DAVIS CUP - USA vs AUSTRALIA

July 16, 1999

Todd Martin

TODD MARTIN: Well, I have had similar experiences and it is certainly not what I was hoping for, but I got to have trust in Jim and hopefully he gets this job done today. I will have another chance to play come Sunday.

TODD MARTIN: It was pretty hot. It has been a long while since we have -- since any of us have had to deal with hot conditions. Especially having a fairly cool week certainly didn't prepare us as well as we would have liked for this weather. Certainly didn't affect Lleyton too badly so....

TODD MARTIN: Is that all? Well, I don't have much trust in the stat keepers. What they call an unforced error, I don't always call an unforced error. Listen, I didn't play well. I wouldn't make any bones about it. But I had may chances still. First set I was up Love-40 on his serve and he got out of that game and broke me right away and that is a big momentum change. Second set, albeit I won it, getting up early break and then falling right back down, that -- listen, it would have been much better to have won that set holding my serve out throughout the rest of the set, then playing a very good tiebreaker, but these things didn't happen today. One of the main reasons that these things didn't happen is because of the fellow I was playing.

TODD MARTIN: I felt much better actually as the match went along physically. The first set I felt lousy. I was definitely a little shocked by the weather. He hit a couple of good shots in the first game and I missed a couple of shots and before you know it, all the momentum is on his side and then it just doesn't take much to throw off your rhythm. There is not a whole lot of reserve there to change things up. I would have like today have played very patient tennis, but considering the conditions, I didn't really have the opportunity to do that. It is an awful lot of work for me to run side to side and Lleyton does a pretty good job of making me do that. I had to go for my shots. That is one of the reasons why the unforced errors were high and also it is one of the reasons why when a bit of the rhythm went, there was a bit of a landslide in that last set.

TODD MARTIN: None at all. Listen, if Pete weren't comfortable with his position on the team, it would put pressure on me. But we are all where we feel like we should be and go about our business and if we are good enough, we are good enough and if we are not, well, better luck next year, I guess.

TODD MARTIN: Actually I felt fine physically. Muscularly, but my forehand is not as good as my backhand and/or not as solid, not as consistent and I really felt like I had to attack and sometimes I picked the right time and sometimes I didn't. Those are the breaks.

TODD MARTIN: I felt very good about (1) the fact that I felt better physically and (2), that I strung a few points together. In a tiebreaker I -- it is easier to play on his serve in the tiebreaker when you got your own serve to back it up. I just never seemed to be able to squeeze through a return game where I had breakpoints and that or get enough breakpoints, but I thought that was the best thing he did was the way he served. He served great today.

TODD MARTIN: That doesn't take a toll mentally, but geez, if you play two loose points; get to 40-30 and then all of a sudden he strings a couple of shots together (1) you are broken, (2), even if you hold serve, you are working a lot harder than if you win that 40-Love point, suddenly the ball is over and take a swing at his serve.

TODD MARTIN: No, I don't think you can generalize young guys. I don't think you can generalize anyone. I think Lleyton is one of the few people in the tennis world that have very, very, very great nerves. He sees big occasions and he attacks them and I don't think -- I don't think he reacts at all negatively to any situation. He is a positive thinker and he is confident. It is like Pete, one of the reasons Pete is such a great player is he has got fabulous nerve.

TODD MARTIN: No, I told you it is not because of the youth. It is simply because it is a nature thing. You got 17 year olds that could choke their tail off and you got 40 year olds that are great competitors.

TODD MARTIN: Well, he -- I am not clairvoyant, but he is certainly is better today than he was in January when I played him. I assume that that progress will continue to be made and, you know, maybe he just matched up well with me today, I don't know. It is hard to say whether he is going be one of the top five players in the world. He is always going to have the ability to beat great players. But to end up doing what Pete, Andre, Jim, Patrick, these guys do, it is week in and week out, and that remains to be seen. But I couldn't have been more impressed with his performance today.

TODD MARTIN: My memory bank is not quite so good anymore. I don't remember a whole lot of our match there. There are tendencies that I remembered from his game and they paid off for me at times today. But simply put, I think I played very well in Sydney and he played okay and today I thought he played very well and I didn't play too spiffy.

TODD MARTIN: The last part I didn't hear.

TODD MARTIN: Well, listen, 6-0 is the same as 7-6 as far as I am concerned. We don't get merit for losing closely. Simply 1-0 we are down and that is not good, so I would never assume that I'd lose the set 6-0. Been probably a while since I lost one, but there is first for everything and there is seconds usually too.

TODD MARTIN: He played one good game on my serve. I had some momentum coming off the tiebreaker and in the first two or three service games that he had, I didn't do a very good job of making him play enough and I played the first two games on my serve, very well that set and then he -- I can't remember exactly what happened in that game. But he lifted his game and rose to the occasion. That is what needs to happen in big situations.

TODD MARTIN: Yeah, I mean, more because I won the second set than because I was able to hit four aces. Four aces is dumb luck. It is just -- but then it is easy going to the next game. I mean, the next game is when I got broken and the next game - it is tough to be as prepared as you were the previous game. It is a natural let-down. I don't think it was that extreme of a let-down. I thought I might have let down just a couple of percent. That coupled with a few great shots by Lleyton is all it takes.

TODD MARTIN: Well, listen coming into this week I was one of those people, but the decision was made for me to play singles and I was comfortable with that and I wanted to play. I never once didn't want to be on the court. And what everybody else thinks, I don't know how to put it without, you know, digging myself a bigger hole --

TODD MARTIN: Not at all. I think as long as the team is comfortable with what is going on, I think that is all that matters. Like I answered her question earlier, if Pete were uncomfortable with this; if Pete weren't sort of the initiator of all this, yeah, sure, then I would be a little bit uneasy. No, listen, as soon as I hit the first ball today I forgot that Pete was, you know, not playing singles. It was all just my match.

TODD MARTIN: On TV. I have been receiving treatment and trying to cool down a bit. I am going to try to go out there after the press conference.

TODD MARTIN: Yeah.

TODD MARTIN: Well, you never want to see your teammate struggle. That was a well contested first set. Actually two -- some of the most important events in that tiebreaker were a fortunate, you know, net cords or what have you, that match is not over and hopefully Jim can prove to be as mentally strong as he was in Birmingham.

TODD MARTIN: No. I mean, I had good reason to pull out of the event in Carolina. I wanted to play the event in Carolina, but circumstances dictated otherwise. I still felt like I was very prepared for today.

TODD MARTIN: Yeah, but I would never expect him to ask me. I think the team that is going out there tomorrow, for us, is one great team and a team that has been practicing a lot together and I think from what I have heard is getting better everyday and I think it is silly to put somebody who has been put through the ringer today on the court tomorrow. I don't think it is appropriate.

TODD MARTIN: Yeah, I feel -- I will have to drink tons of water between now and then. I don't really feel too worse for the wear (sic) except for the heat.

TODD MARTIN: Hopefully we are up 2-1 and I will have a little bit of a chance to redeem myself. It will be nice to be able to speak with Jim a little bit about it and see what he felt were good things to do on the court against him. I always look forward to playing Patrick and to be in this big of occasion makes it all the more enjoyable.

TODD MARTIN: Well, I felt being up Love-40 in the early part of the first set on his serve and I might have lost five straight points; then he broke me the next game, that is four turning points in one right there. Then the way he played in the middle of the third set was very important. I don't want to point at one point specifically, but especially the way he played at 2-3, I think it was 2-3 when I got broken and the way he played from there on out. That might very well be just the effects of coping with losing the second set. He didn't look too troubled when he lost that second set-all though I obviously was playing a little bit better and feeling a little bit better and I think he knew that, but like I said, earlier he sort of raised his game and that is what it takes.

TODD MARTIN: When I started serve and volley on my second serve?

TODD MARTIN: No, I felt like that was a good play. I was hitting good second serves. When I was staying back he hit just good deep returns and it was as if I never even hit a serve. So I changed that up and I had a lot of easy volleys off of second serve returns. But I didn't -- maybe the toughest thing and it would be interesting to see how Patrick deals with it today-toughest thing when you are hot and tired is the quick little movements and volleying is quick little movements and so I missed a fair number of fairly easy volleys just from just being off balance a little bit.