a 2-0 record against him. Again, what does that mean? You know, we see it time and time again, don't we, certainly in the men's game. The rankings or whatever does not mean anything. Likewise, you know, whether it's been Agassi in the first round or any of the other upsets, you've got to come to the court day in, day out, and you've got to produce the goods.

TIM HENMAN: Sure. But there again, you don't really want to look too far ahead. You take it one match at a time. And likewise, when I'm serving for the match, I talked about it with you guys, about trying to close out those opportunities. You know, today I really tried to instead -- it is such a boring adage, you hear golfers talking about it: One shot at a time. Likewise, it's exactly the time. There's no good me thinking, "Gosh, I served for the match against Escude 6-5, lost my serve to love." That's not a great thought to have. Today I was keen to try and do what I talked about, get the first service in, win the first point, and you double-fault, down Love-30. Again, my attitude was, "I'm still going to take it one point at a time from then." I can make life more easy for myself. But, again, I dropped my serve in the first set, but I served really well throughout.

TIM HENMAN: Great. That must mean I'm going to win it (smiling). It's guaranteed, isn't it?

TIM HENMAN: It is. With the depth we've got in the men's game, you know, you never can predict what's going to happen because the standard's so good. It is so close from the top, whatever, 150. As I said, you've got to keep coming back day in, day out, and play your game, play to the standard that one's capable of. If you do that, you're going to give yourself the best chance of winning. If you do that and lose, I don't think you can have too many complaints.

TIM HENMAN: No. And what does that entitle me to?

TIM HENMAN: Exactly. That's something that probably hasn't been in my game before. You know, I've been racking up quite a lot of wins this year. That is good. Wins certainly do speak for themselves. Whatever Shark said, 17 or 18, that is certainly a good sign. But, again, I want to come back tomorrow and I want to make it 19. You know, you look at Gaudio's match today, he played damn well to beat Boutter.

TIM HENMAN: No, I try not to. I try and avoid the subject. Start getting big-headed about it (smiling). No, we've had a funny conversation about it. He was ranked 140 or something coming into the event, and he said, familiar surroundings, he felt very, very comfortable. You know, I think he said he played horrendously in one of his first matches, and he said it was really ugly, but eventually got through it. He got better and better as the week went on.

TIM HENMAN: No, no. I don't let him. I change the subject too quickly (laughter).