WIMBLEDON

June 23, 2003

Lucie Ahl

LUCIE AHL: Yeah. I mean, I'd have to say yes. I did have chances that I didn't take, sometimes forced obviously by her, and sometimes forced by me. If I could have gone 4-1 and also 4-3 up in the third, then I'm putting myself in a better position than I did. Disappointing in that respect. But overall, I did enjoy it, and I worked pretty hard today.

LUCIE AHL: Serve wasn't great, yeah, as last week up at Eastbourne. That's a bit disappointing because I've been working a lot on it. I think it was something more mentally in it, although I served very well in the first set, it kind of let me down the end of both the second and the third. I got a bit tight with it, served a fair few double-faults. I was a bit disappointed with that.

LUCIE AHL: In patches, yeah. It was a little bit up and down. I think the serve was quite a big hindrance for me today. So really on that side, it was disappointing with the serve. But, you know, I played a good match. I think it was a pretty tight match. So, yeah.

LUCIE AHL: You can look at it both ways, yeah. I mean, obviously there's a lot more attention. The way I actually look at it is, being a British player, with the ranking I'm at, I don't get into the tournament on merit, so I need a wildcard, and I'm lucky enough that the All England and the LTA gave me that. You've got the added attention on that, but, you know, I think it outweighs it, the fact that you're actually getting into Wimbledon and playing with a wildcard because you're British. I think that's more of a positive. I tend to look at it in that way and try to do my best to take that opportunity rather than get nervous about the situation.

LUCIE AHL: Probably I had a fair few supporters. Probably take most of them to the village for dinner, just have a meal with them, then probably go and sulk in my room after that (smiling), then just concentrate on the doubles. I've got doubles with Sfar sometime this week. I've got to get my mind back focused with that.

LUCIE AHL: Because obviously I'm disappointed with having an opportunity to go 4-3 up third set, leading 3-1. I think it's going to be a bit disappointing and hit me a bit more later. But it's one of those things you've got to get over it and get on. Looking forward to the doubles and possibly the mixed.

LUCIE AHL: I mean, definitely, I'm ranked 200 in the world so I'm not playing on the TV every week, I mean, other than local stuff. You know, the national stuff in Britain don't really follow it, apart from the major tournaments. So obviously the likes of Tim and Greg are getting a lot of coverage. With the ranking and all that, it's not really covered, the tournaments I'm in.

LUCIE AHL: I quite enjoy the attention really (smiling). I mean, obviously, you know, to get it, you've got to get your ranking up. So it's another incentive of mine. I don't know, probably Tim or something would disagree. When you've got it too much, maybe it's a bit of a pain.

LUCIE AHL: We do have that problem. We have to play indoors a lot of the time. I think grass-roots at a younger level, it's very expensive to pay for their kids to play indoors. There's a lot more courts in America and other countries in Europe, which is something that the LTA are addressing, trying to actually subsidize so kids can actually just jump on court and play, because I think that's the biggest problem, we just don't have enough people playing. If you've obviously got more people playing, you've got more of a chance to produce higher-ranked players. So for me I think that's a problem that is being addressed, but it needs a few more years before it can make a difference.

LUCIE AHL: Yeah, definitely. I think with someone like David Felgate who has a lot of experience at the top end of the game, who has also played himself and worked with different people before he worked with Tim, I think that can only be a good thing. He's British, you know, really genuinely has a passion for it and wants to make a difference. I think it will take time. As long as people are patient, I think we'll start getting results in a few years.