PILOT PEN TENNIS

August 25, 2000

Monica Seles

Q. Monica, what do you attribute the little bit of a shy start there, Monica, was it her play, 1:00 start the day off? What could it be?

MONICA SELES: I don't know. I haven't had, in a while, a slow start like this today. I had a couple weeks ago at San Diego. I don't know, I just didn't feel good out there at all. Thank goodness I slowly started getting into the match. I can't have these starts like today.

MONICA SELES: I think just kept playing, I tried to get stronger mentally and toughen up a little bit. I was giving away so many games during the first set, all of us have days when you're not feeling as great or different stuff, you've got to work through them. And I just kept telling that to myself and stick with it. Take it a point at a time, if things change, okay. If not, at least you gave your best effort.

MONICA SELES: I think the key game, that's when I broke her, in the second set, I hadn't broken her at all. Also in the third set, I helped served before one. I think that changed to me then.

MONICA SELES: Oh yeah, she serves well. Last time I played in '98. That's one of the reasons she's back in the top ten. She's improved her served right. She can hit the corner. If it goes in, that's not much you can do. You hope she can't keep up that high level of consistency. I think that first game I lost in the first. I had quite a few big points to go back one, all things could have changed. I said, if she keeps serving like that, when she's down a break point or up a break point, she's just better today.

MONICA SELES: Thank goodness I picked it up a little bit. I was varying it better than in the fist set I did not feel my serve. I'm not going to go into too much. You have days like today. We can't expect every single day to be on. Just try to not have too many days like this. I was happy I could pull out a match today, even when I didn't feel that great out there.

MONICA SELES: Nathalie was catching the ball early on, she was hitting well, I think you expect that. Because she really had nothing to lose against me, and she's just going to go out swinging and she's a player, she's swinging, those balls get in, it's a tough match.

MONICA SELES: Definitely. I think I stuck in there and mentally didn't get down on myself, I think that was a good effort on my part.

MONICA SELES: It keeps you on your toes. That's why the U.S. Open for entire two weeks you have to be on. I had a few times I wasn't on the court. That's what I want to improve upon today, at least I tried to improve upon in the match. I did well. I've got to improve not to start a match like this. Going into the Open, I think it's definitely going the keep me on my toes. I hope to be on my toes without matches like today.

MONICA SELES: Totally two different players. Two different records against both players. Obviously Venus has been playing some of her best tennis of her career; big serve, great court coverage. And Amanda is the total opposite; scrambler, gets a lot of balls back and makes you hit a lot of balls.

MONICA SELES: That's hard, you can't say that. It's so hard to compare. And Nathalie played well today. She put me on the defensive right from the bat. I'm the player that usually does that. It's hard to compare. Just take each match, it's different.

MONICA SELES: I just picked up my return game. I didn't give her that many free points as in the first set. Unforced error after unforced error. I don't know my stats. I tied up my game a little bit, and I think that made a difference in the second set. I think in the third set I picked up my game.

MONICA SELES: Nothing, I taped my ankles and tape started to come off from the heat, and I wanted to retape it. That was it.

MONICA SELES: Just come with a very high level of tennis, otherwise the match is going to be over very fast. Have to do everything much better than I did today and play some good tennis.

MONICA SELES: I think, for me, it helps to play some matches because just that I didn't get that much practice going into the Open after my injury at San Diego, so I would have felt a little bit more nervous going to the Open with no matchplay and no practice. This week has been really good, I got tons of matches and got some good practice in and still made it through the week healthy and with energy. You have a day off on Sunday, and I think I have plays Monday, and refocus after tomorrow's match and the Open.

MONICA SELES: I think the balls are the same, and I think the Court is very similar to the Open. I don't know about the speeds. They've been telling all the players it's the same. We'll just have to see. I know last year it wasn't. I think this year they resurfaced it.