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ROGERS MASTERS

August 7, 2006

Tim Henman

TORONTO, ONTARIO

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Tim.
TIM HENMAN: Prevention (smiling). (Referring to the ice pack on his right wrist.)

Q. How did you feel it went?
TIM HENMAN: It was good. Difficult conditions today. Wind's picked up a lot. That never is easy.
You know, the start of the match, to play that well and set the tone, obviously get on top was very good. I was able to maintain that sort of high level throughout the match.
Yeah, all in all, it was a good win for me.

Q. Beat the Wimbledon semifinalists. Couldn't ask for more.
TIM HENMAN: No.

Q. What did you set out to do in the wind, play the percentages?
TIM HENMAN: You're not going to be able to play perfectly clean tennis and go as close to the lines as perhaps sometimes you'd like to.
But I had a pretty good strategy. I think I've learnt over the years playing Jonas, you need to serve well, but you've got to serve smart, I think. I think, you know, I served a lot into his body, some second serves to his forehand because his backhand is his best shot.
Yeah, from the baseline, just trying -- you know, you can't just play totally to his forehand, you need to hit to his backhand to open up his forehand. On the whole, I made very few unforced errors and a lot of big points I played good tennis on.

Q. You looked very relaxed. I don't know if you felt that. Was that because it's the first round, the stage of your career you're at?
TIM HENMAN: You know, I feel good about kind of the way that I've been playing recently in the last months. I prepared well. As I've said in the past, you know, it's sometimes easy to try too hard, and that doesn't do anyone any favors.
You know, I'm always going to give a hundred percent. If I can stay in that frame of mind, it's going to give me my best chance of playing my best tennis. You know, long may that continue.

Q. I assume the conditions were very different from an evening court or an outside court in Washington?
TIM HENMAN: Yeah, I mean, it was very hot in Washington, but I think conditions there were a bit quicker. A different ball, obviously. Yeah, I was pleased. I had a couple of good matches. Yeah, difficult against Tursunov. I said after that match, you know, I felt like I was a spectator because he was just playing, serving so big, hitting his groundstrokes so hard. I didn't really feel like, you know, I had that much impact. If I had a rally, either he was going to hit a winner or make a mistake.
I think in the context of the whole tournament, I felt good about my game. I played really well in the matches that I won. It was a good start to the summer because 12 months ago I struggled a lot with my game. I think I only won a couple of matches sort of the remainder of the year. There's lots to gain right now and not a lot to lose.

Q. Is that a precautionary icing?
TIM HENMAN: Yeah, I think after the first tournament in Washington, it was a bit sore last week. It's one of those things if you can sort of knock it on the head early, you know, make sure it doesn't become more serious, then certainly just a bit of ice helps it to settle down.

Q. You talk about always giving a hundred percent. British fans always know that. Can you talk about the consistency side of it, how difficult that is to achieve on a regular basis, maybe how much that frustrates you?
TIM HENMAN: The consistency in terms of my results?

Q. Yes.
TIM HENMAN: Yeah, I think now with, you know, the standards, I think the standard just gets better and better all the time. You just know there aren't going to be any easy matches so you've got to be on top of your game from the word "go."
Yeah, I think when I look back actually, I perhaps didn't appreciate it so much of the time, you know, how consistent I was, my results, and therefore my ranking. You know, it's something that I'm pretty proud of, I think.

Q. Andy has a very difficult match to win before he gets through. If he does, do you have any thoughts on the possibility of playing against him again?
TIM HENMAN: Yeah, you know, those matches when I played Greg a lot, I wouldn't say they are necessarily the easiest matches. You know, I think you've got to, again, go out there and enjoy the match. And, you know, the way Andy is playing, I think it would be a sort of different scenario this time. You know, when I played him, I probably couldn't have played him at sort of a lower ebb last time in Basel, and then obviously having the rib problems that I had.
Yeah, I suppose it would be different. I suppose he would be sort of the favorite this time with the results, and probably quite rightly so. I saw a little bit of his matches last week, and he played some really good tennis.
You know, I think you guys sort of make a lot more of the British factor. You know, in terms of the standard of tennis, it's going to be tough because he's playing well if I were to play him.

Q. Since you found a way to contain your back problems, got on to a higher level of form this year, do you feel you've been unable to capitalize on all that partly because of draws, schedules, other factors, and with a little bit more luck, you might have achieved more than you have?
TIM HENMAN: I don't know. There are times where, you know, I felt like I created my own luck. Miami was a good example of that. Then, you know, I lost a match that I felt like I should have won.
But, no, that's why I've always been able to look at it a little bit longer term. Certainly when I had my injury problems and I wasn't able to play the tennis that I felt like I was capable of, then you have to start that building process.
I felt like now I've been playing a good standard for quite some time. You know, slowly but surely the results have improved. Hopefully I can continue that with this summer hard court swing, then I've got a pretty busy period after that.

Q. Where will you go after that?
TIM HENMAN: I'll play two in Asia, Bangkok and Tokyo, then hope to play the Masters Series, probably Basel in between.

Q. Not Vienna?
TIM HENMAN: No.

End of FastScripts...

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