DAVIS CUP - USA vs AUSTRALIA

July 18, 1999

Todd Martin

TODD MARTIN: Thanks, Bud.

TODD MARTIN: My captain didn't say it. I did.

TODD MARTIN: Yes.

TODD MARTIN: Well, I said it to my captain. Last night we discussed how I felt. I told him I felt fine. I felt in fact that I would be better prepared today since I had had a chance to experience the heat once and I think maybe I climatized myself a little bit. But this morning I came out and hit with Jim at 10:45 and we hit for or 10:30 maybe and hit for a half an hour and I felt exactly the way I felt when I walked off the court against Lleyton. When I walked in the locker room I was little -- just sort of -- I didn't have my bearings and sat down for about five minutes and unfortunately was sitting right in front of a mirror and saw how I looked. I didn't like that and I didn't like the way I felt; especially after five minutes worth of rest. I was starting to get a little panicked because I knew Pete wasn't here yet and if we only had about a half an hour until Tom had to put in the lineup for the day. I found Gully and I told him that I wasn't feeling so hot. Found the medical staff and they suggested a few things and after I said I just don't know if I am fit to play, each and every one of them agreed with me because each and every one of them were on the court with me earlier when I was hitting with Jim. It wasn't too impressive. Then -- Gully then called Pete and had him race over here to try to get us as prepared as possible to play. We had to go through some procedures to actually have a ruling, I guess, is best the way I can say it. Had to meet with the referee and the neutral doctor and after a fair bit of deliberation and actually not until about 12:30, I was deemed fit to play by them. The course of action that we took then was an I.V. fluid bag before the match or as much as one -- as I could have time for and that cooled me down a fair bit and I went out and then played two very good sets and three okay sets and lost.

TODD MARTIN: Because our doctor felt that it was not a necessary risk if we had somebody who was fit to play. Our doctor deemed me unfit to play. And didn't want to take that course of action unless he had to and it turned out that we had to.

TODD MARTIN: Entitled to his opinion. We played tennis, so if you don't want to ask me any questions about that, that is great.

TODD MARTIN: All right, thank you.

TODD MARTIN: Yeah, they were huge. I hit sort of a circus shot on the first point; then he won a point. Then he doublefaulted twice in a row. Then he came up with a really good first serve at 15-40, I think and at 30-40 I hit a great return off of his second serve and he hit the best half volley of the match. I think that is the game. Not much more is needed when you are down and you know your opponent is sort of struggling along even though he is up two sets to love and I think Patrick really took that and ran with it.

TODD MARTIN: No, I told you I didn't feel like I was fit to play. That is why I wanted Gully to call Pete in the first place.

TODD MARTIN: When I was out there? Geez, I was obviously fit to play, but I also felt like I was putting myself at a fair bit of risk. I didn't know that until the end though. I didn't know that I was really fit to play the whole match until near the end of the match.

TODD MARTIN: No, that is when I feel the best because I have been sitting under ice for a minute.

TODD MARTIN: Well, I was up 3-Love and I was up 4-2 and I feel like I lost my serve a little bit, the rhythm on it and I missed a few more first serves and the first serves I made, Pat made a lot of good returns. Probably the biggest problem was that I was -- I was serving and volleying and it was just difficult to move to good returns.

TODD MARTIN: All my life I have been taught that pride is a sin. So I am not necessarily proud. I am pleased that I had the courage to go out and play and play well. I am very disapointed that I lost.

TODD MARTIN: I was very fortunate that I was playing Patrick and not somebody like Lleyton again. In fact, the first set was just about perfect for me. I don't know if I hit more than one shot on his serve throughout the first set. I was hitting good returns and he missed a bunch of serves. Then off of my serve, try to win the point with the first serve and I didn't then go from there and basically I was a little bit -- I was very concerned in the first set and basically any ball that I could stand in one place and set up for I tried to hit, if not for a winner for close to a winner. But as the match went on I realized that that I could show a little bit more patience than I did in the first set.

TODD MARTIN: No, because regardless of how I did, there was still one more match even if I won, we weren't out -- in the clear, I guess. But it was an exciting moment. I was very excited; didn't always have the energy to show it, but I was pleased about the way things were going especially in the fifth set.

TODD MARTIN: You mean yesterday?

TODD MARTIN: It entered into my thinking last night, I was disappointed. I was very upset. I wanted to play. I didn't feel like I was in bad enough shape not to play and told Gully that and was upset that -- I am sorry, I don't know his name, but the big Australian guy in the front row over here -- alerted me of speculation. I tried to convince Tom last night that I was healthy and ready to go and unfortunately it just didn't -- just didn't take me very long this morning to feel like I was.

TODD MARTIN: Can you repeat that?

TODD MARTIN: Well, I mean, I think -- no, I saw an ESPN interview with John Newcombe earlier this week or after the draw and he said that we are looking for a shoulder injury or something for Pete to replace Jim or me. So I think that the suspicion was probably long before yesterday. All I can say is I was prepared to -- I was waiting outside the Australian locker room to try to talk to Newc and tell him that it is just simply my word that I didn't feel like I could compete. It just wasn't my decision in the end.

TODD MARTIN: No.

TODD MARTIN: My most difficult?

TODD MARTIN: It was one of the most enjoyable in some ways and also the most emotional for sure. But difficult wouldn't be one of the words that would come to mind.

TODD MARTIN: For me it was about the tennis.

TODD MARTIN: I think everybody's body reacts differently and if I remember correctly his match with Alex Corretja was not -- was not a sun and heat induced. At least when they ended -- when they finished it was fairly late in the day. We have a doctor and a trainer that are very, very well versed in things like this and, you know, nobody can know exactly how another person feels inside so just try to cope with things that I felt before and also some new feelings.

TODD MARTIN: Strategy is very simple, no, you just do as little work for as good a result as possible and I did that. Eventually that just wasn't good enough.

TODD MARTIN: Well, I have actually not been severely dehydrated this week, but-actually you know what, ask some medical staff. I think that is a better answered by them.

TODD MARTIN: He just said that he was pleased to see that I competed so hard and was very impressed and proud of me.

TODD MARTIN: I don't remember.

TODD MARTIN: No, I was actually very distracted. I had a very tough time controlling my emotions. My mother is here. I don't think she was very pleased to see me in the state I was. I was more distracted and probably that helped just went out and reacted to the ball and I sort of came in and out I was focused for moments and distracted for moments.

TODD MARTIN: There were a couple of times -- well he asked me how I was feeling pretty much constantly and I think 4-1 in the first set that is really when I was having the most trouble just coping with the situation mentally and emotionally and he -- I think he was -- I had to reassure him that I was okay.

TODD MARTIN: Patrick outplayed me. Whether it was in my hands or not, it is hard to say. I didn't play as well as I had and he played better than he had.

TODD MARTIN: I tried to answer when I answered Robin's question. Just -- I was not really out there completely and I was just reacting. There wasn't as much planning and also the fact that there was -- I had very low expectations of my performance and in that situation that is not such a bad thing and also mixed in with my good shots Patrick wasn't so sharp.

TODD MARTIN: Absolutely.

TODD MARTIN: When I walked out on the court I wasn't quite so sure, but realizing as I went along that I wasn't feeling significantly worse those concerns were --

TODD MARTIN: No, no. I spoke to Gully about it and he put my mind very much at ease and actually I think between last night and today well first of all, my commitment would never lessen to Davis Cup. But its intensified and increased and I feel like -- you have to take -- I feel like you have to take a positive outlook on things and my experience with Gully has never been better in many ways and I have never been happier to represent the States than today.

TODD MARTIN: My sister gave me a little message yesterday, a little printed message. It talked about the procedure being more important -- or the process being more important than the end, and that is how I feel. I feel like we should walk out of here heads held high, hopefully we did some good for American tennis. And obviously we are very disappointed, but I think there is a lot to take from this experience and as I said Friday, better luck next year.