U.S. OPEN

August 30, 1996

Monica Seles

MONICA SELES: I think my serve was a struggle from the first match on. I'm just not finding any timing with it at all. That's been a little bit frustrating. I think otherwise I played pretty well. She was running down so many balls and coming into the, match I didn't know what to expect because I'd never seen her play. I tried to ask a few players. She was very fast, one of the fastest players I ever played. She wouldn't miss, not too many easy shots; I had to work hard for every single point.

MONICA SELES: I learned, of course, about my opponent at four o'clock day before yesterday. I still came out and practiced. I never want to win a match like that. I wish I got to play another match. What you get, you have to make the most of it. I just think of it as a positive way. I'll save my shoulder, one less match to play, look forward to tonight.

MONICA SELES: A lot quieter this year, no question. It's great both ways. Last year was just unbelievable. It was very different, nothing like it. This year it's more I'm back to playing tournaments, you know, trying to do really well in the Grand Slam. I haven't done too well in the last two. It's very different. Last year was a totally different thing than this year.

MONICA SELES: Well, I pretty much after Australia thought everything would be okay, after the three months off, not playing tournaments. Going into the French, I knew I didn't have too much of a chance. Wimbledon, I felt I was playing well in Eastbourne, felt I would have a better chance. Since that, it's been struggling with the shoulder. Mentally it's been pretty heavy on me. Doesn't matter, I still won quite a lot of tournaments this year. It should be a good year. I haven't even been back a full year in terms of playing the full circuit. Not playing for two and a half years is, gosh, it's going to take me a long time to get the timing back. Feel it's coming slowly. I played pretty well in Montreal. The more tennis I play, the better.

MONICA SELES: Not in my mind. You definitely want to do well at the Grand Slams. I think that's at the end of the year in my career the ones that I like to win, do the best I could in all of them. I don't want to feel that extra pressure because there's already so much pressure outside of that. I don't want to do that to myself.

MONICA SELES: Studenikova won in Wimbledon against me. You can be out of here quickly, almost happened to Sampras today. I tried to stay focused. I was pretty focused till 5-Love, then I let it go. Hard when you play somebody you don't know too much about. You don't know what to expect from her game. As I said before, I tried to ask some players, not too many players know what she place or what her strengths or weaknesses are.

MONICA SELES: I think so. I'm pretty sure. It's not the favorite for my body, but everywhere else, that's my favorite.

MONICA SELES: At 5-Love you do feel that a little bit, because she had quite a few chances to win a game. Not to give her a game or anything, but you do feel bad. She was fighting, running down balls, wow. Till the last point was won, she never gave up at all.

MONICA SELES: A little bit, yeah. A lot of players at 6-Love, 5-Love, 4-Love, they just stop, "Oh, I'll stay out there and not run for shots." She was running, almost played better. She figured, "I have nothing to lose, match is almost finished, let me give it everything I have."

MONICA SELES: No, not at all.

MONICA SELES: Five years, six years.

MONICA SELES: Yes, now that the situation is better.

MONICA SELES: I think after I get to play a lot more close matches that I know what to do when I play the top players and it's 5-All in the third set, and I haven't done that too well this year, or when I'm up and trying to close the match, I think you have to play. Sticking more to a regular schedule in terms of practices day in and day out, being less injured probably. I just think it's hard. I mean, it's hard to have such a high -- the expectations sometimes with me are so high. It's hard to live up to what I was before, at the height of it, what happened, then not to play tennis for two and a half years, really just start playing a little, do so well last year, doing so well mostly because I was on such a emotional high, forget physically and ball feeling. It's going to be a matter of putting in those hours that I used to put in before, that now Steffi and Arantxa put in, now I put in the last few weeks. That's part of the commitment to myself, if I want to go back there, I have to do that.

MONICA SELES: I think all of it together a little bit. Everybody is in there. Of course, I'm used to a really high level. Two and a half years out of it, you forget a lot of the things. I had to learn so many things, just how many minutes to warm up before the match, just to time a lot of the things that before was automatic, and it would have been automatic if that wouldn't have happened. I wouldn't have to go through any of this stuff. I just made the most of it. I feel I'm slowly coming back to where I should be, and hopefully will be.

MONICA SELES: No, definitely not. I still love to play tennis. I need that commitment that you go in every day. It's like you do it, every day you're out there for those hours, no matter anything, not feeling well. I've been a little bit more easier on myself than before. I think to be at the level that Steffi is and Arantxa, you can't, you have to be like this.

MONICA SELES: I haven't got into that point yet. That was pretty hard. I will be there, yeah, at some point. I will definitely be there. I still want to have a normal life, too.

MONICA SELES: Definitely. I sometimes I think there's a good side and a bad side to that, though. A few times I was really mad at myself when I lost some matches this year. They didn't bother me as much as they should have, but a few days later it did bother me. I knew I had the desire back. I always had desire, but I still sometimes look at a tennis match very differently than before Hamburg. I mean, you go through so many stages, just as a young person, you change, your personality changes without anything else. See it with a lot of other players, except one or two.

MONICA SELES: No. I pretty much look at my side of the draw, my next match. In the beginning of the tournament, I'll look through the whole draw and kind of assess, "This person has an easy draw, this person has a tough draw." Who are the players that can upset a lot of the seeds, I look at that. After I do that, when the tournament starts, I just focus on my next round opponent.

MONICA SELES: It's been great. I mean even yesterday, not the same where I used to go to restaurant, every single restaurant would stand up. Still people come over to my table and congratulate me, all different things. It's very nice, wherever you go. People who are walking on the street, that's the best part about it. New York, you've seen it all. You're a lot of times like, "Okay."

MONICA SELES: That's normal. You expect that. If I would be a fan, I would do the same thing. I always try to put myself in their shoes. The thing was, I was really lucky to win that game at 5-2. She had a good chance to hold her serve at 5-3. Who know what could have happened. She was running down a lot of balls. I got nervous a few times. I couldn't finish a lot of the points. You don't want to play around with night matches, different seeing the balls. You just want to finish and go home.

MONICA SELES: Well, I've known him for a couple of years. We played some fun tournaments. He kids my dad like he's my coach. He tells me to keep attacking. He's so right in there. That's what I'm trying to do.

MONICA SELES: I really like both. I have to be honest. The only thing about night matches is you have the whole day to think about it. That happened to me the last few days because I found out pretty late that I'm not going to play my second-round opponent. The only thing at night that's a little harder is the lights. It's a little bit harder to see. Takes a while to get used to. I would prefer to practice at night for a -- before a night match. I didn't do that this time. If I play another one, I'll definitely do that.

MONICA SELES: Not as relaxed if you play first or second, then you have the whole day over. It's still fun to play a night match because you have a set schedule. In some ways it's better. At other tournaments, they play at least two or three night matches in a tournament, so I'm very used to that.

MONICA SELES: I feel fine. I feel just as I felt in Montreal and all the tournaments.