DAVIS CUP - USA vs SWITZERLAND

February 9, 2001

Todd Martin

TODD MARTIN: No, no. You're speaking of my back?

TODD MARTIN: No, it just locked up on me at Love-1, Love-15 in the fourth, and hadn't felt it before and it was unfortunate I guess.

TODD MARTIN: Well, we're going to have some tests done and see what it is. He doesn't sound too concerned about it. He thinks the symptoms do not indicate like a disc problem, which is great, and we'll find out more about it then.

TODD MARTIN: It was a, you know, a grabbing. But a pain, like a painful grab. It was only when I arched my back so I could still move fine, I just couldn't extend on my serve.

TODD MARTIN: On the first serve at Love-15 at Love-1.

TODD MARTIN: Nine years ago, ten years ago. I think I overcame them.

TODD MARTIN: Yeah, I thought Roger played very well. In fact, the one game I broke him in, I think he still played fairly well. And it was the period, a short period of time after that game that I felt it was the only time his game -- or the caliber of his play went down a little bit, from 1-Love to maybe, I don't know, for the next three or four games. He was a little bit less enthusiastic on the court, but then he made me work very hard to serve out the third set, and I was planning on him to continue to play well for the fourth.

TODD MARTIN: No. No, you know, I have a lot of respect for him. I've watched him practice a number of times when we share courts, and I've watched him play on TV and in person a little bit, and I think he's got a lot of talent. And talent isn't only being able to hit shots, but talent is being able to repeat those shots point in and point out. I felt if I had gotten off to a little bit of a better start in the first set, maybe I could have made a little bit of an impact on his game early on in the match because essentially that was really the one bad game I played in the first three sets. And then with the tiebreak, I don't think he could have played much better than he did in the tiebreak, and I played one bad point in there and that was also the first point. And, you know, it's a situation where I'm forced to -- where any one of us is forced to play the first point well to get off to a good start, and I didn't do it.

TODD MARTIN: I think I've -- I think there's a number of reasons. One, it's Davis Cup. I think, you know, we're nervous before every match we play but, you know, the nerves sometimes are a little bit more intense and we react differently to those nerves. Sometimes we go out and we've got so much adrenaline going that we look like we've been out there for an hour or so already when we start. There's other times where, you know, the body just takes a little bit longer to get going. And I also have had a problem with my ankle for the last couple days, so I was a little curious to see how that worked out. So it was, you know, a little bit of cautiousness and a little bit of just not coming up with the, you know, not -- I don't want to say I wasn't ready; I was very ready. Just wasn't quite firing on all cylinders at, you know, the first couple points of the match.

TODD MARTIN: Well, I can't think of too many off the top of my head. I have a feeling that I, out of most of my losses, I've played pretty darn well today compared to most of my losses. I felt pretty good about my tennis through the first three sets, and I was confident going into the fourth. You know, whereas like my match with Lleyton in Boston, you know, I got through the second set tiebreak I think, then I -- you know, from there I wasn't too competitive. Geez, Pioline in St. Petersburg, Larsson in Gothenburg. I've lost plenty of matches, so it's hard to keep track of them. But none of them did I feel good about the way I played when I walked off the court. I felt like I, you know, missed some real opportunities. I didn't force my opponent to play at the top of his game to beat me, and, you know, for the most part -- I certainly didn't play flawless tennis today, but for the most part, I put the ball in Roger's court and an awful lot of the time he came up with what he needed to come up with.

TODD MARTIN: He was just telling me if I should drink water or eat the candy bar. Of course he was giving me advice. Come on, George. (Laughter.)

TODD MARTIN: I mean, sorry. George, you're a friend of mine so I can make fun of you. There's a time to speak, there's a time not to.

TODD MARTIN: There are certain things that should be said; there are certain things that shouldn't be said. I thought Patrick did a great job with both.

TODD MARTIN: No. No, because it's gonna be used against Roger on Sunday, or I'm going to use it on Sunday. And, you know, that's not...

TODD MARTIN: I'm planning on it. I mean, if -- one of two things needs to happen for me not to play: Either the test comes back in a bad way, or my symptoms don't go away. But I'm, you know, I have to plan on playing on Sunday. I'd like to play on Sunday. I'd like to help the team. But I don't want to be on the court Sunday if it's going to hinder the team, and then I think it's time for somebody else to step in.

TODD MARTIN: Well, I think so far the way this match has gone, I think Jan-Michael's playing very well. I think considering the way I finished today with my back, I don't think it's in the best interest of the team for me to be out on the court, and I think the majority of the doubles practice this week has been with Jan-Michael and Justin. I think they're in pretty good synch for the match tomorrow, and I think that's the team we set up and I think that's the team that should be on the court.

TODD MARTIN: My ankle, you know, like I said, I was a little cautious at the beginning, and I probably felt it 15 times today. But not once did I feel like it inhibited me and not once did I feel like, you know, if I felt it at the end of a point, it never -- I never felt it at the beginning of the next point. I was really thrilled. I wasn't completely convinced last night that I was going to be playing today because, you know, it was sort of, you know, not a -- it was a little bit inexplicable, but I didn't have any swelling. It was a strange injury for me and my ankle. Usually it's been a roll, it's either good or bad. And I was really thrilled with the way my ankle held up and the way I was able to move. I didn't feel like I was any slower or less agile on the court today than I usually am.

TODD MARTIN: My left.

TODD MARTIN: My left, yes.