FAMILY CIRCLE CUP

March 27, 1995

Judith Wiesner

JUDITH WIESNER: Well, I think, you know, she's very young and maybe I'm just older. I have the advantage of being more experienced and I think we have a little bit similar styles. She is a little bit different than the other young players because everybody today plays sort of the same game, so it was nice for me to see somebody who has a game that is not like everybody else, 'cause younger players these days, they go little more like backhand, forehand, like machines, and she's definitely good to see somebody thinking out there and playing a difficult game; a little bit like me. But I just played solid; didn't make too many mistakes, served pretty good and put some pressure on her when I had to.

JUDITH WIESNER: Yeah, sometimes, you know, when you're up 40-Love you're thinking ahead, like, if the game is already over, and that happens to me sometimes and then it's 40-30 and then you wake up and then you lose the game. But you shouldn't do that, but it happens sometimes.

JUDITH WIESNER: Yeah, it's good. I've seen a lot of players come up because I've been around a couple of years, so it's good for me to see somebody who is playing a little bit different game and not just hitting the ball like a ball machine which everybody is else is doing at that younger age. And I think it's not a good way the game is going;

that everybody plays the same game. It's kind of boring also for the public. So I think it's good to see the young players doing something different.

JUDITH WIESNER: That's my game as well, so it's probably my advantage to be around longer and you have more experience, but I kind of play a similar game, so it wasn't too bad for me to adjust to this, but maybe some other people would have more problems with her.

JUDITH WIESNER: Well, I think everybody starts really young, and especially with the women, so when you start very young, you don't have the strength to play one-handed backhand, so you start with two hands and then you start practicing and you get more, you know, you get more wins. So if you win early, it helps your confidence, but your game and as a person on the court, you're not going to grow. So you cannot play the same game to win when you're young, but maybe it comes a stage when you will have to need something different and you don't have it. Everything you learned when you're little is going to help you some day, but most of the players are going for the early win or for - the quicker they come up, the better. And I don't think that's always a good idea because, I mean, you could be winning and you are 14 or 15, but maybe you're not winning anymore when you're 20, so it wouldn't hurt a lot of the young players to learn different shots like slice or come to the net. And you see so many players at 15 that have a very bad technique, but they have very sound groundstrokes, so they win a lot in tournament competition. But it's kind of a difficult situation because parents coaches and Federations they put pressure on you to win so you don't have time to grow your game.

JUDITH WIESNER: Yeah. But, you know, your whole surroundings have to be going that way as well, so either you have the background so you can say, okay, I'm going to improve my game and I'll be ready and also you have to win also sometimes because you -- if you don't win I

mean --

JUDITH WIESNER: Yeah -- I really didn't have when I was younger, I really -- we didn't go for professional career so my goal was to finish school first and then play professionally and that's really changed recently. I mean, young players they don't go for the -- they go school first and then play on the Tour. I mean, young people they practice to be on the Tour as soon as possible, so I really took a lot more time just to play or sort of to have fun playing, but it was completely different situation than it is now.

JUDITH WIESNER: Well, the WTA has already announced the new program, so you can't be playing everything when you're 14 or 15. You have to sort of grow into the whole system which I think is a good idea. I just hope there's not going to be any exceptions when another great name is coming and they make another exception. They shouldn't do that. I think physically maybe somebody is ready, but really not emotionally. Nobody can be prepared to be in an adult world like at 15. It's impossible. So first everybody is thinking this is great, I love it, but maybe after two years it's not so great. But you can't go back. It's a problem. But I think to really have the player move up slowly is the thing.

JUDITH WIESNER: I think I'm pretty satisfied. I haven't been injured, I just had to pull out of one tournament where I was sick, so I played Hopman Cup which is a team event and then I went to the semifinal in Hobart (ph) and I'm third round in Australian, quarterfinal in Paris and fourth round in Lipton, so I haven't had any losses that I - you know, to a lower ranked player, but I haven't beaten anybody really above me, so I'm doing okay. But I need to get, like, a bigger win one of these days.

JUDITH WIESNER: (LAUGHTER.) It was like -- she destroyed me. She really played well. It was 0 and 1 in 40 minutes or something.

JUDITH WIESNER: Yeah, maybe it went too fast (LAUGHTER.) No, I think she told me she had a very good day, and I think she's really on top of her game now.

JUDITH WIESNER: Um-hum. Well, I think I played really solid claycourt tennis. It's always hard to come back from hardcourt and play and on claycourt, because you have to be a little bit more patient. I think the claycourts in the States are faster than in Europe with the red clay, so I just think it was a good match to get into the claycourt tennis again, and I'm sure I'm going to have to improve in the next few rounds to beat some of the players. But I think I was pretty satisfied with my serve and the way my groundstrokes went. I didn't make too many mistakes and conditions were good, the court is really nice. I haven't been here for, I think, five or six years, and it was nice to come back and play again.

JUDITH WIESNER: Well, you know, it depends really on the day. I have to play my best tennis and I think I can -- you know, I can stay with the best of them. To win, you always have to have a great day and they probably, you know, sort of not the best day they have, so -- like, I'm going to meet maybe Martinez in the third round, so I beat her once, and I lost to her a couple of times, but she's going to be very hard to beat. But I feel like inside I can do it if I play my best tennis.

JUDITH WIESNER: That's one question I get asked a lot because it looks like I've stayed on the same level because I've always been in between 17 and 25, but in order to do that you need to improve all the time because everybody is getting better. I have really worked hard on my game in these years, but everybody else has, so I think the level has moved up. And if you don't go with the level then you're going to, you know, drop in the rankings. So I think you need, like, one major breakthrough like I had in 1990 when I beat -- when I was in the final at Lipton and I beat Martinez, Novotna and Maleeva and you have to have a tournament like this to believe that you can go further up. And it hasn't happened recently, so I'm just waiting to play my best tennis and make it, you know, like a major, and I think you have to have the confidence to do it on a consistent streak. Like, I'm always playing very consistent against players that are ranked below me, and I very seldom lose to a player who is ranked below me, but then I'm waiting for, like, a major win to really lift you up in the confidence.

JUDITH WIESNER: It was a breakthrough because I was 13 for a while and I was -- that year and the next year I was in the top 17, but then I got injured and I sort of stayed with the 20, but I couldn't make it up to near top ten after that which I think I can do. But you need to play consistently for the whole year, you need to play semis, you need to play the finals.

JUDITH WIESNER: Yeah, I really felt good last week, but then you run into Steffi Graf and she's playing her best tennis and there's nothing you could do.

JUDITH WIESNER: Well, it's hart because when you go on the court you want to win and this time you get beaten that bad, but I think a couple of years ago it would have hurt me, but now I'm experienced enough to also realize that she played great tennis. And now maybe I had a couple of chances in the beginning and that would have gone a different way, but I think I can shrug it off.