THE LIPTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 27, 1996

Gabriela Sabatini

GABRIELA SABATINI: I don't know. It was just pain in the muscle here in my hip (indicating).

GABRIELA SABATINI: It was pretty sore at the beginning, but the tape helped quite a lot.

GABRIELA SABATINI: No, not really. I mean, you know, if I didn't get to them, it was because they were pretty far. My leg was a lot better afterwards, you know, once I had the tape, it was supporting my leg quite a lot. It was -- it seemed to be fine.

GABRIELA SABATINI: The pain?

GABRIELA SABATINI: Probably from before, you know. I've been pretty sore these last few days. I played almost every day at the beginning. Yesterday I had another pain in the other leg, so I had to tape my leg, too, again in the doubles. You know, I had a lot of different spots. It was my first tournament, that's why. I took some time off. Always the first tournament, you know, you get pretty sore.

GABRIELA SABATINI: No, not really. It didn't affect me that I had this pain. The tape helped a lot. I wasn't thinking about it towards the end. I noticed that she was taking her time, but probably the difference was she played a little better on the big points. She served very well in the big points. That was the difference. The match was pretty close.

GABRIELA SABATINI: No, not surprised. I mean, I played her many times. I know that she's quick. She just gets to everything and runs a lot. We've been playing matches for a long time. I always knew that she's fast. She tries to run for everything.

GABRIELA SABATINI: I don't know there. It's just kind of hard to measure that. She's where she has to be right now. She's definitely much better, a much better player than she used to be. Seems to be more consistent today with her game. She's still young. I think she still needs to learn a lot of things, but she's playing great tennis.

GABRIELA SABATINI: I played a lot better today. I thought technically I was a lot better. I tried to mix the game a lot. Today I really felt that, you know, I could have won the match. At the Australian Open, I didn't start playing very well that match. I just didn't play well. But today was a pretty close match. You know, I'm pretty satisfied with my performance in general in this tournament. Today, too, I did some pretty good things. I thought I served very well. Those are things that I've been working on, so it feels good to see some improvements.

GABRIELA SABATINI: No, I don't think so. You know, she plays pretty much the same, likes to hit the ball hard. She likes to move to hit her forehand. You know, at moments she was missing a little more than other times, but I don't think she did anything different.

GABRIELA SABATINI: I kind of stopped her. I said, "Wait, wait." She didn't hear me, but I did before she served. It was a little annoying the first few times, people yelling in the middle of the point. I think that was a little bit disturbing.

GABRIELA SABATINI: You mean when she served?

GABRIELA SABATINI: Someone screamed, someone said something, like right about when she started to serve. I mean, she was serving. I said, "Wait, wait." She still served. I knew it was coming over.