WIMBLEDON

June 29, 2000

Monica Seles

MODERATOR: Monica Seles.

MONICA SELES: I definitely think the season is too long. But I've been on our committee in '90, we had the same issue then, saying the season was too long. I think luckily for our tour, we're shortening it next year, 2001, by almost a month. Hopefully that will help. I mean, just if you look at other sports, I have friends in other sports, they have a much more of an off-time. I think in the long run, it's beneficial. Hopefully tennis will change.

MONICA SELES: I love Wimbledon. Obviously I would love to do well here. It's a challenge every year that I keep facing, trying to do well here. Exchanging titles, I mean, I wouldn't exchange anything in my life. But I love coming back here. I love the surroundings. I mean, I just wish the surface suited more my game. Besides that, I love the place.

MONICA SELES: Well, I think that's what the WTA committee decided. I was in on that meeting. I definitely think so. I think the locker room is for players only. I felt that ten years ago. I finally think we've made a decision on it.

MONICA SELES: Not distracted. I mean, you know, my mom was different. She would not come into the locker room. I can't say. I just think it's a good decision.

MONICA SELES: No. I still have my coach Bobby that's been helping me. I talk to Mary Joe a lot. I talk to Billie, Martina a little bit.

MONICA SELES: I've got into a little bit more baseball. Hockey I truly only go if I know some members on the team pretty much. I love basketball. I just love sports in general. It's fun to watch.

MONICA SELES: Never been to one yet. I hope to go. That's one I haven't been yet. Been to the Buccaneers, but no Devil Rays.

MONICA SELES: It's really nothing new. It's really consistent for the first time in my life that I have no gaps of weeks going by and not doing it. I think that's why I've been seeing such an improvement in it, being also injury-free and so on. My main goal is now to just keep going at this rate. It's a very moderate rate; nothing extraordinary. It's a very simple thing. That's why I think it suits my personality and why I keep seeing results.

MONICA SELES: Yes, I started to.

MONICA SELES: I don't go by hours at all. We pretty much have a program that I do - one day for my shoulders, next day for my legs. I love to run. With my stress fracture that I had that I was off for a while, I have to be careful. Now I alternate with fast walking more than running.

MONICA SELES: I think genetically we have a certain body type. I think there's a certain limit to building ourselves up with being health conscious in that effort. So my body type is really not like huge, bulky. I think you can get a lean-muscled look. I think every athlete is totally individual.

MONICA SELES: Oh, no, it's become so much easier the last few months, I can't tell you, for the first time probably since '93. I'm not sure what to do with it. It's so nice to have that feeling. That's why I just want to keep going and just try to keep building and really have it kind of like this, like the last few months. I think my tennis is going to be better; I'm going to feel better as a person.

MONICA SELES: No. Just a lot of things. My life, for whatever reason, different stages, different things came in. Some were public, some were not public. The conditioning was more of a decision for me to make, "I'm going to do it or I'm not going to." Going halfway back and forth, it was just really stupid. Bobby and my mom were really instrumental in that, to get someone kind of that's going to be with me all the time. That's one area that I do need a push. In tennis, I love to play. You don't need to push me. But in the beginning, I think with workouts, I needed a bit of a push.

MONICA SELES: I think a lot of less stuff in your head that take up so much space. It's nice not to have that. It's nice to be able to focus on the practise ahead or the match ahead. It's just a much clearer state of mind.

MONICA SELES: Oh, yes, I think so.

MONICA SELES: No. I think just because really I had such a clean slate till '93. My life had been so much tennis, my focus. A few things here were coming into it, the war happening where I was born, a few outside things. Then obviously after the stabbing, things became different. When I came back, there was the euphoria of the six months, then my father's illness, other things happening. Tennis became not as important. I think as it was. There was no way to fit it in, even if I tried to. I think subconsciously my mind didn't want to be there a lot of times. To be the best or to try to be the best player, you really have to give it a hundred percent focus. You see that with all the players.

MONICA SELES: I knew I would have it back because really it was none of my things that were causing it. Those things aren't things you can control. You feel that certain things you have to do. Again, I just hoped that somehow it's going to work out, that it won't be there. It did. But also came a point where I had to make a decision to myself.

MONICA SELES: Just life simplified itself. Some things just worked out on their own