EUROCARD OPEN

October 27, 1999

Tim Henman

ATP: Tim is No. 9 in The Race to Hannover, playing in Paris next week. Who would like to ask the first question, please?

TIM HENMAN: Very positive start.

TIM HENMAN: I never cease to surprise myself. I was playing a guy that I've beaten all four times. Today I managed to get four games.

TIM HENMAN: I think, you know, for a large part of the match, you know, I have to give him credit because I think he did play very well. But, as I said, I've been here since Saturday. I've had really good practice. I've been working hard, been training hard off the court. Then, you know, I have a result like this. It is difficult to explain.

TIM HENMAN: I think it's probably an added pressure. But, you know, having been there before, I think it's a pressure that I can live with. You know, I'm making life difficult for myself. I'd really like to play in that event again.

TIM HENMAN: Not really. Not quite sure I want to start thinking about it at the moment. I will at some stage.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah.

TIM HENMAN: Definitely, yeah.

TIM HENMAN: I think the first game, it was a big boost to him. It wasn't the start that I was looking for. You know, I've shown plenty of times before that I can come back from, you know, a poor start. But, no, I think it's my first comment: I've beaten him all four times. I felt very comfortable. You know, I felt very confident in the way I was playing coming into the tournament. As I said, I had been practicing so well. I could only manage four games.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah. I desperately wanted to try and make him serve for the set. I think in the game before at 4-3, I had Love-30, then he came up with, you know, some big first serves. I thought, you know, maybe if I could get to 5-4 with him serving, perhaps he'd be a little bit tighter, he wouldn't be swinging quite as freely. But, no, I couldn't manage that. Second set again, you know, I think I had 15-30 in his first game, and then I dropped my serve after quite a long game. Then in the next game, I had 15-40. Those were my small opportunities, and I couldn't take them.

TIM HENMAN: I don't think so. I mean, I think from my own personal point of view, I think -- I feel like I put that pressure on myself because I have high expectations. But, you know, I don't think there was any more pressure than usual on myself. From Daniel's point of view, I think I have to give him a lot of credit because he did play a very good match.

TIM HENMAN: No. I mean, that's why it's a little bit strange. There are times when, as you say, you can be out on the court and you feel like you're not in control of where the ball is going, and moving badly. But I felt like, as I said all weekend, early part of this week, I've been hitting the ball well, and I thought there were times when I was constructing some good rallies and ending up losing them. That's frustrating because, again, I didn't feel like I was playing -- didn't feel like I was playing horrendously out there. I was competing very hard. I was trying my best at all times. It wasn't good enough today.

TIM HENMAN: I think realistically, you know, in the last couple weeks, I haven't had things go my way with the way Safin played and then now with this result. I think it's important that I keep my expectations at a reasonable level, just be concentrating on my first match. I'm going to prepare there as hard as I prepared here and do everything I can. You know, that's where my focus has to be, just that first match, first match in Paris.

TIM HENMAN: I think it will probably be best to hang around here. I mean, this is where everybody is. You know, I want to keep practicing. There's plenty of opportunities to do that here. Having said that, I arrived here on Saturday morning pretty early, then ended up playing on Wednesday. That's quite a long time.

TIM HENMAN: I'm not going to say if I would have played on Tuesday I would have won the match. But, yeah, it's been quite a long time to wait from Saturday until Wednesday. I think in an ideal world, I would have liked to have played yesterday. No, I'll keep practicing here. Maybe go to Paris on Sunday or something.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah.

TIM HENMAN: I don't think it makes that much difference. They're both, I think, very fair surfaces. I've played on Teraflex many times before. I don't think that adjustment will make too much difference.

TIM HENMAN: I think it's quite slow, yeah. I think the ball is a little bit soft. Clutching at straws if I'm blaming those sort of things.

TIM HENMAN: Sure.

TIM HENMAN: No. That's it, you know. Since the US Open, I did, I had a lot of time to reflect on things. I didn't play for quite some time. I felt that was what I needed. There are definitely things that, you know, I felt like I've changed to have a slightly different approach. As you say, I played very well in Davis Cup in sort of quite an awkward situation. I played really well in Basel. But I haven't done anything different from my Davis Cup and my Basel to the way I played in Vienna and here in Stuttgart. That's what makes the next challenge. I have to take it to the next level because I've done everything the same. But, you know, on two occasions, it worked, and two occasions, it hasn't. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah. I think from our point of view -- I don't know. I'm not so sure he'll be even playing. I think there's probably a good chance Novak and Ulihrach or Dosedel will play. But, no, that is a long time off. Having said that, it's been great fun playing at home with all the support we've had, but I'm quite looking forward to sort of going away and being the enemy for once, being up against it. It will be a good week for us.

TIM HENMAN: I haven't heard anything about it. I haven't spoken to anyone about it. We'll need all the support we can get.

TIM HENMAN: I think it depends on what circumstances you come in to the tournament. I think if you haven't played for a couple of weeks, as I have, you know, Vacek has played three matches before, yeah, it's a tough situation to come in to play someone that's confident. If you come in and you've had a lot of matches, you've been winning, I think you'll be happy for the extra day off. It just depends. It depends on the circumstances, the nature of the way you're coming in. No, I think right now I need to play some more matches.

TIM HENMAN: No, I don't think so. I don't think there's a problem with the men's game at all. I think next year is probably going to be, you know, a big positive. I think it was time for a change, and I think it's come at the right time. I definitely don't think there's a problem. I think it will continue to go from strength to strength.

TIM HENMAN: I spoke to him to offer his congratulations for The Ryder Cup result. He seemed like he was making good progress. I've heard varying things. Did he pull out of here because of flu?

TIM HENMAN: I read that he was out because of flu, but then I heard from the ATP it was still his back. I'm not quite sure where it stands.

TIM HENMAN: Words to that effect (laughter).