US OPEN

August 28, 2002

Tim Henman

MODERATOR: Questions for Tim.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, I mean, it feels okay. I was obviously, you know, a little bit unsure, a little bit concerned going into the match how it would react if we got into a long match. So obviously winning so convincingly was helpful. You know, I can feel it now. I wouldn't say it's sore, but it will be interesting just to see how things are tomorrow. But, you know, I'm optimistic that it should be okay.

TIM HENMAN: It was, very much so. You know, I've been trying to push it more and more in practice. I haven't practiced more than an hour at any stage really. That's where there was a little bit of uncertainty. But, as you say, you know, to play for an hour and a half and, you know, be fairly aggressive with my serve and different shots, it was a good exercise for my shoulder and obviously a good first-round win.

TIM HENMAN: I feel very much as if that's been the case, because still on Friday last week, it was still feeling pretty sore. I felt like I lost a lot of confidence in it, as well. I was, you know, a little bit scared to make different moves that had been hurting. But, as I said, the more I've been able to push it a little bit in practice and keep getting the continuous treatment, it definitely feels like it's getting better. I can't say I necessarily agree with Wednesday starts, but it definitely helped me.

TIM HENMAN: I felt yesterday was, you know, just on and off. You know, I was trying to go for the serve. Again, it's sort of trying to instill that confidence and that belief in it because it was pretty sore in Indianapolis. You know, I think it hopefully will get stronger as each day goes by.

TIM HENMAN: I think it probably does need, you know, some extended rest. Having seen the improvement that it's made in the last week while I've been practicing, I've got my fingers crossed that it won't hinder me. As you say, you're always trying to work with these types of things. I do, I feel happy with the progress it's made. But I think the rehab and then the continuing sort of strengthening process is something that I'm going to have to pay pretty careful attention to I should think for, you know, the rest of my career. Because I think I perhaps hadn't done enough of the strength work post Wimbledon. You know, it caught up with me a little bit.

TIM HENMAN: Just antiinflammatories really.

TIM HENMAN: Just a lot of icing, ultrasound, stim, that type of thing, massage to try and loosen up all the areas, those types of things.

TIM HENMAN: I was very conscious of that when it was so bad the day after I won in Indianapolis. I sort of understand the shoulder a bit better. That's why I was keen to have an MRI just to put my mind at rest. You know, when you're talking of rotator cuffs, it's not really a great -- not really two words that you want to hear. But, you know, my shoulder was inflamed. I had a little bit of tendonitis. I had inflammation of the bursa. As far as tears or anything like that, that wasn't the case.

TIM HENMAN: I mean, it's bizarre that there have been so many. But I just feel that it's the ongoing wear and tear. You talk about seasons, and we are let's say in the eighth or ninth month of this season. But the season never really stops, you know, it just keeps rolling into one. We could be in Australia and everyone would say that it's the first month of the year, everyone should be fresh. When the years roll into one, I think it's inevitable that time to time people are going to get these types of injuries. Yeah, it's something that probably needs to be monitored.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, I mean, that's not really possible I don't think if you want to compete at the top of the game. But I think your answer to that is to try and get your schedule as -- to pay real attention to your schedule, to make sure that you don't suddenly have five or six weeks in a row, because if you're playing a lot and winning matches, I think that's when you're going to ask for trouble.

TIM HENMAN: I mean, they are great returners. I think they're slightly different. Agassi I think is probably the more aggressive returner because he takes the ball a little bit earlier, probably hits the ball a little bit harder off the return. Having said that, I think Hewitt will probably, you know, get more balls back in play. But they do both return very, very well.

TIM HENMAN: There are guys that can return very, very well on given days. I think over a long period, those two stand above the rest of us.

TIM HENMAN: You totally take it for granted. That's always the way. I think I've always trained very, very hard and worked very hard. But one of my sort of shortcomings in that area is sort of the stretching and that sort of process which is probably equally as important. Certainly when you have problems, it kind of gives you a chance to reassess what needs to be done. That's something that I've had to pay, you know, particular attention to in the last couple of weeks. Again, as I said, with the rehab and strengthening process, that's going to have to be maintained.

TIM HENMAN: I think it's -- I think that whole scenario was probably a lot more to do with bad communication from both sides. I think from someone that knows him relatively well, I just am sort of surprised the problems he has because he's always, you know, a good guy to be around in the locker room. Certainly for a young guy I think he speaks very well. You know, he's perhaps said a couple of things that he regrets, but who hasn't? I'm surprised from the media's point of view that he's had such a difficult time.

TIM HENMAN: Well, again, it's the choice that you have to make, isn't it? If the ranking system is as it is, then to really compete, to give yourself the best chance of being at the top of the game, you want to take advantage of the opportunities. If you then cut back on your schedule, unless you play exceptionally well in the tournaments that you play, in a way you could be making life more difficult for yourself.

TIM HENMAN: I think it's perhaps changed my attitude a little bit because, you know, at the beginning, probably seven days ago, I was very, very unsure whether I would play, to what level I could play. And that's why, as we talk about taking it for granted, I was happy to be out there today just feeling like I had a chance of competing. I think that helped with me demeanor, my mental approach. I felt like for a first round, I was pretty relaxed and comfortable with what was going on. There wasn't too much that went against me. But I felt like, you know, if things hadn't have gone my way, I would have been fairly calm and ready just to try and turn it around and do the best I could, whereas sometimes I think you can try a little bit too hard and put a little bit of extra pressure on yourself. That really does more harm than good.