U.S. OPEN

September 11, 1992

Nicole Provis

Mark Woodforde

Q. I guess it must feel tremendous to be the number one mixed doubles team in the world?

MARK WOODFORDE: We have some competition there.

NICOLE PROVIS: Was good. It was very exciting. It is great for us.

Q. Winning the Australian and the U.S. Open, it's a super way to close out the year on the Grand Slams.

NICOLE PROVIS: Yeah, I mean, we didn't expect to get as far as we did like winning Australia was great. I think we are playing really well together. We have fun out there, and I think that is half the way; you are there; plus we played together for four Grand Slams, I think we are getting to know one other pretty well. I think that is a huge plus.

Q. How did you all get together?

MARK WOODFORDE: Both-- we are both rejects.

NICOLE PROVIS: I got shafted by Tony. He got shafted by someone else. Couple of days before the Open, we said, do you want to play mixed? He said, yeah.

MARK WOODFORDE: Yeah, it was just something like that. I probably ended much -- It was just at the last moment, you know, I think both of us had a few people asking us, but it wasn't, I guess we--

NICOLE PROVIS: I wanted to play with another Australian. I have always played with Australians

MARK WOODFORDE: If I play mixed doubles, I want to be able to do well. I don't want to lose first or second round. I want to always find a suitable partner. I know that Nicole and Todd didn't get along so well because Todd is very intense on the court. I think that is why Todd and I are so good, because I am more relaxed and he is intense. We can help each other and Todd doesn't need an intense person all the time. I can keep her relaxed, and keep-- get her fired a little bit when it is needed. It was lucky --

NICOLE PROVIS: It was a fight, I guess.

Q. Is that the reason why you think the two of you will play so well together, is it that you compliment--

NICOLE PROVIS: Yeah, I think a lefty and a righty, we both -- I mean, he helps me when I am serving. He helps me at the net, and I think a huge plus is having -- a lot of the girls cannot handle my serve, so, I mean, if I could just hold mine and be returning like that, we are halfway there.

MARK WOODFORDE: Today it was more, I think, we had to do a lot of thinking out there because the wind was pretty brutal out there at the beginning and for me to serve, I mean, I took the wind -- where it was-- I was serving into it and it has not helped my left-handed serving. It was more of an advantage for me to serve with the wind. Helena as soon as she went down there, she dropped all our serves all the way. We had still breakpoint. It was a tough decision because in the second set, it was out on the serve. Usually the guy starts serving, and so it was -- you have to gamble out there a little bit. I mean, sometimes it becomes, you know, that you just throw the dice, I think we-- it landed well for us. Nicole was holding her serve and the only blemish was dropping one of my serves at the beginning; otherwise, that would have changed the whole match around. As long as we think you know, on the court, I think as Nicole said she has a lot of strengths; I have a lot of strengths, and weaknesses aren't that glaring and we can patch them up well enough so that too many pairs can't get at us. I think they are a very good time.

Q. You were scheduled to play yesterday the rain called havoc with that. Was it difficult to have to rethink that you are going to play the match the next day, and other night

NICOLE PROVIS: It was frustrating like when you are ready to get out of here, you are playing your final tomorrow and we are both from Australia; got to go home. Yesterday, as it turned out, the rain came and we were mulling around; when are we going to play,

MARK WOODFORDE: Put it this way--

NICOLE PROVIS: Four of us wanted to play.

MARK WOODFORDE: We were very accommodating, and I think for one reason or another, we were always told that we couldn't play yesterday. So, it was a little bit unfair because all four of us were willing to play on an outside court because we all definitely wanted to get it over and done with. And we understand that there are sponsors, you know, that have to be-- we have to, you know, play in front of them so on, and do the right thing, but, you know, we were really jacked around yesterday quite a bit and we were led down a path, and then the path sort of ended rather abruptly. It is just really nice. I feel sorry for them, for our opponents, because they were-- I guess, they were really pumped for yesterday as much as we were and it is tough to come back and-- but the good thing is that we had a choice of when we wanted to play and the court that we can play on, by the stadium. It is just nice to finish the tournament on a winning note, and now we can go home.

Q. You came here earlier--

NICOLE PROVIS: We came here earlier; supposed to play second on stadium because of the rain and that match going to five sets; then they were going to stick us on the grandstand.

Q. When was the first time they told you they were going to bump you the first time?

MARK WOODFORDE: Not too long before we were due to go on.

NICOLE PROVIS: The problem was Helena had a ladies doubles matches yesterday first on. She had to play that.

MARK WOODFORDE: We were hear from ten in the morning until six at night.

NICOLE PROVIS: Once it sort of reached five -- ran around five o'clock then they -- at about 3:30 or whatever, they stuck a veterans game on the grandstand. Then they wanted to get Chang and Ferreira moved over to grandstand because they knew it was going to rain and they had to get that match finished. They wouldn't put us on stadium even though there were two hours to spare because they wanted to clear all the crowd out and make sure Edberg and Lendl did start at 7:30. So we were sort of in a no-win situation.

Q. When did they tell you it was off?

MARK WOODFORDE: We decided--

NICOLE PROVIS: We decided-- we walked out at 6:30.

MARK WOODFORDE: That was a good thing. They were speaking to us. We were in constant contact and we just were trying to make up schedules to solve the situation solution to try to get us all on. Three or four times without --there was the answer, no. So at six they said rather than-- if you want to go, I mean, whatever you want to do, if you want to stay and try and play late at night, the possibility of no one watching us, and we said, no, we would rather play on grandstand. At least it's sort of like a show court and there is going to be people watching us, coming out to watch us because there are good matches on today, so, you know, in the end it worked out well for us.

Q. Both of you had good years, Federation Cup, Australia Open, doubles, where does this rate for the two of you?

NICOLE PROVIS: Grand Slam is a great feather in your cap. I mean, this year, winning the Australia Open doubles, and winning the mixed, and maybe in the middle winning sorts of things, it has been a very, very good year. It is very special to me. It is great, feeling terrific.

MARK WOODFORDE: Yeah, it's always nice to do well and we have done well in the mixed doubles Slams, so-- and for me it is just nice to keep winning and show certain people back home, that not to forget me in the future.

Q. After losing the first set were you concerned at the final--

NICOLE PROVIS: At 6-4, no, because we were always close on Helena's serve and close on Tom's serve, and I said if we are getting this close all the time and we drop that first service down, we lose at 6-4. I mean, something got to break sooner or later, and it did.

Q. Thank you

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