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WESTERN & SOUTHERN FINANCIAL GROUP MASTERS

August 13, 2007

Tim Henman

CINCINNATI, OHIO

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Did you feel at all that you gained a little bit of momentum for just a set out there today?
TIM HENMAN: Yeah, a little bit. Early part of the third set I had breakpoints in the first game, so I would have liked to have got one of those and that would have probably given me more momentum.

Q. What's the season been like for you? Has it been pretty tough?
TIM HENMAN: Well, the other thing right now is I'm coming back on to hard courts and struggling with my back again. That's been an issue for quite sometime. And, yeah, it's just the constant pounding on the courts.
Sort of had some wear and tear issues. You know, I struggled with it again in Washington and had a few days off. Ease off a little bit and then you want to practice properly but you sort of feel like you have to get the balance right without aggravating it.
You know, it's hard when you're playing a match of that nature. I just feel like it sort of just deteriorates a little bit as the match goes on, so it's difficult.

Q. How did to feel today?
TIM HENMAN: It's just you feel like you're just playing in pain most of the time because it's that -- it's just, you know, playing on the hard courts it's always going to be pretty tough on the body and, you know, I've done it for a few years.

Q. Does the back come into play in the longer matches?
TIM HENMAN: Not in the other ones. In Wimbledon because I'm playing on grass so it's much softer. I felt very good then. It's just making the -- adapting back to the hard courts.
You know, from the tennis point of view it's fine. The conditions are very good afternoon just finding it hard physically.

Q. Are you going to play in New Haven?
TIM HENMAN: Uh-huh.

Q. Have you asked yourself why even bother with the hard courts if it's that much pain?
TIM HENMAN: What does that leave you if you don't play on hard courts? Clay. Yeah, you know, clay is always going to be difficult for me. So it's always been a surface that I've had my best results on, but it's hard when you're out there competing and playing a pretty good level of tennis. I think it was a good match. But certainly not so enjoyable if you're playing in pain most of the time.

Q. How important is it to get a few matches under your belt in New Haven before the Open?
TIM HENMAN: Yeah, it would help. But I think I've played enough matches in my career to know what I can and can't do and should and shouldn't be doing. We'll just see how it goes.

Q. Have you thought about how much longer you want to do this overall?
TIM HENMAN: Yeah. It's not getting any easier. I mean, I appreciate that I'm nearer the end of my career than the start. But I've got this -- the tournaments coming up: US Open and Davis Cup is obviously going to be a big priority. So, yeah, I'll sort of take it in those sort of segments and see how I feel.

Q. How have you thought about what you'd still like to achieve in your career?
TIM HENMAN: Davis Cup in the short-term is going to be a great really exciting match for us against Croatia. It's an opportunity to get back into the World Group. With a Grand Slam coming up, that's always going to be fun. I've always enjoyed the US Open and certainly look forward to those two events.

Q. Can you talk about beyond this season?
TIM HENMAN: No.

Q. You played Isner. Comment on him, what you saw on him in Washington.
TIM HENMAN: Pretty tall. Yeah, he's -- when you serve that well you're always going to be dangerous because it's so difficult to break him. If you keep holding your own serve there's a lot of pressure on your opponent. You know that one slip up can cost you the set.
He's played so little professional tennis he's going to get better and better. It will be interesting to see how he does.

End of FastScripts

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