WIMBLEDON

July 6, 2003

Kim Clijsters

KIM CLIJSTERS: It's nice, because she's played with -- she's made the finals with Julie Halard already and once with me. I made the finals once. So it's nice to have a win, yeah. It's great.

AI SUGIYAMA: Oh, I think, well, first of all, we're good friends. We're very close, so we know how we feeling each other. And I enjoy it so much playing with her. And that's the most important for me. And also, tennis-wise, we match us very well. She hit the ball very hard from everywhere and I kind of move at the net. So it's a good combination, I think.

KIM CLIJSTERS: I think it's a thing in itself, you know. I think to be a Wimbledon champion in doubles is great. And after to win the French, I mean, you know, I was disappointed after the Venus match, but it's a different -- it's sort of like a different tournament, you know, singles and doubles. But, no, I'm definitely very, very excited about this win.

AI SUGIYAMA: We tried a couple of tournaments two years ago.

KIM CLIJSTERS: Yeah, I think in San Diego, was that the first time? Against Testud and --

AI SUGIYAMA: Yeah, yeah.

KIM CLIJSTERS: We tried. But then I got injured with the shoulder, with my shoulder. I didn't play doubles for a year. Then we started again.

AI SUGIYAMA: Yeah, we started from this year --

KIM CLIJSTERS: This year sort of full-on, like the whole schedule.

AI SUGIYAMA: We've been doing really good.

KIM CLIJSTERS: So far, I mean, I don't think we've played a bad match I think in both of the Grand Slams that we've played. We've been, you know, especially beating, you know, winning the French Open finals against those two girls, because they're definitely, you know, very good clay court players and clay court specialists. So we knew that was gonna be a tough one. To win on clay, which we thought was definitely not our favorite surface, and to win there, definitely I think gave us a little motivation to win today.

KIM CLIJSTERS: It was noisy (smiling).

AI SUGIYAMA: I totally forgot about the singles already (laughter). I had to play the doubles the same day, and I really focus on doubles so much, yeah...

KIM CLIJSTERS: I speak fluently Japanese (laughter). No, but we don't talk English to each other on the court. It's all in Japanese. She, whenever I hit a good shot, she's talking in Dutch to Flemish to me, saying "good job." I say...(Speaking Japanese). Yeah...

KIM CLIJSTERS: I'm only talking tennis-wise (laughter). Only to Ai, so, see, not to the press (smiling).

KIM CLIJSTERS: No, that was to Lleyton's friend. We were just being silly. There's this Australian show on TV, his friend always does it. He goes, "If you win, you have to do that and make Ai do it as well." So I told her to do it to him, so he's pleased now. Maybe made Ai look stupid, but...(Laughing).

AI SUGIYAMA: Yeah, for sure (laughing).

KIM CLIJSTERS: Sorry.

AI SUGIYAMA: No... (Laughing).