TMS - INDIAN WELLS, WOMEN

March 13, 2000

Monica Seles

WTA: Questions for Monica.

MONICA SELES: That was a hard-fought match. I mean, I really am happy that I stayed in the match and didn't give up and just kept fighting. Sabine also just played some unbelievable tennis in the first set there too. She gave me a touch bit of a window. Thank goodness I took that opportunity.

MONICA SELES: Yeah. I hit with Magui Serna, She's a lefty. She was kind enough, she serves a lot. It's very different playing lefties. My next opponent is a right-hander. I'm happy to be "bye-bye" by the lefties.

MONICA SELES: No one would come even close, any names. Can't even think of one really, yeah.

MONICA SELES: I'm very surprised. I think definitely my racquet helps a lot. I think just my back-court game I feel has improved. If I could just get my service off to where it should be or where it was at least for right now, I think that would be tremendous help. I think I have much more maneuverability with my racquet here. There was a touch bit missing. Hopefully, I can just stay healthy and stay on this track. I have a few more weeks before going to Europe, get a little bit stronger, I'll be pretty happy then.

MONICA SELES: I switched to a much smaller racquet.

MONICA SELES: It was too tough I think to control it. I wasn't as consistent, I felt, from the back court as I used to be. I felt I was hitting a lot of balls. That's one thing now that if I go into a rally, I feel so much more confident staying in it, just pounding it out with the players than before.

MONICA SELES: Well, no, it's fair really because the last two years I haven't been able to beat the top four players in the world. Everyone else I'm beating that's ranked 4 or 5 in the world. A few things for me have to happen for that. I need to change. I think hopefully I got it through in my mind the last couple of months that I really want to change. It's great to see someone like Andre who really turned it around on his own, and that's great to see that, because no one else can do it for you. You know, obviously you have to have a lot of harmony off court, too, to really be able to focus on court. I think that has definitely helped Andre. Hopefully, you know, I find that in my own life, too, then just really keep working hard. I remember last year when I saw him at the French, "I'm not even sure I'm going to play." No one would have thought eight months later where he would be. It's just fantastic to see. It couldn't happen to a better person.

MONICA SELES: In some ways, yeah; in some ways, no. You know, my off-court life has been very complicated, not to my helping. But that's the way it is. I'm learning to deal with it. I think my mom has helped me a little bit to try to deal with certain things better. But at the end of the day, I have to learn how to deal with them. I think that's part of the growing process. But all of us go through it. It's very difficult to play tennis and practice hard, mentally also to put certain things aside. But I've done that in the past with my dad's illness. Hopefully I can do it even better now.

MONICA SELES: Definitely movement. But I just felt with my other racquet, the rally went four, five points long, I would be missing, and sometimes missing it by a lot. Since I switched to this racquet, I notice I can stay in much longer rallies and not miss by such an error. That's kind of what I meant there. But definitely, I mean, the little I improve my movement, I feel better getting to balls. I still have a long way to go. But we've seen that with Lindsay, with Andre, with all the players. Once they improve that part of their game, in some ways it definitely helps. I'm definitely a shot-maker. I need to be in position to make those shots.

MONICA SELES: They were fantastic.

MONICA SELES: Oh, yeah. They definitely pulled me through.

MONICA SELES: They were great. Boy, when I started, I couldn't hold a service game, "This is not good."

MONICA SELES: They were very nice to me. But I feel that. There's no better feeling really because you feel even when you're in a tight match, there are people supporting you, you better get it together, not mope around, start playing the best tennis you can on that day.

MONICA SELES: No. Really how the whole thing started, last year I played in Tokyo, Mr. Yoneyama, he's the president of Yonex, he watched me play a couple of matches, and he noticed my balls did not have the same 'umpf' on the balls as when he watched me two years ago when I played with my old 380. He said, "Let me think about it. I think you should go down to a smaller head and a little bit of a different combination with the racquet." When we did the testing, the balls definitely come off faster with this racquet. This one is a 110. That one was a 130.

MONICA SELES: He knows so much. He's so quiet. I've been with Yonex all my career, really since 1990. I've got to know them in a very special way. It meant a lot to me that really he could see it. For a long time, a lot of people around me were saying, "You've got to try to switch racquets." But no one ever said specifically what you need to do. He really laid out a plan, how to do it. In December I tried out the racquet, then unfortunately I couldn't really play because of my foot. I really only played with this racquet for four weeks now. It's always difficult to switch racquets. That's a pretty extreme case from where I was to where I'm at. I'm really happy with how fast I've adjusted to it.

MONICA SELES: Now?

MONICA SELES: I think probably about 65, 70 realistically, I think so. But I definitely feel I'm in better shape than I was most of the time last year. But I still need to get a little bit more of a movement better, and I still need to lose some weight.