US OPEN

September 4, 2000

Todd Martin

Q. You can just respond, because you know what the question is. You can go ahead and respond.

TODD MARTIN: What's the question?

Q. You know what it is.

TODD MARTIN: What is it?

Q. You served great again today. No breakpoints given up. 17 aces.

TODD MARTIN: I mean, I would have to say the first set, I lost. I mean, I was up Love-40 in the first game of the match. From that point on, I think - I don't want to say significantly, but in ways outplayed me from there till the tiebreaker. I was a little fortunate in the tiebreaker because I let a big opportunity slip away at maybe 4-2 serving. You know, I missed an easy backhand volley. On set point, he missed an easy backhand volley. Second set, I started playing very well. But still, he had some breakpoints that I had to fight off. I just so happened to execute really well when I needed to. Then today, I just -- it's one of those situations where I'm up two sets to love and a break. Any little glimmer of hope that fades for him really puts him, you know, in a deep, deep hole. On top of that, I served great this afternoon.

Q. Is there any difference playing one of these truncated matches where you start at night?

TODD MARTIN: It's a little different. In a training situation, if we go out and play with the same guys a couple days in a row, one guy can win 3-4 one day, the next day the other guy can. Certainly two guys who are on a pretty even playing field, like Cedric and me, that definitely can happen. You know, you can look at it two ways. One, it can be inspiring to keep your intensity up and get after it when you go back out on the court. In other ways, gee, I'm up two sets and a break. If we would have stayed on the court last night, I would have -- chances are I would have kept on beating him the way I was. Who knows? He could come out tomorrow and feel the ball great, and I don't even get a sniff. Fortunately, my game picked up maybe a little bit in this short period of time, and his dropped a little bit.

Q. What time did you get out of here last night?

TODD MARTIN: I would say I left probably right around midnight, maybe a little bit before.

Q. Obviously you didn't have any problems getting warmed up today.

TODD MARTIN: We've got plenty of time to get warmed up, especially with the rain delay. We had lots of time. I do a pretty good job at the beginning of matches normally of being ready to play. Today I felt good about the fact that we were simulating the start of a match. I felt like, especially with my serve, hitting the 30 practice serves in the warm-up, gives up a pretty good rhythm. That was able to sustain itself throughout the set.

Q. There are players who either look flashy on the court or have flashy games.

TODD MARTIN: You're probably going to say that I don't have either.

Q. Then there are players who win by clever placement, accurate placement, their volleys just sort of look routine. Is that undervalued by the tennis public, in general?

TODD MARTIN: By the tennis public, no. I think by the sporting public, probably a little bit. I think what I read of Michael's quotes the other day about my game, I take as tremendous compliments. But being read in the paper by a sports fan, you could look at it as, "This guy's not the most interesting, not the most graceful, athletic, flashy tennis player." Within the tennis public, I think I've proved to people that I know how to play the game of tennis. That's what I'm here for.

Q. Can you compare your game right now to where it was last year?

TODD MARTIN: Well, I feel like I'm playing better than I did last year. I played lots of okay tennis the first week and a half. I played a very good match against Cedric in the semis, albeit, he played I'm sure the worst match of his two weeks. I felt like I had a great few sets against Andre. Even the fourth set wasn't all that bad. Just came up a little bit short. I'm optimistic that I can do well if my game sustains as it is. I'm hopeful that I can still have a rise in my game next week when it comes down to the end of the tournament.

Q. I would think most people would find Michael's comments both interesting and very complimentary. Going from there, if there was one thing you could change in your game from a technique or stroke perspective, what would that be?

TODD MARTIN: Well, I don't think it's technique that is maybe less appealing to one player or the next. I think it's more the way you play the game. The way I play the game is put the ball in the other court, make the other guy hit the shot and be aggressive, and put the pressure on him. Whereas you watch Pete, Pete plays a lot of his tennis the same way I do, but then there's another side of his tennis that's leaping and bounding and running and slapping and these things which, if I wanted to do that, I could. I'd be unemployed, but I could do that. I just wouldn't look nearly as good doing it and I wouldn't make nearly as many shots. I don't know, it's like watching three yards in a cloud of dust Big-10 football compared to SEC or PAC-10 offenses. I'm a product of the Big-10.

Q. One unforced errors in the final set. Were you zoned out there?

TODD MARTIN: No. First of all, I don't know who keeps stats, but I don't agree with them, okay? Unforced errors are exactly what they're labeled: "unforced errors." You can't go out and point to me and say that Alexander Popp made 76 unforced errors in four sets. I don't believe it. He made probably 50, and then another 25 or 26 are, you know, unforced errors for Joe Public. How do you miss that shot? He made it the last time he tried it. It's forced because sometimes you have to do something in order to preempt being beaten. Last night at the beginning of the set and today, I played very well. Against Cedric, I think every ball that I possibly miss, except for a second serve return and a few opportunities where I really have a ball that's sitting still for me, are forced errors. I think he's got so much on his ball and is capable of doing so much with his shots that to call things unforced errors is pretty difficult.

Q. How many unforced errors do you think you had?

TODD MARTIN: In the whole match?

Q. The third set.

TODD MARTIN: I don't know the one that you're referring to.

Q. I can't remember.

TODD MARTIN: We're both getting old.

Q. You said part of your game is you're a lot smarter than you used to be. How much of that is gleaned from the two weeks here last year?

TODD MARTIN: I don't pay too much tribute to my maturation and knowledge of tennis to last year's tournament here. I think last year's tournament here was the most -- I think could be attributed to some different things. I mean, one, overcoming lack of enthusiasm at the beginning of the tournament. Two, overcoming, you know, some lack of confidence, lack of physical conditioning against Greg. At the end of the tournament, you know, I think I executed better than I usually expect myself to. However, in the fall of '98, the summer of '98, I started to understand the difference between what I did and what I should do a little bit better. From October of '98 until September of '99, I think I exhibited it as well as I could ever imagine to over the course of 12 months.

Q. Are you talking about just how you set up points?

TODD MARTIN: The understanding that there's two ways to win a point. The other guy can lose it or you can win it. I lost a number of matches to Cedric early on in our careers, or earlier in our careers. I have a feeling - I don't remember the matches all that well - I have a feeling that I tried to win a lot more points than I did last year here or this year here. Like this game that I broke him today at 4-2, I guess, I just scruffed a couple balls back and was fortunate enough to win the points. I don't believe I was successful in doing that very often earlier in my career.

Q. If you had to say the one thing that gives you the most joy of being a part of tennis, what would that be?

TODD MARTIN: Well, if you ask for one thing, it's the competition. It's going out and testing yourself against others, but more than anything else, against yourself day in and day out. I think you talk to most athletes, and that's what they'll say. However, in a broader sense, the people I've met, the people I've learned from, the people who possibly have learned from me, knowing that through this sport I've learned a lot of valuable lessons in life.

Q. Is there any other sport you could have played professionally?

TODD MARTIN: Every one. I'm not joking. Well, okay, so I am.

Q. Earlier in your career, you received a great --?

TODD MARTIN: I could be a good pool player if I would have learned when I was young, if I would have started when I started tennis, I think I could be on the professional billiards tour.

Q. Do you play now?

TODD MARTIN: Yes. Not that well.

Q. Earlier in your career, you get a lot of people from the USTA.

TODD MARTIN: I still get a lot of help from people associated with the USTA.

Q. If you look at the young players that the United States is sort of depending on right now, start with Jan-Michael Gambill, Taylor Dent, Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish, none of these guys got that much help from USTA. In a country where this tournament makes $90 million a year, more than any other Grand Slam, what is wrong with our development program?

TODD MARTIN: How long do you have? Actually, I've got to go to the training room to ice. First of all, in defense of the USTA, each and every one of those players has been offered plenty of help. It's been their choice not to receive it or not to accept it. That being said, I think the USTA's opinion of player development is to be supplemental and to work with private coaches or help out players occasionally and see them occasionally. If you want to develop players, there needs to be some control given to the USTA coaches and there needs to be some responsibility on the player's behalf to do what they ask them. Right now it's a one-way street. Coaches are responsible to provide whatever they can, whenever they can, to the players. The players have the choice. I think -- I'm going to toot my own horn, proudly do it, if more players would accept the USTA's assistance the way I did, there would be more players that would be successful.

Q. Do you think we need to own training centers on both ends of the country, where the coaches reside, help the players with dormitories?

TODD MARTIN: Let me ask you this. Do you think going to school nine months of the year is better than going to school every month of the year for six? Yes, yes. Or once a week, once a month, one week out of every month. I'm not a huge believer in an academy format. If you really want to develop players, you need to put them together. If you put them together in a certain locale one week out of a month, that's great. I think that's more than they're able to get right now. What's happening now is it seems to be a little bit like the women's tour. The players are being pulled away from the cohesiveness and the camaraderie of developing together. Jonathan Stark was one of the greatest reasons I ever started to have some success, because he came out of college and started doing well, and I was training with him every day. I said, "He beats me sometimes, I beat him sometimes. Certainly I don't feel like he's 120 spots better than me. If he's doing well, why aren't I doing well?" I learned from that. I think there's a lot to be said for getting guys together and having them enjoy the sport. I don't think the way it's set up now allows the players -- actually, it doesn't allow the coaches to be as successful with the players as they should be. They're great coaches, they're smart guys, but they're not being allowed to do the job that they'd like to do.

Q. MacCurdy, Gullikson agree with you.

TODD MARTIN: They do?

Q. Yes. Why do you think it's not happening?

TODD MARTIN: In any organization, especially not-for-profit organizations, you have other people saying what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. I couldn't expect Doug and Tom to be the only two people in the USTA that feel the same way as I do about it. There is a board, and the board has the say on these things. Until the board changes their minds, this will continue to be the way it is.

Q. You were talking about some players that had experiences you had (inaudible).

TODD MARTIN: I think you can do it two ways. If the USTA did something substantial, if they put a lot more money into the player development budget, some players who have already gone to academies, some players who have already left home to be tennis players, regardless of what age they did it at, will do that, will continue to do that, or those same players will do the same thing. For people in my boat, the USTA could use some of the budget to get me from Lansing, Michigan to Chicago, Illinois, for one week of a month, four weekends of a month, and allow me to have the type of input from internationally acclaimed coaches. I was very fortunate. I had a great coach at home. He was the biggest advocate in the world to listen to what other people had to say. Those other people were the USTA coaches. I guarantee you, I wouldn't be here if it weren't for that scenario. I don't think by taking a kid -- you're not taking him out of his school, you're not taking him out of his home; you're just broadening his opportunities for development in this game. If that's what that child wants to do or if that -- if that's what that child wants to do, if his parents are willing to accept that, I think you're not doing anything to damage him, you're only helping. Logistically, I have no idea how you do it. As a concept, I think that's the way something needs to happen.

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