DAVIS CUP - USA vs AUSTRALIA

July 17, 1999

Mark Woodforde

Q. Can you tell us how the match rates from the ones that you have seen? How does that match rate of the Davis Cup doubles matches that you have seen?

CAPTAIN NEWCOMBE: I think we had some tennis in the last half hour that was as good as you are ever going to see. Those rallies were unbelievable. First two sets one pair dominated; the other pair was down a little bit. It swapped around the next two sets; then we were into the fifth. It is as good as you are going to get as a sporting spectacle. I was thinking on one of those long points that they had, the ones where the boys were smashing and the American retrieved, I thought this is as good as it gets in sport. What is this bullshit here about Davis Cup not being exciting or something? I mean, the crowd going absolute nuts, you know, four guys out there just killing one another to try to win. That is what sports is all about, whatever event, it was as good as it gets.

CAPTAIN NEWCOMBE: Is Todd injured?

CAPTAIN NEWCOMBE: I don't know, I didn't hear that.

CAPTAIN NEWCOMBE: No, I didn't know -- I didn't think Todd was injured. You can replace someone if they got a physical injury, yeah.

CAPTAIN NEWCOMBE: Yes.

CAPTAIN NEWCOMBE: I don't run the event. It is up to the referee.

CAPTAIN NEWCOMBE: I don't know, I have never been in the position where someone has pulled out where they shouldn't.

MARK WOODFORDE: It is always -- I mean, it was difficult in the first place to come down two sets to Love, but Sandon and I felt, you know, talking to Newc on the change of ends, that we weren't playing at our best by any means and we were just making errors on the two service games that we lost. I messed it up for Sandon and I don't know if he messed it up for me but I probably messed it up anyway. But we just felt like if we could just shift the momentum around a little bit slightly in our favor that Alex was going to, you know, gag a lot and Sampras would probably put a lot of pressure on him and it was working. But getting back to two sets all, I think we went through a bit of a lull early in the fifth. We had chances, a lot of chances in the third and fourth and felt good but we just couldn't get into a really -- deep into a game, we couldn't sink our teeth into any of their service games which we had in the third and the fourth. So that was the problem, not that we were overly concern with it. We just wanted to wait out time. But didn't really come our way in the fifth so serving second there is always that little bit extra pressure and put in probably the worst game service game that I have done in the whole day of play. I am disappointed for myself and my team. I am disappointed for Sandon as well. But it was a great match and I am sure the guys will come out fighting tomorrow.

SANDON STOLLE: Well, yeah, obviously Pete doesn't play a lot of doubles and it was a big match for them; if they lost that match we win the tie. But obviously for me, too, it was my first doubles match and I felt probably a little nervous in the beginning. Like Mark said, I felt we weren't playing our best, but if we hung in, and Newc was saying it is a five-set match, we felt as the match went on that we started playing heaps better than what we were doing in the beginning of the first two sets. But I think, yeah, I think Alex was nervous. I think Pete probably was feeling that also because Alex was a little tentative and was putting a bit more pressure on Pete. But that is doubles. I mean, you are team and you have to deal with one another and try and help one another out. I really enjoyed playing with Mark. Like he said, I don't think that game was his fault. I think as a team you take it both, didn't help him out that last service game and -- but that is what happens.

MARK WOODFORDE: Probably, you know, I think the previous service game I was down Love-30 and had to come out or I know I was down Love-30 on one of the service games came out with some tough volleys. Getting up to 30-Love, you know, maybe I played not to lose the game. When you are behind, there is no respite except going for it. So maybe I let my concentration just sort of change a little bit towards -- of not trying to lose the game from 30-Love. Two doublefaults came out of nowhere. It is not like my hands were shaking or it was a bad ball toss. Newc said I pulled down off the ball, so to me sort of a big surprise. But it didn't make me any more nervous. I still felt comfortable coming out and just I knew it was going to be a tough game. It continued on to be a very tough game.

CAPTAIN NEWCOMBE: I am surprised because the rules say that you have got to have a doctor's report saying that you are not able to play. So that sort of surprises me without even -- we don't even look at that.

CAPTAIN NEWCOMBE: It is all hypothetical. I don't want to get into it.

SANDON STOLLE: As what went on?

SANDON STOLLE: No, I think I mean, I didn't feel -- I think he returned average; nothing out-- I mean, he didn't come up with any huge returns or anything. But he made his play and that is how they won the first two sets. He was making his play. I don't think I served very well in the beginning and they were having looks at second serves which makes it a bit easier to return. I think we raised our level of serving and maybe he went off a little bit. I think we kept him at bay as far as returning.

MARK WOODFORDE: He didn't win that last game. The game to break, it was more or less me giving --

SANDON STOLLE: Was "us."

MARK WOODFORDE: "Us," sorry. Us, you know, putting in some bad points. He didn't hit any clean winners by us. You could probably say it was tough -- if he did that it was tough serving to him but he never did it.

MARK WOODFORDE: Made some good saves, but, you know, the returning wasn't anything great.

CAPTAIN NEWCOMBE: We had a lot of discussion about it. It wasn't an easy decision. There was some pluses and minuses on either side. We felt probably it was going to be a 3 to 4 hour doubles match, whatever happened and we felt that Sandon could get the job done and in case something went wrong and we lost we would rather have Pat coming out completely fresh tomorrow in case -- if he had played and they played three or four hours, he wouldn't be coming out as fresh. So it was almost having two bites of the biggy tin (sic), I guess.

CAPTAIN NEWCOMBE: I did a little bit in the fourth. But when you got the crowd pulling for you like that and Pete is a real champion, he just -- he sucked it up at the end and he went really hard at it at the finishing line.

MARK WOODFORDE: Well, he didn't do anything great. I mean, as we said the other day, he is just going to come out and serve big and try and hit the returns and hit his second shot. So I mean, he played the way that we figured and I mean, he didn't pick up anything, you know, terrific up at net or, now you know, it just makes it tough in that situation to get his serve back and put another pressure on and try and exploit -- exploit his lack of doubles play which we didn't do in the first two sets, but we started to gel together a little bit better in the fourth -- third and fourth and fifth. But it is not to say that he can't -- is not a good doubles player. With that serve you go along way in either singles or doubles.

CAPTAIN NEWCOMBE: Easy way to answer that is if Mark or Sandon were playing Pete and down two sets to Love ain't going to lose 6-3 in the fifth.

MARK WOODFORDE: For what?

CAPTAIN NEWCOMBE: Yes, he did. I don't know if the boys looked at him, but he did. He nailed Sandon a beauty.

MARK WOODFORDE: No I don't think -- we were just trying to get the ball back over in the first place. Against -- I mean, you are just trying to get your racket on to Sampras's serve in singles or doubles anyway so you just hope it goes over and you get a play on the next shot. That is the way it just felt. I mean, it is such a terrific action and the same on Alex really was just to try to get the ball back and make him play often enough to feel the pressure from us. So there was nothing behind -- we weren't trying to chip and roll or, you know, alternate. It was just get that ball over.

CAPTAIN NEWCOMBE: Well, you have got Pat against Todd. They just played a fourth setter at Wimbledon. It was tight, tight match. They played tight matches against each other. I think you probably got to give a slight edge to Pat in that one. If it did come down to the fifth match, well, you saw them both play the other day, it will be a pretty good match. Between Jim and Lleyton it will be very interesting.

MARK WOODFORDE: I think we just tried to shut him down with the returns just take away -- try and take away that weapon. I was mixing my serve up and Sandon got into a groove with his serve into Pete. But we didn't want to get him too accustomed to just everything coming into him. But obviously he was beating us with some of the returns and think we just tried to cover any of the gaps down the middle, going to hit winners let them hit them up the line, try not let anything come down the middle. We definitely picked that up.