US OPEN

August 31, 2001

Monica Seles

MODERATOR: Questions for Monica.

MONICA SELES: Yeah. I just wanted to hit because it was tough to get a rhythm with her. I always like to do that after a match. I couldn't get a chance before because I was playing at night. I do that every tournament.

MONICA SELES: I feel good. I mean, it was really humid out there, so I was happy to close it out in the second set. Got a little bit shaky there. Next round should be definitely tougher than any of them that I faced up to now.

MONICA SELES: Definitely the last couple of years. I had some really good time. I played Serena here in the quarters of the US Open a couple years ago. I was playing well then. Definitely, I mean, the last couple weeks, those California tournaments, Canada, I was really striking the ball clean and not making too many unforced errors.

MONICA SELES: Yeah, definitely. I mean, as soon as that's gone, I think it's time to stop competing, playing tennis competitively. There's no need to be out there. It's such a competitive world out there. Everybody wants to win. You know, thank God I still have it.

MONICA SELES: Yeah, I think I had just a little bit less distraction off court. That has definitely helped. But I always felt as committed to the game. I mean, it was just certain times, you know, you have to put other things - family - comes first, different things. Now I'm really happy with the people I'm working with. After last year, I really like working with the people I had, but unfortunately we couldn't continue. So it took me a while this year, again, to find a team. I think that makes a difference.

MONICA SELES: I think on a consistent basis, it's tough. You have to have the height, no questions there. Serena's serving technique, I saw some footage of Roscoe Tanner, he wasn't as tall, but he was serving fast. I think you'd have to be really strong in the upper body, have almost a perfect technique compared to a taller person's serve.

MONICA SELES: Yeah, definitely. Nowadays it's so key to hold a service game. If you look against the Williams sisters or Davenport, it's one or two service games here or there that decide the match. The services have become a lot stronger. I think all of us are trying to improve the serve. For me, I mean, I do think it would help me tremendously to maybe even earn one single point a game on my serve. But at the same time, it's tough to change the technique during tournaments, which I tried last year, and it really messed me up.

MONICA SELES: I mean, gosh, who knows? Who knows? I could have stayed there. I could have gotten out other ways. I really don't know. I think I was just really lucky to find something that I had a passion for early on. This generation, it's tough. There are so many opportunities. It's so open. Everything is accepted nowadays. It's kind of tough to find, not just for me, not only in tennis, but in general, what career path you want to choose down the road. Beforehand, it was very different. You got married. You stopped working. I think women my age are facing a lot of different challenges. I've been lucky so far that I found something that I love to do. Hopefully after tennis, I'll find something else that I have as much passion for and look forward to doing when I wake up in the morning, I guess.

MONICA SELES: Not too many options. You can travel on the spur of a moment, here, there, get a job. With the European community opening up, you can work in so many different countries that beforehand was closed. In America, you can change professions so fast. I mean, the role of women is being defined differently in society. We see that even in the sports world.

MONICA SELES: I really don't know. I mean, I have some ideas. You know, I don't want to say them because who knows what I want to do. I don't want to box myself into one thing or the other. Something along the line with kids, but I really don't know. I don't want to say anything (smiling).

MONICA SELES: No.

MONICA SELES: Each match I played Meghann has been really close. Maybe the last one was not as close, except the first set. I've beaten her twice, last year once. Meghann, she's been playing so well this year. Her serve is fantastic. She's a great mover. She's also an attacker. Whoever is going to attack the ball probably first and make less errors and stuff like that is going to be coming out a winner out of that match.

MONICA SELES: You do. But it can change. I mean, she's a player that can change. One thing, why she's improved so much in the ranking, she's a lot more consistent. I saw her play at Stanford against Venus. Gosh, she was just playing unreal. The next day she didn't play as well against Kim. But I think in a Grand Slam, you really expect everyone to be playing their best and going for broke because it's not just like a regular tournament. "Okay, another match." Here, everybody is pumped up when they step out there.

MONICA SELES: In the game or outside?

MONICA SELES: Amongst players, definitely physically everybody is in a lot better shape, a lot stronger. Everybody's goal is to get really strong, which beforehand we had a few players, but the other players really kind of didn't even want to get strong because they felt, "We don't want to go down that road." Now everybodyy wants to go down that road. The ball is just being hit a lot harder. I think kids growing up seeing Martina, Steffi and myself realized, "We got to hit it harder." I think the kids who are going to grow up now, it's going to be interesting to see how much harder can the ball be hit. The serve is a lot more of a weapon. There's so much more depth to it than beforehand.

MONICA SELES: I do sometimes, sometimes I don't. When I look back at my French Opens, to get to the semis two years in a row, I played like three or four three-set matches. I think for me it's difficult to say because when I first came on tour, I was the youngest. I kind of came into Martina, Chrissy were established, Steffi, and finally Jennifer came long. Now I'm more on the older side. I view things probably differently than when I originally came on the tour.

MONICA SELES: Personally, I love playing tennis. I'm not that crazy on doing weights. But I really know that it has to become a part of my life, really even after tennis, just staying in general shape. You do feel a lot better when you're stronger and more flexible, stuff like that. If you would give me a choice between playing tennis even three hours, going into the weight room for an hour, I would pick tennis, but that's just because I love the game.

MONICA SELES: I think people at that stage, being strong wasn't that feminine. They didn't want to lift weights, have muscles, stuff like that. I think the view has really changed on that.

MONICA SELES: Oh, definitely, there's a big change. It's just a different generation totally.

MONICA SELES: I mean, the players are just very different personalities nowadays on the tour, different types of interaction amongst players. I think the sport has opened up. I mean, it's opened up to people that probably wouldn't have gotten a chance beforehand. You look at Russia and a lot of eastern bloc countries, people that come out and travel, have a chance to play tennis internationally. Then you look at the Williams sisters, brought tennis to a different audience. I think it is now for everybody, every type of the player, in terms of their game style and personality.

MONICA SELES: Yeah, I think so. I think what has changed a lot is that I think a lot of kids who are really young are coming up with tremendous pressure on them because it's such a big business from outside, whether that be parents or agents, whatever. That's a tremendous amount of pressure to carry on yourself. You have an example of Jennifer, who made a lot of money before even playing a tennis tournament. Then my example, I didn't sign any endorsements until I moved up to No. 6 in the rankings. Different examples. In the end, we both had a great career. I just still hope that a lot of kids start playing tennis because they love it, and not just because of all the other things that come with it. You hear interviews of some kids, what they're saying. You're like, "Wow." Anyway, I won't go into that (laughter).

MONICA SELES: I think it's a combination of a lot of things. A lot of people get into it. Nowadays, how you're marketed, different things are going into that. It's parents, family members I'm sure, coaches, agents. I think it's just a lot of people. I just think it's a lot of pressure on young kids. When you're developing, I know myself, I became really good at such a young age, you have a tremendously difficult time dealing with a lot of stuff as a teenager, let alone living your life in front of the media on a really wide scale. I was the one that succeeded. But there were a lot of kids from the academy who were touted as the "next Monica" and never succeeded. Health-wise, emotionally, you know, there are two sides to that.

MONICA SELES: I only did that once, but definitely it stuck with me, for sure. I mean, I think for me that time was a very fast-moving pace in everything, how soon I started doing it, how well I started doing. I think really the only thing that spiraled there was my Wimbledon pull-out. That was really it, that kind of put everything really out of proportion. That was a really good lesson for me to learn, that whatever I would do or say has very strong repercussions to it.

MONICA SELES: Well, really the only rivalry that I can remember, I cannot go back past Chrissy and Martina because I've never seen any of the other players play, but there was only that rivalry. You cannot call Steffi and mine a rivalry. It got stopped at a key stage of it. I mean, the history of tennis, the biggest one definitely had to be Chrissy and Martina because they were the two dominant forces for such a long time. Nowadays, I don't see that. It could become. There are a few players that could reach that level of being dominant on the tour, but it's going to take a few more years.

MONICA SELES: I really don't know. Everybody's playing better. I don't know. Closer in terms of their level. I really don't know.