THE LIPTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 24, 1997

Monica Seles

MONICA SELES: I think I played better today. A little bit still frustrated with a couple of the games when I had so many chances. I definitely played best from the past three matches today. I have a tough one tomorrow against Irina Spirlea. That's pretty much all I'm thinking about right now.

MONICA SELES: Oh, definitely. Anytime I can play tournaments, I'm happy because I play them so rarely the last few years. From that point of view, yeah.

MONICA SELES: Well, whenever I was off the court, I know people from the outside always thought that was my goal, I never thought of it. Maybe subconsciously it was in me. Still my goal is to be the best that I can be. Obviously that would be great to be back at that spot. I really would like to be at more at Grand Slams. If you do well at Grand Slams, you get that spot, whoever does well.

MONICA SELES: I think so, definitely. I think also I really felt it throughout last year after I played all the Grand Slams, yes.

MONICA SELES: I think I'm still quite far from where I see myself I can be, in terms of consistency. I think that's just from not playing consistent practices or consistent matches. That was like typical. I watched a little bit of the Hingis/Williams match. The experience from Martina had from playing so many matches clearly showed. I think with me that's definitely missing. If I'm up 40-Love, I'm still losing games, key points, make some easy unforced errors. It's consistency this year, which I hope I can carry out.

MONICA SELES: I think so. Till the Open I felt pretty good. I played quite a lot of tennis for Fed Cup, the Olympics, then Toronto. I did feel pretty good going into the Open, yeah.

MONICA SELES: Nothing, no.

MONICA SELES: Yes. I plan to play Hilton Head and Amelia Island.

MONICA SELES: Probably Rome, I think, but I'm not sure at this point. Quite a few things depend.

MONICA SELES: I don't know. Obviously I had one of my biggest wins in Germany. That's where a lot of things started for me. I'm going to make this short. For me it's hard to go back where all the things happened and what somebody did to me was never punished. For me it's very hard to go back and feel safe again there.

MONICA SELES: I had some great matches. That was one of the biggest wins of my career. The whole streak pretty much started there. It's tough. I mean, I think anybody in my shoes would look at it that way, too.

MONICA SELES: I don't know. I do not know. It's tough.

MONICA SELES: I do not know. You can never say anything. But obviously the things that happened to me there, not just the stabbing, but everything afterwards, wow. I don't think it was fair towards me, anything. But that that should keep me away, I don't know.

MONICA SELES: No. As I said, I've had some great matches there. It's terrible what happened to me and all the things afterwards.

MONICA SELES: Well, that's tough. I mean, obviously it's always hard because what happened changed a lot in my life and in my career, too. You have to move on. I think I moved on after I came back. You take it day at a time.

MONICA SELES: That's a tough one because obviously I don't feel as comfortable on the court, having the mistakes that I make. I'm used to having my dad there who will pinpoint what I make, try to improve it the next morning. A lot of things have changed. I'm trying to just adjust to that. That's really now what I'm struggling more with. I told myself as long as I keep practicing, try to play each point at the time. I'll be fine. When I felt like I played more aggressive today than the previous two matches, it definitely helps.

MONICA SELES: From the letters that I get, I do. I think for the person not to spend a day in jail for what he did, I don't think that was fair to me. I do know that. You have to understand my point: how do I feel safe to sit in that chair again and put my back? Gosh, if somebody attacks you, you see that person, that's different. But somebody from the back to attack you, not even seeing him, no way of defending yourself, is a totally different story.

MONICA SELES: I think probably the practices and the consistencies that I had before, I never really realized that I had them because it was so automatic for me. When I didn't play those two and a half years, that was, I think, definitely hard on my game because I lost a lot of the ball touch that I had. Key points, I would hit everything this close to the lines (indicating). Now a lot of times they would be flying out. That and just the matches, that they're not there. Before if I would have been in the third set 6-All, I would know a little bit more what to do. Now I'm still trying to find myself in matches.

MONICA SELES: It's still there. I really believe that it's still there.

MONICA SELES: I really felt sometimes that I was very close if I would have kept going like after the '95 US Open or even after Australia. Each time I would feel that I couldn't play for three, four months. Each time after three or four months, I was so excited I could play, I practiced for a couple weeks, I'd re-injure somewhere again. I learned my lessons there. That's why I told myself now to be more consistent and hopefully I'll get to that for the French or Wimbledon. Last year, I mean, disappointing results at both Grand Slams.

MONICA SELES: No, nothing.

MONICA SELES: No.

MONICA SELES: Thank you.