RCA TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS

August 16, 1996

Todd Martin

TODD MARTIN: I actually played a good game. The only point that maybe was a little shaky was at 15-40. First point I serve and volleyed on a good second serve; hit a fairly good volley and he hit a good passing shot. Then he ripped a return winner and then he hit another good return and good passing shot. And to get to Love-40, and I didn't even play that bad of a point. I just maybe overhit the last shot. So I will tell you, it feels a lot better getting broken that way than it does to make four consecutive errors or just play a loose game. I think that was one of the reasons I was able to hold it together a little bit and hang in there.

TODD MARTIN: Not the first three games. Those first three games, that was a joke, but I knew I had to stay really tough the rest of the first set because after a spirt like that, you are bound to hit a little bit of a lapse; especially when that spirt is the first three games of a match. I have played pretty well the rest of the set and that was -- that was comforting even though I didn't start off the second set well and he played great the whole second set. I think that the end of the first set, the second half of the first set was very crucial for me.

TODD MARTIN: The same thing like at 3-1 serving in the third, I didn't play a bad game. He hit a couple of huge serves. I got a little tentative on one matchpoint and maybe chose a one wrong shot in one of the matchpoints, but, you know, if your opponent is cracking winners, then there is no reason to get too upset. So automatically my focus was to hold the next game and unfortunately, I missed a couple of serves by -- well, I am not necessarily sure I missed a few serves, but I know they were close. I knew I hit them well, and even on the second serves, I played pretty good points and I have to be happy with that. The breakpoint at 5-All, there is nobody in the world that could have won that point against him. I hit what I thought was a good serve and he slapped shot the ball right back by me.

TODD MARTIN: Just call me "the comeback kid," Bud.

TODD MARTIN: I think everybody asks me after Wimbledon what -- after I said I am going to try to make good out of the bad and they asked me what have you learned, what, this, that and the other thing, and I think I am going to be learning from that for a while. And tonight I learned a little bit. I was in a similar situation where I had, you know, five matchpoints on his serve and 4-5 and then lost a close game on my serve and it looks like I am out of there, but there is no reason that couldn't have happened at Wimbledon as well. And I think for me to keep my composure and stay focus focused on playing one point at a time really enabled me to get through that and forget about the last two games that were played.

TODD MARTIN: Well, at 4-1, my serve in the second set, I am thinking I am going to win the set. I need to win the set. And when he strung those two games together, as I saw those two games go, I started resigning to the fact that I was probably going to be in a third set and I needed to come out firing early in the third and if possible, do to him in the third what he did to me in the second, jump -- you know, after the relief of winning a set, you jump on him quickly.

TODD MARTIN: No. It was a matter of how I was getting to the net, I think. If he is going to hit those returns like he was, then if I am at the baseline, or at net, I am going to lose the point. If I waited maybe one, one shot longer on a couple of the groundstroke points that we had, or if I actually would have tried to get to the net on some shots that I didn't, you know, just a matter of timing, I think I would have had a higher success rate at the net. And there is only one way to win matches and that is the way you know how and that is the way I wanted to do it.