AUSTRALIAN OPEN
Date: 2006-01-17

AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 17, 2006

Mark Philippoussis
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
The Moderator Questions, please.

Question Can you talk about tonight's match.
Mark Philippoussis He played great tennis. He definitely played great tennis. Didn't have too many unforced errors. No doubt about that. When you're not playing great tennis yourself and the other person's playing as good as they're playing, it definitely makes things tough.

Question Where do you see yourself going from here, the next 12 months and beyond?
Mark Philippoussis To the next tournament, you know. Simple as that. I'm just going to put this behind me and go out and keep training and getting my ranking back up, trying to build my confidence up and just keep playing matches. That's the only thing I can do.

Question How have you found that, the recent times when you've obviously had struggles with injuries, on and off, etc.? Where do you sort of feel your career's at now?
Mark Philippoussis Obviously, I've got to, you know -- it's on, you know, a long way back, that's for sure. But, you know, I feel like I've been in the sort of situation before, not ranking-wise, but coming back from surgeries where it's been a long way back. This is just another thing where I'm going to have to work harder. I'm working hard. I'm just going to keep working hard and sooner or later it's going to pay off.

Question When you talk about coming back, realistically, where you are, are you happy just to be competing on the tour, or do you want to be a genuine contender at Grand Slams again?
Mark Philippoussis I'm not just being happy. Might as well not play. I think my goal is just to get my ranking back up where I'll be in the tournaments. And just build up from there.

Question How much of a handicap was that coming into this tournament, that you hadn't had match play in recent times?
Mark Philippoussis Obviously there's nothing that substitutes for match play, simple as that. Doesn't matter how hard you work, how many hours you put in on the practice court. Nothing is as good as playing matches in tournaments.

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