RCA CHAMPIONSHIPS

August 15, 1995

Todd Woodbridge

TODD WOODBRIDGE: I have played Alex once before on hard court; I won pretty easy at the U.S. Open. I guess he must have been remembering that. He is the sort of player you don't want to give a lot of rhythm too and let him hit a lot of balls because he obviously can play well. He beat Courier here last year, and played well. And after 4-All, I felt like I had some chances there on his serve and I was down breakpoint and I thankly turned that around. I was given a pretty easy break from there on. I was feeling comfortable because I felt I was rushing him out of it and he never got settled after that point. Actually once I held for 5-4, I felt confident that I was going to get through that set. And then once you get that set against a guy that this is not his favorite surface, you feel like you can win.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: He probably played in the-- a cloud cover came over and a bit of breeze came up half way through our first set, but before then it was really sappy. And so we were also lucky. He played for an hour and a half when it was really, really hot, so, but it is perfect preparation for the U.S. Open, I mean, we can get days like this there; same humidity very hot, and only way you get used to those is to be playing in it and adapt yourself. You like to -- confidence-wise you like to feel like you get through some of those matches before you get to a major tournament.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: You can do it at these tournaments, but the facts are they are not going to do it at the U.S. Open, so the facts are -- the weather is pretty similar, so you got to be able to do it, and for me, I am not -- I'd much rather have known that I have done it a couple of times before I get there, so..., you know, I think you can do it when the tournament is a little slower, but never going to do it at a Major.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Yeah, I have played pretty well. I think I started the year at about 90, 100 and I am up to 43 this week, might help me move up again if I can keep going, so I have won a tournament; I was in the finals of another. It has just been a lot more consistent for me. I had an injury that knocked my ranking down and took a lot of work to get back to playing well again and so thankfully, for me, we were still doing well in the doubles which was keeping me around confidence-wise, it was -- I was on the border -- for my singles and that was keeping me there. So I am pleased that, you know, that part of my game really came along because I don't like being called a doubles specialist, so to speak, because I feel like I am an all-around tennis player. I just excel more on the doubles side of it.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: I had an elbow. It was golfer's elbow on the inside the tendons torn away from the bone.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: It was one of those injuries that you try and play through. Didn't sit out. You never know how it is going. In retrospect, probably should have sat out because it took me a lot longer to get over it than what I anticipated, so, in hindsight, I would have, but I didn't, and my ranking went down to 190 at one stage because of that.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Well, he likes you to be on the baseline. He likes to be on the baseline; play you up high, and those types of players, on a hard court, don't like it or a faster court don't like it, if you can attack them and I was trying to attack him several -- not let him play a lot of shots in a rally and not give him any rhythm so that he can start and pinpoint his groundstrokes, so, you know, I was trying to get into the net after one, two or three hits and not let the rally go further than that, because the further that you play with those guys, the better they can get.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Thank you.