January 22, 2001
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
MODERATOR: Questions for Anna and Barbara.
Q. You seem very relaxed now, but what happened out there?
BARBARA SCHETT: Well, I think in the first set, it was a little bit my fault.
ANNA KOURNIKOVA: No, he asked --
. BARBARA SCHETT: It was strange. I mean, I just saw the face, she opened her eyes, big. I was like, "What's going on? Why is she making a face like that?" Then I saw the thing coming into the court. Everything was orange. Yeah, it was a bit strange.
ANNA KOURNIKOVA: I didn't see. I was hitting the ball. Suddenly something just dropped in front of me. That's it. I just walked away.
Q. Were you frightened?
ANNA KOURNIKOVA: No.
BARBARA SCHETT: No. It wasn't a bomb or anything.
ANNA KOURNIKOVA: No, no, I wasn't frightened.
Q. Bearing in mind what happened to Monica Seles, did that come across your mind?
ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Later we were talking about it, sitting down. But it's nothing. We didn't think about it.
Q. What did the security people do for you then?
BARBARA SCHETT: They asked us to leave the court, go and sit in the corner.
ANNA KOURNIKOVA: That's it.
BARBARA SCHETT: They told us they found the guy, catched the guy right away.
Q. As far as you know, it's just some kids messing around rather than a serious threat?
ANNA KOURNIKOVA: I haven't heard anything about it.
BARBARA SCHETT: Was it a kid? Anybody knows? I don't know.
ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Apparently they caught two teenagers.
BARBARA SCHETT: Oh.
Q. Did it put you off the game at all, the fact that this thing was lobbed over?
ANNA KOURNIKOVA: No. It was at the end of the first set. It was 5-2.
BARBARA SCHETT: Just the opposite.
ANNA KOURNIKOVA: We were losing, so we lost the next game. You know, afterwards we just started to play well. Just the opposite, it kind of made us feel better after we had the little break. I think we would start to play anyway well after we finished the first set, after we got our frustration out.
Q. You two attract an awful lot of attention. Are you happy with the protection and security here that you get?
ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Yeah. I think in general it's pretty good. You know, you can never expect something or see up front if something is going to happen. If you would know, you wouldn't go there or you wouldn't be there. You can never predict anything. Other than that, everything is fine. I think the fans here are really friendly.
Q. Has anything like that ever happened to you before?
ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Yeah, a streaker (laughter).
BARBARA SCHETT: Not to me.
Q. When was that?
ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Wimbledon.
BARBARA SCHETT: Too bad (laughter).
Q. Nothing serious?
ANNA KOURNIKOVA: No.
BARBARA SCHETT: No.
Q. Your next match will be against the Williams sisters. Any plans made?
ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Plans? To win.
BARBARA SCHETT: Definitely. I've never played against them. Did you?
ANNA KOURNIKOVA: I've played many times, a few times, a couple times.
BARBARA SCHETT: Did I once, I forgot.
ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Always played them, had tough matches, me playing. I played with different partners against them. You know, you never know what to expect from them. We're just going to have to go out there and play our best. We know that we can. We've beaten some good teams, especially in Sydney, our last tournament where we won. We bead Raymond/Stubbs. I think with each match we're getting better - not taking today's match. I think we're pretty good.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports….
|