AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 21, 2001

Tim Henman

THE MODERATOR: First question, please.

TIM HENMAN: I certainly give Pat a lot of credit for the way he played, but, you know, I think overall I handled the situation pretty poorly. He was probably under pressure for the first ten or fifteen minutes on his first two service games, but beyond that, you know, I could never -- I could never express myself in the match with my play or my actions, and, you know, he did. He played very, very well at a very high level. But, you know, it's much easier when you're always in front and he slightly dominated the match.

TIM HENMAN: You want to try and find all sorts of different variations to your game and to try and stem the tide, if you'd like, and upset his rhythm. And I don't think my play was good enough to then put him under pressure.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, it's tough. I felt like if I could have returned the second serve better than you can put him under pressure, maybe make him volley up a bit more. But when someone serves and volleys behind his second serve as well as he does, it's not like you can suddenly take the net away. But, you know, early on I was getting on to his serve to a certain extent. But I can't say that I had anything to show for that.

TIM HENMAN: I think, you know, he certainly stamped his authority on the match and, you know, it was an uphill battle from pretty much the start, and I needed to -- I needed to try and find a way to build some momentum, express myself on the match. And, you know, I didn't do that I don't think at any stage really.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, there's probably a lot of very good lessons to be learned from this. It will not be -- from my point of view, it won't be pretty to watch a match like that. But I think in, you know, in big-match conditions, I think I'm certainly away from home, I was lacking today.

TIM HENMAN: No, I can't suddenly question, you know, the way I've been playing recently or anything like that. But, you know, I don't think my performance was certainly nothing to shout about. And, you know, I needed to find those different variations to try to break things up, but, you know, I wasn't able to do that. I wasn't really given a chance to do that.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, no question. No question. He played, you know, he did play very well and I'm sure it's done wonders for his confidence. But, you know, I felt like, as I said, if you're always in the lead, then it's difficult to try and put pressure on someone then to see how they're going to react under pressure. But, you know, everything that he was asked to do he did clinically.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, no question. I think he's -- I've watched quite a lot of his matches, not just here, obviously at Kooyong where it's not quite as important and you've been able to see a marked improvement in each match. Certainly I'm sure he feels very good about his chances.

TIM HENMAN: No, I don't think, you know, I don't think I can relate to this situation. It's certainly not an enjoyable one. But it's one that you do have to -- you've got to learn from, because I'm sure that, you know, I'm sure that I'll put myself in this situation again and I've got to be able to respond in a different manner.

TIM HENMAN: I think it can be -- I mean, that can be a slight problem at times because it's certainly not through lack of effort. You know, I'm trying to do everything I can. But it certainly wasn't happening, and then you've got to just -- you've got to try and have the belief in your game to then just -- to let it take its course. But when you're two sets to love down and nothing's really happening for you, you're not creating any chances, then it's difficult to know where to turn.