THE LIPTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 21, 1996

Pam Shriver

PAM SHRIVER: Left hip and I have had hit since last spring, on and off. One shot of cortisone in January, good for six weeks. Flared up again a couple of weeks ago. Got it back under control and I was a little tight today. I didn't think -- if I had known it was going to happen, I wouldn't have gone out there first game; ace up the middle, go up 40-15. So it is just -- dear, it is what they call -- you know, just comes with the territory, I guess. So then you go through this battle with your brain whether to go or keep playing or not and give yourself a good sort of mental pounding, and then you realize it is just, you know, it is silly to continue. So -- anyway, it has become, obviously, a very annoying chronic thing which happens to older players, I think. You get things; you can't get rid of them. Sort of another part of the reason why you sit back and you go, okay, let us talk about this; why are we continuing to do this. This is not a good day, because it makes you ask those questions, which are good. It is good to ask them. And --

PAM SHRIVER: When I answer them? I answer it, you never make a decision when you are annoyed about something and, you know, as it is now, I am playing very part-time. I mean, my last match before this was, you know, Oklahoma and, you know, it is a match that -- I played Oklahoma; lost semifinal in the third to Rubin. It is the kind of match like that you go, you know, given the right situation, not windy, slow, hard courts, but indoors fast, I can do okay. So the point is I'm part-time and I am getting more part-time, and, you know, when you take that next -- when do you take that next step? I got to, between now and the grass courts, I will obviously give -- put some thought because either, you know, this thing will go away. What I realize I can't keep playing with this thing, so either it is going to clear up and I will play a little bit more, or if I can't -- it has just become a chronic hip problem that I can't get rid of, then, you know, it is pretty much, can't play anymore.

PAM SHRIVER: She hits the ball very hard, which obviously, if you have got a problem with your mobility, and I have a problem anyway, it is called "natural." I have a problem from the beginning. So, you know, I thought she hit the ball really well. First two games I have six game points; up 40-15 when I hurt my hip, and I kind of -- my -- I had a little bit of a problem with my -- just concentration to close out the game, then I had three breakpoints on her serve, so I would like to have been able to have had a real test and seeing if I could have measured up. I think probably in these conditions, wind, out there in the sun, I would say even though she is very inexperienced I give her the edge. If I play her indoors on a surface I am more comfortable on even at this stage I wouldn't mind that. I think she has got the weapons. I thought she will have a good test the next round; let us just wait. I don't think seven games with me with a bad hip is a true test. I think Halard, will be a really good match for her to know how she measures up.

PAM SHRIVER: First game. Fifth point -- fourth point; 30-15, which, then, I start thinking, I didn't warm it up right, but I thought I had done enough stretching, but perhaps I didn't. That is one of the reasons I was wearing one of those like what Zina wears those bike, compression shorts, but --

PAM SHRIVER: I have a muscle tear in my hip that goes from the hipbone down towards the -- around the hip joint. It is, I don't know, fascia -- I forget the names of them all. I have had a chronic muscle tear in my hip that wouldn't heal.

PAM SHRIVER: I was just upset. I was upset. I was thinking, God, I asked for a wildcard. I got one. I took a spot in the draw; four points into it, I was just, you know, having a moment where I was a little upset about, you know, the whole scene. You don't really like to have that happen, but onward.... The other thing I don't think that helped my hip was we had four board meetings so I sat all day long for like eight hours of meetings two days in a row and I think that makes it worse, sort of like starts to click in when it has been bad before it has been -- after I have sat for a long time like flying down to New Zealand and it was bad anyway sitting, so I was sort of thinking about the things that I do that makes it even harder to get, you know what I am saying, to be well, so....

PAM SHRIVER: No, I play because I still love to play tennis. I like -- when I am healthy I like to compete. I like to play. And I don't want to just play doubles. So I like to still play some singles. I like working out for singles. I like covering the whole court. It is a dilemma because obviously I am not happy that my -- that I am not winning many matches, but what am I going to do? Go play 30 and over USTA events? I mean, they have a legend Tour, but if you have -- if you like to still compete a bit, why not occasionally play, but, you know, now as I said earlier, the more you have situations like this; the more you kind of think, well, maybe I am not -- maybe it is not the right thing to do.

PAM SHRIVER: 33 still should be pretty -- but more than 33, I think is 18 years, I think it is just since I was 15 and I don't think, you know, as far as the hip goes, I don't think I have the most, you know, athletic gifted walk and I think from what I have done told the way I actually my gait hurts, puts extra stress up here. So what am I going to do? I am stuck.

PAM SHRIVER: I made this decision a couple of years ago that I was going to do the slow fade out and that I can handle my ranking; just going slowly you sliding towards 1000.

PAM SHRIVER: I am on my way. I figured out if I just kind of play like one $10,000 tournament win one match and lose the rest of the time, I am about a 1000. But you are right, I mean, the other players who were 1 in the world, this will be a terrible thing, but --

PAM SHRIVER: Yeah, and actually he left for three years, didn't he?

PAM SHRIVER: Best part of -- and he is back just because he enjoys it, but -- I think he knows he can't make a run at No. 1 again. But he is a little more respectable right now than I am. In some areas. Don't follow-up.

PAM SHRIVER: I am playing it this year. Virginia Slims ask me to play this year. Zina and I, rookies on the Tour again. We play our first in Chicago in less than a month, like three and a half weeks. Now, that is a Tour I think I can play with a bad hip. I wouldn't want to play singles, but I can play.

PAM SHRIVER: Virginia Slims Legend Events, Virginia Slims Legend Tour.

PAM SHRIVER: Exactly. I said that from the beginning I don't think I will ever -- 1989 was as close as I ever came. I walked into some press conference; I said I have had enough. And that was seven years ago. So -- because even if I said that is it, I am not playing anymore, I could still see, you know, in four months down the road, I could see after working out a bit and feeling pretty good wanting to go play some Tier 4 in some part of the world that I have never been to. That is kind of the way I like to think.

PAM SHRIVER: Well, my transition has been going on for quite sometime. It is just -- a transition means slow and gradual. I am never going to do and just say, you know, I am not playing any -- that this is my last match. I say that, but who knows.

PAM SHRIVER: I don't know.

PAM SHRIVER: I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. I mean, it could be something like you don't know at the time it is your last match. Like who knows, if this thing isn't better and I go into Wimbledon and I realize I am not going to play the grass courts, this could be my last match. Ugly thought. That is really ugly. I had 6 game points. I want to make sure that is on record; which is almost as many as she had.

PAM SHRIVER: Believe me. We can do this once, but we are not going to do it -- we are not going to have happen again. If it happens again, then I think that will be it. I haven't had to do this in a long while; not complete a match. It is not like -- that is what I was wrestling out there with the trainer. I knew it was bad. I knew every time I served it was getting worse, but I don't like to do that. And, you know, she said she thought it was a wise thing to do to not continue. But you are right, it is a terrible, terrible -- it was like Nolan Ryan, he was like 10 years on me. He was like 45 or something, and that year he was trying to, whatever he was doing, and he couldn't complete more than three innings. It is a terrible -- it is bad. So I definitely don't want to make a habit of it. I won't. I won't. That is -- I feel I took a wildcard and took a spot in the draw and in this day and age, I don't take this lightly. I know how those spots are cherished and I think about the next person who was going to get in and the next had wildcard possibility. That doesn't sit well with me either, so....

PAM SHRIVER: Well, I have gotten in Oklahoma and the Australian Open main draw I have gotten wild cards into Auckland and here. So I have had two wildcards in two main draws, but, you know, I don't have a win to defend until June, so it is not like I am going to keep my lofty 130 -- what is it again.

PAM SHRIVER: 126.

PAM SHRIVER: This is my last -- I am not playing a tournament probably until grass court, so this was my last opportunity -- that is one reason I wanted to play here, I thought -- because you get-- all the top players get byes, so you know you are going to get a decent first round and I thought if I could get down here and play a couple of decent matches; win a couple of rounds and get main draw women, but if I have to -- and if I want to I will ask for a wildcard. I think after, you know, 18 years, I think I am good for one year of a wildcard at Wimbledon if I want to ask for it.

PAM SHRIVER: Yeah. Yeah. I don't think I have any problems. It is not like they have loads and loads of talent with English women, just --

PAM SHRIVER: Yeah, I have always been very supportive of the tournaments. Played Buckingham, Birmingham Eastbourne; from -- any grass court I have played. I won't feel guilty. I haven't had to ask for a wildcard at the Open either. And that is a long way. When you are 33 and with a bad hip, the U.S. Open seems like another lifetime. This might be my last postmatch press conference ever, so you don't have to rush me out of here (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER).