TMS - INDIAN WELLS

March 13, 2001

Tim Henman

MODERATOR: Questions for Tim.

TIM HENMAN: I wouldn't say it's the backhand or the double-fault. I'm a forehand away from winning straight sets. You know, I perhaps hadn't played the best game at 4-3, but he certainly raised his level. I saved a breakpoint with a good backhand. I get to game point, hit a great serve, I have him out of position. I had a forehand, and I basically hit -- I haven't hit it perfectly because I missed it, but he's gone the wrong way. If I put that forehand over the net, I probably win 6-2, 6-4, a hundred percent satisfied with the way I played. But, you know, it's the nature of the game. Sometimes you don't take those, win those key points. It turns around so quickly. From them on it was just swings and roundabouts. It's a real test of your mental strength because it's obvious that we're both trying a hundred percent. There's nothing being given out there. When you've had that chance, that's frustrating. I felt like I dominated seven-eighths of the match and suddenly I'm hitting down one set all. If that's the case, that's the case. I sort of regrouped, played the ideal opening service game, break, and then played a good game on my serve, up 2-Love, Love-40. You could see his body language. It was like, "This is it, make or break." Perhaps you could say I was perhaps a bit cautious, but I want to make him play, I don't want to give him cheap points or miss returns. I put three returns in the court, a couple of forehands, and suddenly five minutes later I'm down 4-2, 15-Love. You know, that's the way it was going. I think on these types of courts, when you can't just dominate with a serve, every point, you've got to work for it. If somebody's level drops fractionally, that can be the difference.

TIM HENMAN: Oh, a hundred percent, very tight (smiling). I mean, in a match like that, we're all human. At 4-2, I get back into it. 4-All. Now the pressure is on him. It's all sort of the swings and roundabouts of pressure. I get to Love-40. I haven't broken a string in two weeks being out here, and at Love-40, break a string. You do, you suddenly start questioning, "Is this going to be my day or not?" Then, yeah, as you said, I definitely got a little tight on my serve and I lose that game. But I think once you've been through what we've been through, it's sort of like, well, it's not as perhaps a surprise as it might have been. Again, you just have to keep fighting. I knew, once that happened, I was sort of happy and pretty content to get to a tiebreak. Then I know what's going to work for me best. I give myself the most chance. I've got to be aggressive, consistent, take it to him. Then in the tiebreak, you know, I served very well, hit a couple of very important volleys. It's a great one to get through.

TIM HENMAN: More than a couple. It is. It's a contrast, obviously. He's a very good fighter and he's a great counter-puncher. He likes the target. But if I'm being realistic, I've got to give him the target because I'm not going to beat him from the baseline. We kind of both play into each other's strengths. He's very, very quick about the court. You know, he's got the ability to make a lot of passing shots, a lot of good passing shots. I think we make life difficult for each other. That probably adds to the nature of the match.

TIM HENMAN: I think at 6-2, 4-3, game point, kind of in the back of your mind, "If I could win this in straight sets against Schuettler, it would be an absolute dream." Then you lose that game. You know, I'm still in a great position, but I suppose you sort of think in the back of your mind, "It was probably too good to be true. If I'm playing Schuettler, it just can't be easy." It certainly wasn't. Again, I sort of pride myself on being able to keep fighting until the very last point, not giving anything away. It was a great one to come through. In a tournament like this, when you look at the draw, it's like you've got to treat every match as a final. I think it's great for tennis, but it doesn't make it particularly easy for everybody because the standard is so high, the matches are so tough from the word "go."

TIM HENMAN: Another easy one (smiling). Again, I've got to, you know, be a hundred percent focused and be prepared to work very, very hard for every point. Because, as I said, it's not particularly fast out there. I think the balls are on the heavy side. You can't just sort of stand up to the line and bang down big serves and get cheap points. You can get maybe one or two a game, but you can't just continue to dominate. That means you're going to have to work very, very hard all the time.

TIM HENMAN: Swings.

TIM HENMAN: I think it's a phrase describing --.

TIM HENMAN: I've got no idea what it means, but I've heard someone else say it. It's a good phrase in English. Describes the situations, how it can change very quickly.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah. That was the word I was looking for.

TIM HENMAN: Not that I can remember. I don't think so.

TIM HENMAN: Well, I think it's a situation where somebody knows your game inside out, and therefore is able to --.

TIM HENMAN: Not necessarily diagnose it, but is able to stress which is the way that's going to make me play at my very best and make me the most awkward and the most difficult to beat. I think one of my pluses is that I have quite a variety of ways to play. But it sometimes can be my downfall if I don't get my game plan right. That's very important that I keep playing to my strengths and using all the tools that I've got. That's where the coach can be very important because I think it's also fair to say that at this stage, there's very limited technical changes that will be made. It's more of a mental understanding of how to use what you've got.

TIM HENMAN: I think you've got to be realistic. You're dead right. You can't concentrate a hundred percent sort of intensity for that long. But you've got to be able to recognize when the important stages are so that, you know, you are a hundred percent focused. Then if you're easing off slightly, you don't want to ease off to 10% concentration where you're not thinking about what you're trying to do. I think it is realistic that you can't keep that focus all the time, that you have to make sure that you maintain it so that you don't have big troughs and peaks.

TIM HENMAN: You have to concentrate on what you're doing, sure, because that's what you can control. I'd like to think I'm at the level where if I play the tennis I'm capable of, and execute my shots, it doesn't really matter what my opponent's doing because I feel like I can beat them. But then if you start worrying about what they're doing, I think that's when you're being distracted, you're taking away your own concentration from your own game to your opponent's. That's probably something you want to avoid.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah. I think one of the relevant aspects today was that when it was a set all, you know, I wasn't particularly pleased, and I wasn't -- I think I was pretty frustrated. But I told myself, you know, there's no point in trying to force, to try any harder, because I know that I'm trying at a hundred percent. I've got to just try to keep playing to my strengths and keep playing the way that's going to give me the best chance of winning. That's what sort of kept me going because I think it would have been pretty easy at certain stages in the third set to get frustrated and blow a gasket, if you like. You have to be able to maintain, just keep your level going.