CHASE CHAMPIONSHIPS OF THE COREL WTA TOUR

November 20, 1996

Judith Wiesner

JUDITH WIESNER: I don't know if she wasn't feeling so good, I don't know about that but definitely I was playing more aggressive and serving better. But I think even in the beginning I had my chances, like in the first game, I should have won the first game, I think the whole match would have went a different way. She got up in the first set, every game was kind of close, but it's hard to play when you're 3-Love, 4-love down in the first set. And on the second set I was holding my serve more comfortably, and that was a different game, then.

JUDITH WIESNER: I didn't look at her that way. All I worried about was my own game. I can't be bothered with her leg or how she was feeling.

JUDITH WIESNER: The problem is her game for me is very difficult to read. She has this serve that's very hard to read with the ball toss. And her topspin is kind of difficult, also. She can hit the ball really hard and even flat and sometimes really looping top spins. I have a problem reading that. And I think if we play both from the baseline, all together I think she's the more consistent player back there. But I was surprised that she also played a more aggressive than in the past and she came in a lot more times than I remember. And I think she's also trying to do some different things. But with the topspin she's playing, she keeps me off balance a lot, so I have a problem reading that.

JUDITH WIESNER: That makes me feel like it, yeah. But I don't think the numbers say too much because Gaby I think has played more years on the Tour than I have. So you have to look at those numbers, 12 years or 13 years on the Tour that she's had and with all the -- I think she played a lot more matches than I have. So you have to look at that and whatever a person feels like, she's not enjoying herself anymore, then that's the way to go. But obviously I still enjoy myself playing and I have some success, so I will keep on playing.

JUDITH WIESNER: That's for sure that's a factor. Other players maybe feel like they don't have a private life on the Tour so they also want to enjoy that. And to do that they probably think that they have to stop playing and get on with their private lives. But every situation is different and in my case I'm really happy and if Gabriela or Kimiko are not happy playing, that's the way to go.

JUDITH WIESNER: No, I just want to -- I just want to look at it as long as I have fun and enjoy myself playing, then it's okay. But if I'm really not enjoying playing tournaments anymore and competition then it's time to stop.

JUDITH WIESNER: There could be breaks, but tennis has always been a game that's going all year long. I have played 25 events this year, and I'm still doing fine. I'm 30 years old. I don't think why anybody else couldn't do that.

JUDITH WIESNER: Obviously it's going to be tough for us, first with Iva Majoli they have a great player at the top, and Mirjana Lucic, she's an up and coming player, she won the U.S. Open. We're going to have a tough match there, and if you have to go abroad it's going to be difficult, and they're going to play in with the home crowd and they have the choice with the surface. It's not going to be easy for us, but we have a good team. It will be important for us to win this match to go up to Group 1 again.

JUDITH WIESNER: I think for Croatia it will be the choice of the surface and the crowd, they can choose the balls and everything. That will be a major advantage for them because they can choose the surface, whatever suits their players. And I think for us will be we have a lot more experience in that kind of matches, like Barbara Paulus and me we played a lot of team matches, so I think the experience is on our side, so it should be pretty even.

JUDITH WIESNER: For myself I think it's fine. I like to play on the surface. I've played Iva a few times on that surface, I beat to her and lost to her, I don't know about the other players. But like I said, I think also Barbara had some success on Supreme. And I think it would be pretty even and a very close match, but I think we're going to have the better team.

JUDITH WIESNER: I never saw her play, I only know she's young, and won the U.S. Open juniors, and for sure she's coming up in the next few years. But if I see her in Australia at Melbourne, definitely I'm going to match her play.

JUDITH WIESNER: I don't know about who's going to play, it's far away in February, but -- and how the draw is going to be, so it's very hard to say from now who's going to play and what order we're going to play, but I hope we can wrap it up in the singles.

JUDITH WIESNER: Well, since the U.S. Open we played four times and I beat her twice and she beat me twice, so it's been pretty close. All together I think I won three times and she beat me three times. We had very close matches. And on a good day I can beat her, but obviously she's tough, and with the hometown crowd it's going to be hard to beat her.

JUDITH WIESNER: I didn't expect it and I'm not trying to expect too much, so I really -- I'm happy with what happened this year. I got to the quarters in two Grand Slams which was my goal for the last ten years. And I qualified for these championships, where I could have won a round, probably, but it didn't happen. So the way this year is going I'm really pleased and I just hope I can improve in the next year, too.