Q. What was the difference between the match of yesterday and today?
PATRICK RAFTER: Oh, he obviously played a lot better today than what he did yesterday. You know, everything he did was a lot better. And he showed how good a player he is. Yesterday he was making a lot of errors. Today he did a few things differently. You know, he was maybe one or two points away from maybe winning that match. It was very close.

Q. What about you?
PATRICK RAFTER: What about me? I just sort of hung in there and did what I had to do. You know, I felt like he was pretty well controlling the pace out  there for the third and fourth sets. I just took my opportunity when it came.

Q. Is that disappointing to stop a match when you're leading?
PATRICK RAFTER: I wanted to get off because of the light. I don't like serve-volleying when you can't see very much. It depends. If I'm losing, then I want to get off, sure. But if I'm winning, you know, probably better to stay out there. But, you know, we knew the conditions before we walked on the court.

Q. Compared with the last tournament, how do you evaluate your shape?
PATRICK RAFTER: Compared to?

Q. The last tournaments, Rome, Dusseldorf, where you were playing really well.
PATRICK RAFTER: I'm still playing pretty well, yeah. Is that the question?

Q. Yeah.
PATRICK RAFTER: No, I'm happy. I've got Meligeni I think next. Starting to get even tougher now. You know, I really don't know. I mean, what are my chances of winning my next match? I really don't know. Don't know. I'll go out there and see what happens.

Q. You're through, Rusedski is through. Is part of this weather-related or are you learning to play better on clay?
PATRICK RAFTER: Well, I guess I've had good results here before. But obviously the weather is a factor. Rusedski I think has learned to probably play a little bit better on the clay. And we nearly saw Henman come through today. I think especially for Tim and Greg, they've really got confidence now. Now they've proved to themselves that they can play on clay, whereas, you know, I've sort of had the results here before.

Q. Are you playing as well as you did in '96?
PATRICK RAFTER: '97?

Q. Wasn't it '96?
PATRICK RAFTER: No, I think it was '97.

Q. Sorry.
PATRICK RAFTER: That's okay. Yeah, I think I'm doing some things better than others. I think I was playing out of my mind then in '97. This year I think I sort of feel like I deserve to be there and I'm sort of controlled a lot more. Yeah, I don't know if I'm playing any better.

Q. Have you done anything actually with your game to try to adapt it to the clay?
PATRICK RAFTER: No.

Q. Are you just playing Patrick Rafter's game and it's working?
PATRICK RAFTER: It's just working at the moment, yeah. Obviously my form has been very bad so far this year coming into Rome. I just knew that had to turn around sometime. It just happens if you do the hard work. So I've done the hard work and it's turned around. It happens to be on the clay.

Q. You don't seem like a fish out of water here, whereas Pete Sampras, whose game is also not tailored for it, just doesn't seem to get a comfort zone. How comfortable do you actually feel?
PATRICK RAFTER: Yeah, well I think the movement thing is something, you know, that we have a bit of a difference with. I, being brought up on a surface that's sort of similar in a way, and also my serve is a little bit different to Pete's. Pete's got a great serve, but on this court it doesn't really work. You need to hit the heavy serves and get to the net. He's got this big serve, but by the time these guys return, it's back at his toes before he's even moved. It's a lot easier for these guys to return as well, so you have to try to give them something not so flat, try to move it away from them. That's a difference in our game.

Q. You have a chance to get the No. 1 ranking here. Is that in the back of your mind at all?

PATRICK RAFTER: Yeah, I must admit it sort of is there. There have to be a
lot of variables that go my way. Obviously if I win the thing, then I'm going
to be there, but that's a long, long way away. If I lose in the
quarterfinals, I guess it's just -- or third round or fourth round, I guess
it's just a matter of sitting back and waiting to see who wins, who loses and
what my chances are of becoming No. 1.

Q. Depending on the result of Andrew Ilie's match right now, by the end of
today we could have either one or two Australians left in the French Open.
Are you surprised that all the others have gone out so quickly?

PATRICK RAFTER: I was a little bit surprised probably with Philippoussis a
little bit. I thought his form was quite good coming into here. Stolty played
pretty well. Unfortunately Jason couldn't keep it going. Frommy really hasn't
had great results here in the past. We all know how well he can play on clay.
I think we had maybe ten guys in the main draw. You know, you often see maybe
a Draper or a Hewitt being in the fourth round. I don't know. It's probably
not the Aussies' best surface at the end of the day.

Q. Have you done any Paris things here on your off time, restaurants,
sight-seeing, museums?

PATRICK RAFTER: How did you use the word?

Q. Have you done any Paris things.

PATRICK RAFTER: Oh, Paris things? I thought you said "para," like paragliding
or something (laughter). No, the last two nights I finished quite late, just
had a bit of room service and went to bed. I'm trying to think if I've done
anything. I haven't (laughter). I've done nothing, yeah.

Q. Probably not if you can't think of it.

PATRICK RAFTER: Just sort of being tired at the end of the day. You just want
to put your bags down and go across the road and get a bite to eat. Very
tiring. If I finish, then I'm sure I'll go and do a few Paris things.

Q. I know it's about seven weeks away, but given your great success on US
hard courts and Mark's good success last year, do you guys think you're the
favorites in Davis Cup?

PATRICK RAFTER: I think we're a very strong showing. But we all know, you
know, for instance, Courier, what it brings out in him, a Davis Cup match-up.
Davis Cup is something you never really know quite what's going to happen.
But obviously on paper, we've got to be looking stronger.

Q. If Pete plays, and he's considering it now, do you think it would change?

PATRICK RAFTER: I don't know if the boys will let him play, to be honest.

Q. Doubles maybe.

PATRICK RAFTER: Oh, doubles is a different story, yeah, yeah. We've got the
Woodies there. Hopefully they'll do the job, yeah.

Q. Have you heard any talk about that?

PATRICK RAFTER: I heard that he may have said something in the press
conference yesterday. I asked McEnroe today if he was going to play with him
(laughter). He wasn't quite sure, so.

Q. Back to here. You've had a lot of tennis over the last few weeks. That is
a concern maybe going into the second week that you might get tired or do you
thrive on the hard work?

PATRICK RAFTER: There's only so much hard work you can take. I've got to try
and get a reasonably easy match under my belt now, try and finish a day
reasonably early and have a day off somewhere. Obviously, the doubles is
still there, too. Once I've committed to play, I commit myself to play. You
know, obviously it would -- it would probably be nice not to be in doubles.
But, you know, I'm there to play now. That's my fault, my bad scheduling.
Hopefully it won't be too bad.

Q. What do you think of the way Andrew Ilie has been finishing his game,
taking his shirt off?

PATRICK RAFTER: Some people might get offended at other people doing it. But
Andrew, in a way he's his own person. He's a little bit eccentric compared to
a lot of other people. But, you know, we love him. I think he's fantastic for
the game and the best thing that could happen for the game is this guy to be
a Top 10 player. He's just so natural. He involves the crowd, he's crazy.
Really Rudi is up there laughing at him now in the chair. I see Rudi laughing
at him. Even in the locker room, when he's playing, it's on the whole time in
the locker room. Everyone enjoys watching him play. He's just a great, great
thing to happen for tennis. I really hope he does well.