ATP Tour World Championship

November 27, 1998

Tim Henman

Q. Where does that rank in your list of all-time great or not-so-great performances?

TIM HENMAN: I think it's irrelevant where that ranks. It was a disappointing performance. A lot of attention is being paid to the rivalry. It was disappointing the way the match unfolded. But having said that, I'm obviously through to the semifinals, so I need to pick up my performance tomorrow. I won't dwell on that one too long.

TIM HENMAN: I think so, yeah. I think it's a different sort of match. I know I'm already through to the next stage. Having said that, there is a rivalry between me and Greg. I think we both wanted to win. On the day, my performance wasn't good enough. Having said that, he did play very well.

TIM HENMAN: By it?

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, it's disappointing, sure. I don't like to lose. I know that tomorrow is a lot more important for me.

TIM HENMAN: I suppose you could compare the two. I knew I'm through to the semifinals. It's my goal achieved for the round-robin. In some respects, there wasn't so much the game. But still my pride of performance should take care of that. That was disappointing. Having said that, I think come tomorrow, it's kind of like the situation when I played as I did against Todd, and my next match was against Rios. I think the two were very, very different. I'd expect to see that tomorrow.

TIM HENMAN: I think yesterday was a really tough match, both physically and mentally. There was a sense of excitement, a sense of relief that I was through to the semis. Having said that, Greg played really well. He's kept his hopes alive. He'll just have to wait and see what happens in the next match.

TIM HENMAN: I like round-robin. We play knock-out the rest of the year. It makes a change. It's a little bit different. I think the players like that.

TIM HENMAN: I think a little bit. Obviously, started off badly. As the match was going away, for me to try and get back and win that match is going to be difficult, for starters, but then I think it would take a lot out of me. We'll just have to see what happens tomorrow.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, I've heard that. I think there's been a few articles written in the press today. I think looking at it from a player's point of view, this is the World Championships, one of the biggest events we have all year, what we play all year to qualify for. You're not going to have Rios fly from Santiago to Hannover, and then pull out because he's not interested. I think if that's what people are thinking, they're on a different planet. Likewise with Agassi, he came here to play and was very unfortunate to get injured. Just because that's happened, it is unfortunate for the tournament, because a lot of people would like to see those types of players playing. At the end of a long year, I'm afraid it happens.

TIM HENMAN: I haven't served a lot of double-faults this week. Maybe I was going for a little bit too much. You know, probably go out on the practice court a little bit later and hit some balls, get some rhythm back in my serve. Still go into tomorrow's match with Moya with a lot of confidence.

TIM HENMAN: I think so. I'm the first to admit I played badly, and I'm disappointed by that. I think a lot of people wanted to see us having a tight and hard-fought match. You know, it wasn't quite the case today. I'm not going to worry too much about that. I think it's more important now to start thinking about my next match.

TIM HENMAN: Say that again.

TIM HENMAN: I think obviously Greg has a lot to play for. I think his performance showed that. Having said that, I think I'm a little bit disappointed with the way I played. It was another match to improve my ranking. I missed that opportunity. Having said that, I can't complain with the way I've played in my other two, and I'm through to the semis. That is the main purpose. But, yeah, I think it would be fair to say I'd like to play, you know, perhaps when it's in a slightly different situation.

TIM HENMAN: Perhaps, yeah. I think I've had some tough matches against Kafelnikov. My record is better against Moya. He's playing really well at the moment. It's not going to be easy.

TIM HENMAN: Quite right to. I think I was playing badly. I think sometimes I was thinking to myself perhaps they've seen me play in the last couple of days, then I'm missing shots that I definitely shouldn't have done. Sometimes from a personal point of view, it's disappointing when you miss those, when you're trying as hard as you can. It would be a bit better if you weren't really focused. Some of those shots I missed were a little bit unexplainable.

TIM HENMAN: I play in Doha, it is my first tournament next year, and then I'm going to play the exhibition in Melbourne. Not Sydney this year.

TIM HENMAN: It's going to be very similar as it was against Corretja. He's going to be trying to keep me on the baseline as much as possible. I'm going to be getting to the net when I get the opportunity. I definitely need to serve a lot more consistently than I did today.

TIM HENMAN: I think it suits me very well. I do feel confident with his style of play matching up against mine. Having said that, I think I probably just boosted his confidence a little bit.

TIM HENMAN: It's never good to play the way I did today. But having said that, I think you're right, in that tomorrow, not that I'll need any motivation in the semifinals of the World Championships, but sure, I'll be perhaps just an extra bit fired up to come out and really start performing again.

TIM HENMAN: He helped himself. I said to him after the match, I said, "Well played. I hope Costa can do you a favor." I can talk about my performance, and I didn't play particularly well. But he did play really good tennis.

TIM HENMAN: No. I think he said it, and I think it's fair to say if he doesn't get injured in Wimbledon time, he would have been one of the eight playing every match here.

TIM HENMAN: Wimbledon final (laughter). I think we'd both settle for that. I think with the way our styles of play are, very fast indoor court, it's never going to be a particularly exciting match because we can both serve pretty well. That doesn't make the rallies too long. If we ever got the chance to play on a slow hard court, I think that would be a good match-up.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, that's right. Having said that, we've had a couple good ones in the Nationals. But that was such a long time ago. We'll just have to wait and see the next time we play, and I hope from my point of view it's a better match.

TIM HENMAN: I don't think it's really affected me because I played Rios on the first day, then I played Corretja. I beat one of them. I didn't play the other. I don't think it had an influence on me. Didn't affect my tournament, if you like.

TIM HENMAN: Yeah, it's good. There was definitely a spell earlier on in the year when we weren't getting on particularly well. I think at times it was a little bit blown out of proportion in the press. But now, we do. We definitely get on better. We have a pretty good time in Davis Cup. We practice a lot in London when we're there. I think it's a lot better.