PATRICK RAFTER lost to Thomas Enqvist4-6,6-4,4-6,4-6
January 22, 1999
Q. What are your emotions right now, Pat?
A. Well, I wasn't too much - I played - I really did wrong out there today. I think the conditions suited him really well, and he played too big and too strong for me.
Q. How did you rate your own performance?
A. Not too bad. You know, I think, you know, I did okay under the circumstances. He's playing very well, and he is putting me under a lot of pressure all the time. He is serving extremely well. The second serve is where I like to put pressure on the person. He never gave me a chance to do that today, and, you know, the conditions out there don't really suit my serve quite as much, and he was able to really make me pay for missing the first serve.
Q. What do you think he will do against Philippoussis?
A. It should be a very good match. I don't know who's going to win, but he's definitely got a very good chance; if he serves like that and hits the ball as well as that, I think it is probably a good opportunity. Mark probably hits the ball better than what I do from the baseline. He does, there's no doubt about it. It will just be a matter of who makes the first mistake, I think.
Q. Where does rank for you in the disappointment scale, given how much effort you've put in and how much preparation had gone towards it?
A. No, I mean, that's just the way it goes. It's a loss. There's nothing I can do about it. I went in there. I tried. Maybe the preparation could have been a fraction better, but I felt like I was hitting the ball better and better, and today he never really gave me a chance. He was just too good for me on the day, and I can't really be that disappointed about that.
Q. How grateful are you of the crowd?
A. They were great. It's a good atmosphere out there. There's probably one or two comments which - you know, from the Swedes and also from the Australians that, probably I should have a chat to them and probably tell them not to really make those sort of comments. I mean, they tried to lift me, and it was a good feeling out there. I really enjoyed it. It's good to be back playing at home.
Q. Did you maybe try to be too tricky at the net, like some difficult volleys instead of - - -?
A. There wasn't much I could do, mate. I don't know what you want me to do. I don't know which shots. There was one drop shot which I didn't - I got a miss on break point. There wasn't much else I could have done on that shot. If I had tried to put it back in the court, I think he would have had a pretty easy passing shot. I've only got about half a second to think about what I'm doing.
Q. Pat, you said in Sydney how difficult you have found it to play at home in the past. Was that a factor at all today?
A. Not at all. It was great. I prepared very well. I've sort of kept out of the public quite a bit over the last week, and I haven't found that at all. It's been a really good week for me. I felt - I feel good. I feel like I want to go back out and train, which is a real positive sign for the rest of the year. Unfortunately, you know, it's not going to happen here, but, you know, maybe next year, we can. There's always next year.
Q. Any reason you feel why so many seeds have gone out so early, apart from injuries, of course?
A. That's men's tennis, I think. It's very competitive and it's very close, and you are going to see a lot of results like this, and Enqvist is a good player. There's a lot of top ten players out there that aren't in the top ten, so - and it's very close. Unfortunately, it's not like women's tennis.
Q. Do you feel the loss of opportunity of clinching the No. 1, without Sampras, Rios, Corretja?
A. It was a long way to go. I think I would have had to have won the tournament to be No. 1, and there was too many barriers in my way to get that far ahead. I think if I got to the semi-finals, it may have been a factor in my mind, but there are too many good players out there, mate.
Q. But he hasn't really done as well in the Slam?
A. No.
In the past. What has kind of been the word on why that is in the past?
A. I don't know. I don't know if he can keep it going for five sets. I don't know. I mean, he's probably in the best condition, the best shape of hitting the ball as well as he ever has this time than any other time, or maybe he can't keep backing the matches up. I'm not quite sure why Thomas has never done that well. It'll be very interesting to see how Mark goes. I mean, Mark is playing very well at the moment. I think he got two of the in-form players. You know, this could be a possible finals match, and even a head-to-head in the fourth round, so I don't really know why he hasn't. He's definitely got the potential to win a Slam, that's for sure.
Q. Is Agassi the man to beat?
A. Yeah, mate. There's a lot of them. Agassi - let me think, who else is there? Krajicek, FerreirA. They are always going to be around there - I think one of those guys. And Kucera is still going. Kafelnikov. I think the conditions here suit more of a baseline style of game, if not a - I thought it was, when I first came out, I thought it was okay, but as the matches progressed, I just found it harder and harder to win my points at the net, and things, so it's going to be tough.
Q. Will you lobby for a change to Deco Turf here?
A. Yeah. I think we can get a different ball too. I'm going for a Wilson ball, mate.
Q. Pat, from what you have seen of Mark here this week, do you think he has got the maturity to win here?
A. Yeah. I thought it was actually a fantastic effort by him today. He was very, very flat. You could tell that, and if he got off to a bad start in the second set, it would have been very interesting to see how he would have gone, but, you know, he dug pretty deep and showed a fair bit of heart out there. I have seen a lot of signs of doing very well this week, and there's no reason why he can't continue on his winning ways and get very close to next Sunday. It's going to be come for him. You have just got to be patient, I think, with him.
Q. Did you get a bit frustrated with the balls out there today?
A. No. The one ball was - had been sitting out there for about two weeks, so it was a very old ball.
Q. Any idea where it would have landed?
A. I don't know, mate. I was a bit frustrated anyway, so it was just good timing. I don't know.
Q. Why did you jump the net at the end of the first game of the fourth set?
A. Was it the end of the first game of the fourth? I don't know. I was just running in and I thought the ball was going to go to the net, had momentum. Sorry, mate. I didn't mean to.
Q. Pat, there was a break point there in the fourth set at 4-3 when he served. Did you hear the crowd sort of gasp and a few people sort of cheer a double fault while the ball was in play there?
A. Yeah, but that is not a factor in the point. I don't know. It must have just got it, because there was a mark that looked, may have just got - it was a very close one. But that's not the reason why I lost. He played a pretty good point, so - - -
Q. This is a more plus or positive Australian Open for you than the previous ones, wouldn't you say, because of your emotional frame?
A. Yeah, I think I have learned a few more things this year again. You know, there's a loss, you know. I have a lot of them so I get used to them, so I cop them on the chin. There's always next year, and that's the way it goes, you know. I'd love to be out there still playing against Mark in a couple of days, but it's not the case. But I feel good. I feel like I've got a bit of enthusiasm back again, and that's positive for the rest of the year.
Q. Do you feel, as a home player, that you are under more pressure given that Australia hasn't won the tournament for the last 23 years?
A. No, I didn't feel that. I didn't feel like I was - I was out there playing for myself. I wasn't playing for the records, or anything, and I think that's the only way you can go out there and play. I think if you have too many things going on, it is not healthy, I don't think, for your mind. No, as I said, I was very - I was in a good frame of mind this year.
Q. Do you think you can win the Australian Open some time in those conditions out there?
A. I'd like to see it a little bit quicker still, you know. I think, you know, if you look at the US Open where I've had my best results, Philippoussis has his best results there, it definitely suits him, Mark and myself, with those sort of conditions, so, but that's, you know, that's a pretty greedy thing to ask of the tournament director.
Q. Pat, will you be trying anyway? A. I don't know - - -
Q. Pat, where are you planning to play next?
A. Scottsdale. I'm really looking forward to this year. I'm just going to have a lot more breaks than I did last year. It's just too hard to keep playing. I think I played 26 or 25 tournaments last year, and I did that two years in a row, and I'm pretty tired after that, so I want to try to have a bit more of a sane year and just try and condition myself a little bit better and enjoy myself a little bit more, and I felt like I worked pretty hard. Now I can enjoy myself a little bit, so I'll see how this year goes.
Q. How many are you going to play? How many?
A. I think it's round about 19, roughly.
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