Indian Wells, California
March 09, 2001
Garbin defeats M. Seles 7-6(6),3-6,6-4
MODERATOR: Questions for Monica.
Q. Did she do anything to bother you or were you bothering yourself more than anything?
MONICA SELES: Well, I think a combination of she played really well. I mean, she didn’t miss too many shots. Obviously, I wasn’t playing what I usually play. I just quite couldn’t pull it out. In the key points she played a lot better and I played a lot worse.
Q. How many times did you play with her?
MONICA SELES: That’s my first time playing her.
Q. How much did you know about her before?
MONICA SELES: I seen her previous match, I mean, as usual. I knew she would be a good player. I knew she won a tournament last year. I mean, knew that coming in. But she definitely played a lot better than her last match.
Q. You had lots of unforced errors on big points.
MONICA SELES: Pretty much I just did not feel the ball out there at all. I hit it, I don’t know if it’s going to go in or out. In those situations, you’re hoping the other player is going to miss. But she didn’t miss, she was really solid, and I did not improve at all in the match.
Q. Any explanation for last week and this week?
MONICA SELES: Yeah, both were kind of similar stories. I mean, my game just kind of collapsed. I have to think about both a little bit. I mean, today was different than that match. But in some ways, a couple of things in my game really just let me down big time.
Q. At one point it looked like you were flexing your leg back.
MONICA SELES: I’m fine, totally.
Q. How do you go about kind of taking the things that have collapsed and fixing them?
MONICA SELES: Try to work on them. I mean, I have probably ten days, almost two weeks, I guess, before the Ericsson. Just, you know, sit down and figure out what I need to do so hopefully these things don’t happen too often.
Q. Has it occurred to you that yesterday you were reading to those school children about up, a great day, meaning doing well, and a day later you’re down?
MONICA SELES: I’m not down. I just lost a tennis match. I’m not down as a person. Definitely it’s disappointing, more so not losing but the way that I played. You know, if I didn’t care, then it would be probably time for me to move on.
Q. Are you focused out there? Are you kind of losing concentration?
MONICA SELES: I think it’s just a combination of both. The last two matches, my concentration has gone away, and my groundstrokes, too, at the same time, and my returns.
Q. The light didn’t seem to be very good when you were playing. Did that have anything to do with you not being able to feel the ball, as you say?
MONICA SELES: No, not at all. I mean the air is a little thinner here. In the beginning, the balls are coming a little faster. It’s your first match. It always happens here when you play at Indian Wells. But the lights were fine. There were no problems at all.
Q. How frustrated are you?
MONICA SELES: Right now? Well, pretty frustrated I mean because both matches are winnable matches for me. Just both were really both players played well, but also my level of my game was really low.
Q. Is a loss a loss, or is it different from the way you played today than if you were playing better and still lost?
MONICA SELES: Well, no. I mean, every loss is different. When you play well and you lose to someone, but you know you played like you wanted to and you lost, it’s a different story. But today I definitely – I can’t take too many positive things out of it in terms of how I played. But she also played well. She didn’t make too many unforced errors. She kept me moving. But still, it’s a tougher loss I think when you don’t play as well as you expect yourself to play.
Q. It’s happened before, hasn’t it?
MONICA SELES: Yeah. It will happen more, I’m sure. But hopefully not too many times.