adidas International

January 9, 2001

Monica Seles

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Monica, please.

MONICA SELES: Really, truthfully, I don't look at it as another year. I only have three weeks in between the championships to get -- and then leaving for Perth. I just look at it as a, you know, another tournament in two weeks' time and pretty much like that.

MONICA SELES: Yeah, definitely. It seems like I play well with Martina at certain times, but I still can't get away at those key times where she's more steadier than I am or whatever it is. But for sure, playing so well there definitely helped. And I played well last week in Perth, so hopefully I can keep that going in the next few weeks of this season.

MONICA SELES: I really enjoy it because I just love team competition. I love playing like Fed Cup, and Hopman Cup was very similar to it except it was a guy, and I absolutely love Jan-Michael. He's a really great guy and mixed doubles partner. We kind of play well together, so that makes it even more fun.

MONICA SELES: I don't think too many players have been able to do it probably in history, I think. I don't know if Lindsay did last -- no, Mauresmo won. I think Martina and myself have only done it. It's a very tough task, especially with the competition now. But as always, we just really look forward to the next match. Right now, for me it's a tough doubles match. After that, I worry about playing Mauresmo or Coetzer.

MONICA SELES: Martina just called me up and she asked if I wanted to play in Melbourne, doubles. Then we talked at Hopman Cup, we decided to play Sydney just because we have never played doubles together. It would be an awful lot of pressure to start off at a Grand Slam tournament, and might as well get some practice matches in. Sure enough, we're going to get that tonight. So that's really how it happened.

MONICA SELES: For me, it definitely came out of the blue. I mean, probably as everybody knows, I haven't played much doubles last year and I really wasn't looking to play much this year, too. But she's such a great partner. Kind of my doubles career, I never had, you know -- I mean I didn't have as good of a -- well, we had a few players. But like when Martina was at the top of her game, I did not play doubles with her and stuff like that. So for me, I just said it would be a lot of fun and it has been up to now.

MONICA SELES: I think it was some point in December.

MONICA SELES: It's probably the toughest match you could have gotten of anybody in the draw. It's kind of ironic how it happened. But, you know, they do have the advantage of playing together and practicing, and we don't have that. But that's all right. I mean, it's kind of a good warmup event, and I think we'll just go out there and do the best that we can tonight.

MONICA SELES: Well, what both of us said, she also said she did not want a full-time partner and I wanted to make sure that she understood that from me, too. I just don't know if I can do that in terms of a lot of tournaments. Obviously, if you would do well, I'm not playing the championships, it would hurt her a lot. I might just not want to play doubles every single week and every tournament. I still want to focus on my singles career. And, I mean, she had really the same view. I think we said that if we don't feel like playing tomorrow, one of us feels tired or injured, just as long as we communicate, we don't have pressure from either of us.

MONICA SELES: Yeah, definitely. I mean, this is probably the most matches I've played. It's been Hopman Cup, coming into Sydney, then hopefully Melbourne for sure. I've done a few things to try to prevent injuries the last couple of months and it has helped, so hopefully it will continue. I'm just happy to finally start off the year healthy. Last year this time I had a tough injury of my stress fracture. So I was just really excited to finally start off the year healthy.

MONICA SELES: It's very windy. I'm coming, obviously, from the indoors. And today I definitely had a very difficult time timing the ball because there was just swirling. You get spoiled playing indoors a little bit. I wasn't moving my feet as much as I should have. It's a good first round match to get underway and get used to the surroundings.

MONICA SELES: It wasn't distressing at all. It was so blown out of proportion I can't even say. I was very surprised how it was portrayed and everything. There was really absolutely nothing to it.

MONICA SELES: Not at all.

MONICA SELES: I have absolutely no problem with that issue, what happened there. I did not even think about it. Just the next morning when I had the papers and I opened it, it was like, "Wow." It didn't even occur in my mind. So...

MONICA SELES: Definitely. It's kind of tough to start off your net game against the Williams sisters. I don't think that's going to be the best match to do that. But for sure I've been working harder on my net game, just finishing off. Today I tried to do that more and more. Looking back in my career, I probably wish I played more doubles because I do think it helps, as we have seen with a few players that have done that. But it's never too late. So hopefully it will help.