REPUBLIC NATIONAL MONTE CARLO OPEN
Date: 1999-04-21

REPUBLIC NATIONAL MONTE CARLO OPEN

April 21, 1999

Mark Philippoussis
MONTE CARLO
ATP: Questions, please.
Question You seem to be one of the players, serve-and-volley players, who manages to do well on clay. Do you have any advice to give to players like Tim Henman or Thomas Enqvist who seem to be struggling more than you?
Mark Philippoussis Advice for them? No. I just want to keep the advice to myself (laughter). No, I don't know. They play well on clay, too. I didn't watch Thomas' match, but Tim had a tough match. He had a chance to win. You know, it's hard to judge someone on a couple of matches or a match. It's just very early in the clay court season.

Question Do you actually change your game a lot for clay? You still seem to be hitting a lot of winners, being quite aggressive.
Mark Philippoussis I do. I feel comfortable at the back, on the baseline. It was a bit hard today. It was very heavy out there. It was drizzling a little. It was tough to put a ball away because it was so heavy. You know, hopefully, normally, some of those don't come back. They shoot through a bit more. Towards the end, I got my rhythm. He started to miss. You know, if needs be, I can mix it up and serve-and-volley, too, if I have to.

Question Do you feel he let you off the hook a little bit at 5-3 in the first, 40-15?
Mark Philippoussis Definitely. But then again, he didn't do anything wrong at the 40-15 points. He played a decent point. I got to it. A dropshot volley, hit a winner, hit a good return, big forehand. But then the two missed forehands, and also I think he missed a couple at 6-5. But he definitely did let me off the hook, which I was sure I lost a bit of concentration.

Question Do you have any particular ambition on clay this season? Take it each match as it comes?
Mark Philippoussis My approach to this year has been totally different to the past. You know, in the past I've set myself a goal of Top 10. I haven't achieved that. This year all I want for myself is each match I do go into this year, I want to, you know, give a hundred percent commitment of myself out there, and just try as hard as I can for each match. If I do that, then, you know, I think -- as I've shown, I've had the best out of my career, because I'm just competing in every match. I'm a lot tougher than I have been.

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