US OPEN

August 31, 2002

Monica Seles

MODERATOR: First question for Monica.

MONICA SELES: If I'm mad, the only person to be mad at is myself (laughter). That's how it goes. I mean, definitely it's not something I'm happy about. What can you do?

MONICA SELES: Yeah. I think conditions, my brain went away from the court. It's just very windy out there. I think she probably decided she had nothing to lose, started running balls down. I had a couple of chances. But she was just too good there.

MONICA SELES: It just went away. It just went away. Lesson learned.

MONICA SELES: Definitely checked out of the tennis court.

MONICA SELES: No. I mean, I played her in Japan in October. I had a tough two setter. I knew she beat two solid players. I knew I had to hit a lot of balls today. In windy conditions, that can be tough. I was actually surprised how easy things were. But definitely I thought of that too soon.

MONICA SELES: Yeah, definitely. It's just so big. You just don't feel there's many people there so close to you. The other two courts definitely have a different type of atmosphere. It's a lot windier on that court, too.

MONICA SELES: I would say the last two, three years, I mean, everybody has been having a lot of tougher first or early rounds, which before kind of you didn't have that. It just shows the depth in the women's game. Now they always -- before she said, "There's no depth." It has really changed. It's great to see that.

MONICA SELES: It's more about how I'm playing in terms of my confidence. It's always great to pull through matches, but at the same time you're kind of not happy to start off like against a Schwartz or finish off, or like the middle of this match. Coming in, I didn't have as much preparation. Maybe I'm not -- definitely I'm not playing as well as I would have liked to. But Monday it's a new ballgame, it's a different level of a match you have to play.

MONICA SELES: I just think it depends how many matches you have coming in. For me it was important to get through the first round because I don't think I had one match this summer that I played. I was not as match tough. In a Grand Slam, you never know what can happen. On a day like today, it's so windy out there, it's such an equalizer. You can't time the ball, it makes it very difficult.

MONICA SELES: Yeah, well, I mean, I think that's my private life, so I would not want to go into that. I would just hope that everyone respects that.

MONICA SELES: My personal opinion is that Arthur Ashe is a lot windier than the other courts. Definitely in the beginning of the second set, I wouldn't say at 5-1, it definitely started swirling a lot more. It was kind of one end you were into the wind, two changeovers later, that was against the wind. I definitely have a tougher time. She just played too good there.

MONICA SELES: Yeah.

MONICA SELES: Well, definitely. I played Martina a couple times here. This is probably the least successful place I had against her, here. I know both of us are kind of not playing our best tennis. It's going to be one of those matches that you just try to raise the level. I mean, both of us know the tennis we can play. It will be interesting to see which one can show up with their A game, I guess.

MONICA SELES: I don't think I had much power on my returns today as I usually do. I think her serve really threw me off. I mean, they were extremely slow. At least that's what I felt. I didn't see the speedometer. There were tons in the 60s. I couldn't generate pace with the wind. That gave me a difficult time. She's a good runner. She doesn't make too many errors. You kind of have to win a point against her.

MONICA SELES: I think a little bit. In the wind, you've got to move up to the ball. I didn't do that. Kind of just waited for it. Didn't have any power on my balls except when it was a crucial set. In the second set, I choked. Third set, it was do or die, I said, "Whatever, hit the ball."

MONICA SELES: Yeah, a little bit. For sure, at 5-1 especially, then 30-Love. It just seemed -- the games that I lost went by really fast. I tightened up a little bit there at 5-4 on my serve and again at 6-5. I just was getting a little bit frustrated with myself. I was just happy that I could calm myself down and not kind of say -- not kind of lose it out there mentally.

MONICA SELES: I think when I needed to I played better and I ran better. But I don't think I hit the ball as cleanly as, let's say, to get up to 5-1 where I really just took control of the match.

MONICA SELES: Well, I had a foot injury. I couldn't prepare well for it. You know, you'd like to play a few more matches, especially in the hard court season. But at the same time coming in I knew I played a lot of matches in the beginning of the year, so I kind of draw on that. But here it's just so different. The circumstances really on stadium are just no court like it really with that swirly wind. I think very different.