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U.S. OPENSeptember 11, 1994Jana NovotnaArantxa Sanchez VicarioNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK Q. Do either one of you get to keep that trophy? JANA NOVOTNA: No. Q. Do they have little ones for you? JANA NOVOTNA: I don't think they have little ones. I think we will get a gold ball. That is a pity. I have so many silver ones. Q. Quite a week for you, Arantxa. ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: Yeah. Couldn't be better. I think it's been a great tournament and I was very-- you know, good match yesterday in the singles and I come back, play the semifinals and win it again and try to play the final today, I really go early to sleep to be ready and play good match with Jana. JANA NOVOTNA: Yeah, we should believe that. ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: Then I think it has been great. I am very happy about it. JANA NOVOTNA: I just want to say that it just shows that how professional she is. She wins the U.S. Open and two hours later she has to be playing in semifinals in doubles, we had to stay long in the night, playing under the lights and today first thing in the morning we have to play the finals. That makes it always very hard, but it just shows that Arantxa is a great athlete and professional. It is a pleasure to play with her. Q. What special qualities has she got as a doubles partner, because you have played a lot of the years and you seemed to be involved in a lot of doubles' success yourself? JANA NOVOTNA: I think that the greatest thing is that Arantxa is very consistent and very positive all the time. No matter what the score is, she is always happy and positive and, you know, ready to fight and struggle and hustle, whatever is necessary to do. Even, you know, even as I said, we had so many matches this year when we thought we weren't going to win it. Because she is always like that. She helps me get into the mood, so then we start fighting and we can come back. Q. When you are playing with her, is she the sort of player when you are playing with her that you feel guilty if you don't run as much as she does? JANA NOVOTNA: No. I know the way she is and I know that she loves to run. I just tell you, "yours, yours, yours." She can take care of it. Q. On the men's side, most of the top singles players aren't playing doubles, virtually none of them. On the women's side it is quite the opposite, basically, everybody except Steffi is in there. What do you guys get out of playing doubles and how -- what is it about the scheduling or whatever that allows you to play? JANA NOVOTNA: I think you have to realize that the guys at the Grand Slam have to play best of five sets, if we would have to play best of five, I don't think none of the top players would play doubles as well. Because it is really very tiring and impossible to do it. Sometimes even to play best of 3 it is very tiring to play doubles as well. But I think on the other hand, it helps you instead of having a day off in the Grand Slam, you still have a chance to play doubles. It keeps you in the tournament it keeps you in the game. You have a chance to play and practice some serve and volleys and have some fun. Q. Arantxa, now that you have had almost a day to reflect on your wonderful win, have you said to yourself, "Gee, I am the best player in the world," have you said that to yourself? JANA NOVOTNA: Long time ago. ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: Well, I have more time to think what I did, and definitely it is a great feeling. I won two big ones in a year and then I play the other final and I think, you know, Steffi is still No. 1 player in the world, so she is still the best player right now, but I am just really-- you know, done my best and I think I couldn't be better. Q. Jana, what are your feelings? ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: Maybe you can answer if I am the best player or not. Maybe I believe that myself, that maybe I am. JANA NOVOTNA: Maybe one day. You mean on the computer? Q. Jana, do you think that by virtue of Arantxa winning the two Grand Slams that she should be at least the people's No. 1 player, regardless of the computer? JANA NOVOTNA: Well, this is hard question. We should talk about it outside when Arantxa is not here. No, but it is very hard to say, really. Yes, Arantxa won two Grand Slams. Steffi won only Australia this year. So, maybe it would be right to say Arantxa was better player this year. But our computers-- ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: The computers say no. JANA NOVOTNA: The computers is that way. So you have to look at it from that point of view. You look at the computer, who is No. 1 there that is supposed to be the No. 1 player in the world it doesn't necessarily mean that she is the best at that day. Q. Arantxa, how much has playing doubles helped you to become the better singles player on other than clay? ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: I think it has been helping me a lot because since I start playing doubles, I get more much more confidence to be able to go more to the net and improve my serve, especially my second serve is much better and my volleys are more strong and I can win more points. So, also, I can return better to use that in doubles and do it again in singles. So, definitely it has been helping me a lot, but you really have to be ready to play maybe two matches in one day, and maybe you really have to be 100% physically in good shape, otherwise many of the players cannot do that. But definitely I think it has been helping me a lot and that is why I keep continue playing and I am having, you know, a lot of good time with my partner, and still we are winning. It is great. Q. Arantxa, which tournaments will you play between now and Virginia Slims Championships? ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: I don't know. No, I have to go to Tokyo, then I do Oakland and then the Championships. Q. Two tournaments, then the Slims? ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: Yes. Q. What did you do last night? ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: I have dinner and then I go to sleep. Q. Did you have some kind of celebration? ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: A little bit. I said that I went for dinner with my parents and all my friends and we went to good restaurant and we have good dinner. We-- you know, have a little bit of drink and we say we-- JANA NOVOTNA: Now she is telling me. Now she is telling me she had a drink. Before she told me she had a Coke. ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: I just have a toast, that is all. Tonight! Q. Did you have trouble sleeping last night? ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: No, not at all. I went to bed and I sleep like a baby. Q. Where did you go for dinner and how long did dinner last? Was it a long dinner? ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: You want to know everything? You want to know what time I went to bed too? Q. Just the dinner. Did you brush your teeth? And floss. ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: Didn't take too long. Q. What did you dream about? Did you dream? ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: I didn't have. Q. Did you dream about the match? ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: No, I have a good time when I celebrated. When I was in bed, I couldn't. JANA NOVOTNA: She was sleeping deeply. ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: I was sleeping. I couldn't. I was not dreaming too much, but I just say I did it and I went to sleep. Q. Apart from the computer, do you personally feel you are the best player now? ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: They asked me that question before. Q. You didn't really answer. ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: They asked me that question before. Q. I beg your pardon. ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: All right. Q. I know there is nothing you could do about it, but are you kind of disappointed you couldn't play Gigi and Natasha in the finals? JANA NOVOTNA: Not at all. ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: I can tell you one thing, Jana said to me, you know, "What happened in the semifinals," so I saw her face I knew that they lost, but... Q. When did you find that out? ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: That happens-- JANA NOVOTNA: I didn't know either. Q. When did you find out? JANA NOVOTNA: Next day. I opened the papers, read the papers. Q. You read the papers in the morning? JANA NOVOTNA: Yeah. I was curious-- just the result. Q. You are known for your fantastic retrieval. Is there one retrieval shot in your career that you remember particularly extraordinary where you even surprised yourself that you could get the shots back? ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: Well, I think, you know, very good moments in my life, but probably when I won the French Open the first time when I was only 17 and-- must be the biggest one, because after that, everything turns around and I start being better player, and that was the biggest win of my career, me winning the first Grand Slam. So I think since that moment I believe in myself that maybe I can win many more Grand Slams and now it pay off, the work, and I do it many more times. Q. You played your last couple of matches on Stadium in front of very small crowds. Is there something that you'd like to see the tournament do to enable more people to see the defending champion try to defend the title? JANA NOVOTNA: Yeah. ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: Yeah. JANA NOVOTNA: This is the worst time for the women's doubles because we have to play on Saturday the semifinal. It is always the last match. You saw it last night, we finish about 8 o'clock and then the next day we have to be here at 12:30 to play the final. I think that the women's doubles final should be sometime around Thursday, Friday, something like that. Really. ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: It would be more people and would be better. JANA NOVOTNA: And more for everybody because then we have two days off sometimes, we can't play because you are in the semis already. We have to wait until Sunday morning final. ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: Then there will be much more crowd. It is a big difference to see yesterday, you know, all the crowd was filling the court and today come back for the men's final and not seeing so many people, it would be better to play earlier and would be much more better for the crowd and for everybody. Q. Is it tough to play in the Stadium when there is almost nobody there; would you rather say, "We'd rather be in the Grandstand and have the" -- JANA NOVOTNA: It is impossible to do that. The finals has to be played on the Center Court. ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: I like the Center Court, so I want to play there. I don't want to play on another court. Q. Will you play together next year? ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: Yes. JANA NOVOTNA: Yes, we will. Let us celebrate, ta ta. Q. To become No. 1 player in the world -- is it still possible nowadays for one player to be No. 1 in singles and in doubles as Martina did some years ago? ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: Yeah. Q. What do you need for that? ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: Novotna, she is No. 3 already. JANA NOVOTNA: I am No. 3 already-- and No. 2, so... Q. That is why I am asking. ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: I am getting closer. JANA NOVOTNA: I think the difference is Arantxa is number two player in the world in singles. Fernandez/Zvereva, they are only playing most of the time-- they are only playing doubles. They were specialize in doubles, we do not. That is why we don't play maybe at every tournament, at every single tournament. They do play only doubles tournaments or on most of the time. We don't. It is not my goal and I don't know if it is Arantxa's goal either. ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: It is not. I concentrate more for singles. JANA NOVOTNA: Our priority is singles. Doubles comes after that. ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO: Yes. End of FastScripts.... |
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