WIMBLEDON

June 27, 2000

Tim Henman

MODERATOR: Questions, please.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah. I think I had to be. Definitely got to give him credit for the way he played early on. Took me a little bit -- took me a little while to work out the right tactic to play him. You know, when I was giving him a target in the first set, that was what he liked. Some of the returns, some of the passing shots he hit were very, very good. I had to be tactically aware and change things around. I think I did that. The next three sets, I can't have any complaints the way I played.

TIM HENMAN: Yes. I feel like the court surface itself has probably changed a little bit in the last few years. I feel like it's a fraction slower than before. I always felt like it was very, very hard and the ball really skidded off. Today I felt like it was a little bit slower than it had been. I enjoyed it.

TIM HENMAN: I think, if anything, I had to try and, you know, learn a little bit from that. I watched quite a lot of it. Greg had a rough time out there. My sort of initial reaction was that I've got to try and avoid putting myself in the same situation. Having said that, you know, my opponent today played really, really well in the first set. I didn't feel like I did too much wrong. But then when I changed things around, I started to cause him more and more problems.

TIM HENMAN: Sure, it is. It's like that. At this level, it doesn't take very much to be on the receiving end of a tough loss sort of thing. I felt like I just wanted to concentrate on my own game. I think my standard got better and better as the match went on. You know, it's nothing to get carried away. I got through Round 1, and that's a good start for me.

TIM HENMAN: I think there's an element of surprise. I think it was obvious to everyone that Ivanisevic was expected to win that match. But likewise, as I said, if you don't play quite well enough, then you're probably going to lose in this type of tournament. You know, I haven't seen a ball of that match being hit, but obviously Clement is playing very, very well.

TIM HENMAN: I think it's fair to say I've probably got enough on myself at the moment. There's always an amount of pressure and expectation. As I said, irrespective of his results, it's important I worry about what I'm trying to do. You know, I think it's pretty clear to everyone that my last two matches I haven't played as well as I'd like, but you've got to work hard for everything you get.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah. You definitely want to get going. Irrespective of my results in the two previous tournaments, it's not the way I wanted to come into this tournament. As I said, there was nothing I could do about that now. If I was being honest, I felt like there really wasn't much wrong with the way I was playing. I felt like I was hitting the ball well. I played poorly at Queen's, but at Nottingham I lost to the better player. I think probably there were people that were a little bit more concerned than I was actually about my game. As I said, I had to come out and play the tennis I'm capable of, but almost just let things happen. Wimbledon definitely does bring out something extra in me.

TIM HENMAN: Not at all. I think there were two options that I had after losing that set: Either I could have had your attitude of, "Oh, no, here we go again," or another attitude to be, "Stand up and be counted." That was the attitude I was definitely going to have. He played better than me in the first set, but I wasn't going to suddenly start pressing panic buttons. I had lost the set and had a long way to go.

TIM HENMAN: I think that's difficult. That's a difficult thing to predict in this sport. You know what you've got to do out there. If I would have changed things and altered my game, he had then been able to deal with that and played as well as he had in the first set for three sets and beaten me, then too good. That was where I was aware, tactically aware to turn things around. That was good from my point of view.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah. He's the type of player that I've seen in different tournaments and he likes to rise to the occasion, just as I've done at certain times. I saw him play a lot in the Hopman Cup, I saw him play his first round in the Australian Open when he beat Kucera. He's a good player. There aren't any bad players in this tournament. If I was naive enough to come into a match not expecting him to play as well as he did, that would be a huge error. We're professionals. That's not going to happen.

TIM HENMAN: Definitely, yeah. I think -- when we put our British tennis hat on, the more wins we can have, the better. He's definitely one guy that's making some progress. I really hope that he can continue that.

TIM HENMAN: I don't think so. If that's what he wants to do, that's fine. He's got plenty of time between now and Davis Cup. It's difficult. He's got to believe in what he wants to do. You only have to listen and watch television, there are thousands of opinions being asked and spoken. He's got to believe in himself and believe in his coach. If he doesn't want to hit a ball between now and Davis Cup, if he believes that's the right thing to do, go and do it, don't worry about what anybody else says. If he wants to practise tomorrow, then go out and practise, believe in yourself.