THE LIPTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 23, 1996

Tim Henman

TIM HENMAN: A little bit. I wouldn't say he did anything spectacular to win the third set. I'd say it was my own doings, really. I've noticed when I played, you know, some of the very top guys, I haven't started particularly well against them, and in today's match, you know, I think I was very ready to try and get off to a good start. And I think I was hitting the ball pretty well and everything, but I didn't take my opportunities. You know, I think he was pretty sort of fragile early on. I think I even had game points in probably the first four or five games, and those are opportunities you've got to take. Having said that once, I did lose the first set. Then, you know, I did start to take those opportunities, and that's what it takes, I think, to beat somebody like that.

TIM HENMAN: I'd have to say I probably was a little bit tired, but that's where he's so good. You know, he never lets up, whether he's winning or losing. I raised my game in the second set to win it, but then instead of staying where I was, I probably got worse. If anything, you know, he slightly upped his game. He got rid of his unforced errors. He made life pretty difficult for me.

TIM HENMAN: Pretty much.

TIM HENMAN: I don't think many guys would like to play him solid from the baseline. I think in Marseille I probably served a little bit better than I did today. It's not particularly easy serving with the wind.

TIM HENMAN: I didn't serve too badly, but I think I could have served better, especially the way I've been serving in the last few weeks, I probably didn't serve as well as I'd like to. You know, having said that, when I did get my opportunities, you know, a lot of the time against him you do have to take risks, and some of the times I wasn't getting particularly short balls, but, you know, I was hitting some good approach shots, and that's the way you have to play him. So from that aspect, there is hope.

TIM HENMAN: I decided I was going to serve and volley behind the second serve. There's no point in just pushing it in and running in. It's sort of a calculated risk, you're not trying to hit a second serve ace, but you're trying to put him under pressure. In that instance it did pay off.

TIM HENMAN: I have no problems getting the warning. In the first game, I was frustrated. It was a way of letting out my anger, so I have no problem with that.

TIM HENMAN: I just hit the ball into the chair. I was frustrated. That was it. I have no problem with that. The second one is pretty unfortunate. But from my point of view, you have to weigh up how important something like that is. You know, I'm not really too frustrated about it.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah. I think it was a pretty bad judgment from his point of view. He made the call. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, that's for sure.

TIM HENMAN: No. I think the first one, the first one I think if anything probably helped me. I was frustrated. You know, whether I'm going to shout and scream or whether I'm going to hit a ball away, you know, it's not something that I'm saying is part of the game, but, you know, I was frustrated and it probably did get something out of me. It helped me to settle down into the match. With regards to getting a point penalty, as I said, you know, I probably didn't do anything particularly wrong. So if he's made a judgment, then that's his judgment.

TIM HENMAN: I think you'd have to say I would be surprised. Again, so be it. That's the way it was.

TIM HENMAN: I played okay. The thing that frustrates me more than anything, it was another opportunity against, let's face it, a very good player. Hopefully I will learn from it because I've shown over the last few weeks that I'm beating some, you know, good players. But now I'd like to, you know, really take my opportunities against some of the very top players. I haven't done that yet, but hopefully in the not too distant future I will.

TIM HENMAN: I'm going home. Well, I've got doubles here, obviously. I think that's going to be pretty important because I think my ranking is about 115, so I need to try and win some matches to get my ranking up so my doubles doesn't get left behind.

TIM HENMAN: Patrik Kuhnen. Obviously, whenever I finish there, then I'll be in London for a few -- for probably a week. I'll probably be in London for a week, so I'll be definitely having some time off and getting ready to go to Asia for three weeks.

TIM HENMAN: Thanks a lot.