TMS - INDIAN WELLS, WOMEN

March 12, 2000

Monica Seles

WTA: Questions for Monica.

MONICA SELES: The last time I played Patty, I won 7-6, I think, in the third set. I knew coming in it's going to be a tough match. She's a tough lefty player, great hands. I was surprised. It was a little bit of a different match out there today. When two lefties play, it's very different. I was just happy that I could finish the match in a pretty quick time.

MONICA SELES: It's very hard. I mean, today it was just tough because, you know, the wind was blowing, she was making some weird shots, I was hitting for sure some weird shots. Just percentage-wise, I played a better game. But I'm just looking forward to each match that's ahead of me. That's all I worry about.

MONICA SELES: She is like that. That's her type of personality. You can't let that affect you. You do what you can control. It's her. She did that when I played her in Hilton Head that time. That's her style of play.

MONICA SELES: Sabine is another left-hander. I had a tough couple of last matches against her. I played a three-setter last year in the Australian Open against her. It's going to be a lot of long rallies. Just have to play certain things in my game and really that's it.

MONICA SELES: Really zero. The only thing I could do was ride the stationary bike and pool workouts to a certain degree, then some free weights really, but no wait bearing, any exercises on it.

MONICA SELES: Not really. I was at the borderline. I was planning to play in Scottsdale - somehow ended up being Oklahoma. I was like, "I need to play, Doctor." The one thing was that the MRI had to come back clear, and thank God it came back clean at that point. I thought it would come back by Australia, and it didn't. It would have been a huge setback, I think, if I couldn't have started when I wanted to again.

MONICA SELES: I don't know. Regarding the foot, it really started bothering me at The Open. I guess the way my foot is, the doctor said I'm going to have more of a pronation so the insoles had to be made a little differently. Some athletes had more trouble. I never had trouble with it, but now I'm taking some more precaution because it's very slow healing, especially where I had it in my navicular bone area. But I don't think so. One thing, I would never come back if I had pain, that's for sure. But I really did not have pain the last month or so.

MONICA SELES: Well, I'm just looking forward to -- I think the next few weeks, the main goal is to be healthy and play through the tournaments. I need to do that for my points and rankings, so many things that come with it. Hopefully I have a couple of weeks before I go off to Europe where I really would like to train hard physically and finally be able to run, because I haven't run, really zero. I feel that would be a huge addition to it. I already feel stronger that I biked a little bit, and swam. But I think for me running would be even a bigger of a jump in terms of helping move better on the court.

MONICA SELES: In terms of working out?

MONICA SELES: Definitely. I think the French and Wimbledon would be really the main goals, but I have to be careful that I'm not overdoing it, too. I started in Oklahoma. Just where I'm playing a lot, singles and doubles. I think I'm going to have to cut back because I've been playing a lot of matches the last couple weeks, but everything feels good. That would be my priority, being healthy. If I'm healthy, then definitely those two tournaments would be my main goals, by far.

MONICA SELES: I definitely think so. I had a long time to think about a few things. Hopefully decisions that I made are going to stay with me through the good and the not-so-good times. I'm very happy that I changed racquets. I really think it's helped already. I feel much more control on certain shots that have given me trouble. I still feel my serve has a long way to go. That would be my goal really for the Grand Slams, to have a little bit of a weapon with my serve. If I want to win the Grand Slams, I think that's my only chance - to do it that way. I have a long road ahead of me, but just have to see.

MONICA SELES: Definitely. I think I need the first serve back. Whenever you play the top four or five girls, they all have a big first serve and a very solid second serve. They're holding their service games. If I'm not able to do that, I will always lose 7-5, 7-6, 6-1, those scores.

MONICA SELES: My back I have really zero problems, nothing. The shoulder, nothing. Really more with the shoulder, it's been five years that I haven't had a single problem. As long as I do the exercises Dr. Steadman prescribed. I think if I'm careful how I go, it should be a question of finding the right way to improve the serve, too.