April 06, 1997
Hingis defeats Seles 3-6,6-3,7-6(5)
COLLINS: I’m sorry I grabbed you away from kissing that ball girl, but we had 30 seconds before we were off the air.
QUESTION: With the way you’ve been feeling the past couple of days, how were you able to get out there today and play the way you did?
SELES: I just wanted to go out there and take it a point at a time and go for my shots, and I did that most of the times, and in the key points I didn’t do that. I had some great points, and it was a great match, and it was a lot of fun to play.
QUESTION: Monica, you obviously are disappointed, but you have to be pleased that you played her so well, so much better than before. What do you think the difference was?
SELES: I really think I played more my game a little bit, attacked more, which in the past I didn’t do. That’s about there, I think.
QUESTION: Is that first five games about as well as you have played in quite a while?
SELES: I think I played well the first five games the key points. The rest of the match I played them terrible, and that was the story for me at least.
QUESTION: You seemed to run out of gas or be out of gas at one time and then you somehow found 0003 resolve. Did you feel that you were just getting so fatigued, you were unable to run for shots?
SELES: I wasn’t getting fatigued. I just had a hard time getting air because it’s blocked there, and I don’t know how I got back from 5-2. I surely didn’t expect it at all.
QUESTION: Monica, your second tournament of the year. You take the No. 1 player in the world to the edge of losing. That must be encouraging for you. SELES: Definitely I had my chances in this match. She played really well when it counted, and she’s just playing some great tennis right now.
QUESTION: Losing as badly as you did last week, what sort of motivation was that for this week?
SELES: Coming into last week I lost to Martina at San Francisco, so it actually motivated me. Losing to her last week was pretty disappointing. Losing to her this week is disappointing, too. Each loss is tough. But I definitely am more happy with the way I played this week than last week.
QUESTION: You’re down 2-5 in the third. What are you thinking?
SELES: That the match was over.
QUESTION: Well, it didn’t look like it. It looked like you really dug down deep, showed great character and fought back in there.
SELES: I just tried to take a point at a time, and I hit some great shots on a couple of match points, and she played really well, took all the 30-30 games, and when I was down 5-2, I played the 30-30 games better.
QUESTION: I know you said that you’re still a long way from where you want to be for the Grand Slams, but based on the way you did play today, do you take something positive out of here into the rest of the year?
SELES: Oh, yeah. Definitely. It’s great to feel I can play well again on the clay. Last year I was very disappointed in my clay performance. It’s nice to know that if I keep playing, that for me will be the key for the next few weeks, just to keep practicing, hopefully no injuries, nothing will stop me from that, to try to get back the ball feeling, which I need to get back.
QUESTION: The way you’re feeling now when you have a chance to recuperate, will you have any chance of getting better?
SELES: I don’t know. I’m just going to take a day at a time and see how I feel. Right now I feel really tired and just see what I think about next week and just go on from there.
QUESTION: Did you practice at all this morning? You didn’t yesterday.
SELES: No, I did not.
QUESTION: Monica, you’ve played her now twice in the last couple of weeks. Where is her game in relation to say Steffi hasn’t been around? Is she a good match for Steffi at this point?
SELES: Definitely. I think she beat Steffi last year. I haven’t played Steffi since the U. S. Open last year, so I played each tournament a different game. She’s the No. 1 player, so fair and square.
QUESTION: Do you think of Martina as being the No. 1 player or do you still think of Steffi as being No. 1?
SELES: I think of Martina being the No. 1. She’s won six, seven tournaments in a row.
QUESTION: Do you still think of her as the better player?
SELES: I think Martina is No. 1 right now.
QUESTION: The crowd saw a great match today. Do you think they got their money’s worth?
SELES: Definitely.
QUESTION: How did it feel for them being behind you, pulling you through there in the third set? How did you feel about that?
SELES: They were great. They were great all week, really, in the stadium, outside the stadium they were just so supportive. I do hope this tournament stays here because not just, me but I think a lot of players love coming here. So I really hope it will stay.
QUESTION: Are you going to be able to play for the coming week?
SELES: At this point I don’t know. I’m not thinking about that right now.
QUESTION: You get to two points away at five all in your tiebreaker. Did you feel you were going to win it then?
SELES: I really didn’t feel I wasn’t thinking. I felt a little bit my feet stopped working and I started pushing a couple of shots, and it was over really fast.
QUESTION: Did you have a particular plan that you wanted to try against Martina?
SELES: No.
QUESTION: She made a bunch of unforced errors there in the last couple of games. Did you think maybe she was losing her concentration and you might have her?
SELES: I think it evened out, because in the beginning of the first set I was making the unforced errors, and usually if you stay in a match with players like Martina or Steffi, it evens out. Thank you.