US OPEN

September 7, 1997

Wesley Whitehouse

Q. Wesley, you've had, what, two meetings this year with Elsner (ph)?

WESLEY WHITEHOUSE: Yeah.

WESLEY WHITEHOUSE: I've had three meetings with Elsner.

WESLEY WHITEHOUSE: The first one was in the Australian Open final. Second one was in the Wimbledon final. Third one was here, now, at the US Open.

WESLEY WHITEHOUSE: I won two, yeah. I beat him in the Wimbledon final and here at the US Open.

WESLEY WHITEHOUSE: At the moment, I think, you know, Daniel has a lot of pressure on him being No. 1 in the world. He's supposed to beat me. I could go out and play with confidence and not worry. I think he's got a little bit more pressure than I've got. I think that makes a huge difference. He didn't go out playing with confidence and I went out playing with confidence. I think that's been the difference.

CARA BLACK: Yeah, it's been great. Unfortunately, I didn't go to Australia.

CARA BLACK: I actually wanted to improve my ranking in the seniors, so I was playing some challengers in the States.

CARA BLACK: Yeah, it's been great. It's been my aim this year to hopefully finish No. 1, singles and doubles. Hopefully with this win now, I've pulled it off.

CARA BLACK: Yeah. I'd really like to say thanks a lot to the ITF because they've really supported me being on this team. With the coach, Dario Kopsic, it's been a great help, a lot of support.

WESLEY WHITEHOUSE: No. I've got my personal coach that travels with me, that I've been working way back with. I don't travel at all with him.

WESLEY WHITEHOUSE: Well, I think that all the Grand Slams are definite. Wimbledon has an awesome atmosphere. That's like such a prestige tournament for the Juniors. If you can do well there, it's great. Here it's also great. The people are great. I mean, they're so helpful here. They treat the Juniors really well here. This is like the second best tournament. This and Wimbledon are like two great tournaments, two of the best. The Australian Open, all the tournaments have got a definite feel, atmosphere-wise, Wimbledon, as I said, is the best. Here you just get treated so well.

WESLEY WHITEHOUSE: The crowd at Wimbledon, when you just play there, it's like electrifying, you know. Here as well. I mean, I have to say here, the crowd, when they're behind you, they're superb. They really make a huge racquet. Here, the atmosphere is, you can't really describe it. You have to be playing to really understand what it's like. At the Australian Open and the French, I don't think there's really much in it. Just like another tournament. This and Wimbledon are like fantastic.

CARA BLACK: Well, I agree with Wesley. The only thing that's similar in the Grand Slams is just that, you know, the pressure that you feel. I think it's a great experience playing them. It really prepares you for when you're professional, you know what it feels like being out on a big court. When you return for the professionals, you don't feel so nervous and everything out on the court. It's just easy.

CARA BLACK: Yeah, of course. I mean, when you're No. 1, you feel like that anyway.

But I just tried to put it out of my mind and just take one match at a time and see how it goes.

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