WTA TOUR CHAMPIONSHIPS

November 18, 1995

Brenda Schultz-McCarthy

BRENDA SCHULTZ-McCARTHY: Yes, she always returns my serve pretty well. We practice a couple of times in Leipzig and in Zurich, and I knew this was coming. But I hoped I could mix it up a little better. I started off well. I had one game, I had like three aces in a row, and I kind of got it away from her. But the minute I don't get it away from her, she reads it pretty good. I don't know if she reads it, she guesses right, I guess.

BRENDA SCHULTZ-McCARTHY: Yeah, and when I do get a rally, she's aggressive and her serve is slow, and it's harder for me to block the ball. And there's not much speed. So I have to make the shot each time. And I was pushing it. Because there's not much pace on it, and sometimes she does hit it hard and I'm not ready for it. It's for me hard to play her. On clay I have a better chance, because I can hit my returns. I have more time to change my grips around. And this is a tough surface for me to play her. She returns good. And then my weapon gets kind of destroyed by her returns. And then I want to serve harder, and I miss a couple of second serves because I want to over do it, I do too much.

BRENDA SCHULTZ-McCARTHY: Yeah, it always gets to that point. I played the whole tournament great from the baseline. I break Maggie a couple of times, I got broken back, but I played well. Today the second set I had Love-40 and I couldn't convert because I was too -- what I said, I had trouble with the returns today. And when I did get in the rally, she's just very good from the baseline. She played very well lately indoors. And she takes the ball fast and she doesn't give me much time to hit my shots. Sometimes I want to over hit it. She's just a tough opponent. I've been working on my other shots a lot. And of course, I need more work. And it's hard to do -- it's hard because everybody tells me, yeah, you have a great serve. And it's hard to get the rest of my game as well as my serve. Steffi has a great forehand, yeah, she tries to develop the rest of her game, but it's never going to be like the rest of her game. Everybody has a great shot. You try to develop the rest of the game, but it's hard to get it the same as my serve. That's never going to happen.

BRENDA SCHULTZ-McCARTHY: I want to stay like this. I had a couple of coaches in the past. I learned a lot, I especially learned a lot from Juan Nunez and Stan Franker. But at the moment, I still enjoy being on my own and just versus hitting partners. The problem was she taught me a lot but sometimes on the court I couldn't do what they told me to do because I just got a little tight and I wanted to do it so bad that I got stiff and I couldn't do it. And on my own, normally my natural thinking works pretty well. And I love to work with the coach in the off weeks, what I'm doing right now, I'm just going to work with some people in the weeks that I don't have tournaments. But on the tournaments I like to be with a hitting partner and not think too much about my technique and my strokes. Because it's very hard to change anything during the tournament. Some people will be able to do it and I seem not too good.

BRENDA SCHULTZ-McCARTHY: She has a good chance, if she returns like that. Steffi has a good serve, too. And she normally likes to attack right away after a short return with her forehand. And if she's on the run, she has a hard time. I think Anke is going to play a good match. Of course Steffi has a very good slice. I didn't really have a lot of time to play my slice because I had the feeling every time I wanted to hit it I was on the run. And especially the whole tournament I've been hitting very good backhands, and maybe I was trying to do too much with my backhand today because it was working so good in the other matches. Steffi runs a lot of balls down. And she can put more pressure on Anke. If I get a short ball -- but against Anke it's all fast, and she takes it quick. So maybe Steffi is a little bit better on her feet to stand in front of the ball better and to let her run. And Anke has a hard time running and hitting those winners, and it's the same for Steffi. So it's the one who is the most aggressive is going to have the best chance tomorrow. And they will be.

BRENDA SCHULTZ-McCARTHY: I tried to come in and she passed me. I tried to stay at the baseline and she had the rally. I think she played a better game. And I've got to work on a couple of things. And it's just hard. Tennis you play on so many different surfaces and against Anke -- on this surface it's very hard for me. I practiced with her before in Leipzig, and she was killing me and I was kind of scared of that. I know she's going to play very good and I have the feeling I start off pretty well. And I was actually waiting for the break, and she got the break. And even in that game I had a couple of advantages to hold serve. It's tough. It's who gets the break. And she got it and that takes a little pressure off of her serve. And I have a feeling I have to break back. So we are very close, I think. And she was better today, definitely.

BRENDA SCHULTZ-McCARTHY: I don't know how Steffi's back is doing. I heard that it was doing pretty good. Steffi is in great shape. She moves a lot. She takes a lot of energy. And it's going to be a good match. Hopefully it's going to be a great final for the crowd, that they enjoy it. That will be nice.

BRENDA SCHULTZ-McCARTHY: That's hard from tennis. You do well, you win the first match against Maggie that could have ended same as Anke. I lost a lot of matches indoors to Maggie, because she returns so well. But she didn't do that aggressive on my strokes. She was not as aggressive as Maggie was. And I won my serve a little bit easier. And today, I mean, Anke was just going for it. And the minute she had it on her racket it was a winner. And I could only look at it. And with Maggie she didn't have the same grip on it that Anke had. And I had easier games. But for me it was a very good win against Maggie. And against Conchita she's No. 2 in the world, it was a good win, also. You always want to get in the finals. And maybe next year it happens. I have to work on a lot of stuff. And you can't have everything you want.