	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 21, 2001

Kim Clijsters

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

THE MODERATOR: First question for Kim, please.
Q. Do you think you wanted to play well too much today?

KIM CLIJSTERS: No. It's not because I'm playing Lindsay Davenport that I want to play -- like, I want to play well every match. I just played very bad today and, you know, like I tried but I just didn't feel my legs. I wasn't moving well. Just didn't feel the ball.

Q. She served incredibly well today, a very high serve percentage. Do you think that affected you?

KIM CLIJSTERS: No, she's always, like she always serves well so I knew that. The other times when I played her she played good as well, but I was just a little bit more -- like I could read her balls a little bit better then, and I couldn't make, like, some more returns in. But today I wasn't seeing the ball. I just couldn't, you know, just -- I wasn't feeling good out there today.

Q. Can you explain why you didn't feel good out there?

KIM CLIJSTERS: I've got no idea. I mean I've been -- my other matches were not great as well, and even the match that I won 6-0, 6-1. It was an easy score but still I was like -- I was not hitting the ball that clean and everything. I was still not feeling that I played as good as I played in Sydney or in the Hopman Cup. So, in the mixed -- in the doubles as well. I was -- it was so-so. So I haven't been playing my best tennis here.

Q. Did you watch the matches the other night on TV? Did you sleep well?

KIM CLIJSTERS: No, I went to bed at 10 o'clock.

Q. You didn't know the result?

KIM CLIJSTERS: No, no.

Q. Ubaldo Scanagatta, La Nazione, Italy. You seemed to be pretty flat and more than usual, you didn't fight. I mean we didn't get the impression you were fighting.

KIM CLIJSTERS: Yeah, that's right. That's how I felt. Like I tried to like pump myself up, but I tried to give myself -- speak some good words into my head. But it just didn't feel like I could do it. I mean, my legs were not -- my legs were not doing like they normally move and I was hitting the ball later than I normally did. So I couldn't -- I didn't have the power I think today.

Q. Do you think that mentally you should have tried to at least take some time between points and try to, you know, to adjust and change?

KIM CLIJSTERS: Yeah. Well, I think -- I don't think that would have made a difference. I mean I tried. That's what I did in the beginning and it didn't work. Then I had to try something else. And, yeah, well, it's not that I'm playing No. 200 in the world; I'm playing the No. 2 in the world. It's not that they -- maybe if she would have played a little bit worse, then I would have maybe come -- like had a chance to come back in the match. But I think I won't have that chance today.

Q. Do you think you were unable to think actually, when you were there anyway - to react differently, to change strategy, to try to play some moonballs just for a change?

KIM CLIJSTERS: No, I'm not -- I always stick to my game. You'll never see me hit moonballs or anything. No. I don't think that's a good idea.

Q. How much do you think it has to do with just experience in terms of getting to a Grand Slam? You're coming to the second week, you have the sense out there that Lindsay was sort of almost -- her game's almost starting to warm up and you've had to play some really great tennis to get here so far.

KIM CLIJSTERS: I think that's an advantage for her as well. She's always used to being longer in tournaments and I think that I've -- I need some days off at the moment. I didn't have a day off since the Hopman Cup. I've been playing, practicing every day quite hard. Especially in this weather it's quite hard. It gets a lot of power out of you. So I think after Sydney, I had to take that one or two days off I think.

Q. Not just this game, but looking more at the big picture, if you look at your game at the moment, what do you see as the difference between you and the top handful of players in the world?

KIM CLIJSTERS: Well, if you saw me play in Sydney and Hopman Cup, I don't think there was a big difference. Maybe the consistency was a big difference. But like the way I played this week, there was a big difference. That's what I have to work on, that I can keep the level that I had in Sydney and at the Hopman Cup, that I have to keep that up.

Q. And can you be more specific in terms of when you say consistency, is it the amount of mistakes you make, the shot selection? What are the sort of things?

KIM CLIJSTERS: It's 'cause I -- the thing that I try to work on is I try to move the ball -- like the player around a lot. Not to hit, like, too much to the same corner of the court, and I'm trying to get very fit so I don't have any difficulties with long rallies. So I just have to work on, you know, different things at the moment.

Q. Sometimes even if you have your ball in your skirt, you still ask the ballboy for the ball. Why is that?

KIM CLIJSTERS: Sorry?

Q. Sometimes when you have to serve, you have one ball, and let's say you miss the first serve. You have the second ball in your skirt, okay, under your skirt. You still ask the ballboy for the ball. I saw it twice today.

KIM CLIJSTERS: Who? Me? I don't think so. Not with me today.

Q. I'll show you the tape then.

KIM CLIJSTERS: Okay. (Laughter.)

Q. You said you went to bed last night at 10 o'clock and didn't know the results of Lleyton's match before you went to bed. I assume you found out this morning before you played?

KIM CLIJSTERS: Yes.

End of FastScripts....

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297