US OPEN

September 9, 2004

Leander Paes

Martina Navratilova

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: Well, we had breakpoints on Todd's serve, every one of his service games in the second set. They had breakpoints in one game. They break, and then the super tiebreak, you might as well flip a coin. It's very much potluck. You get ahead in that, and you just never recover. So it's, you know, it's one of those cases where we outplayed them for the match, and we lose. It's pretty much what happened in our doubles as well. Pretty frustrating for me. But we played well. They played well when it mattered. Got the one break and played well in the breaker.

LEANDER PAES: It was a rough day out there today. It was very gusty. The wind was blowing in all directions. It wasn't a constant wind, so that made it a bit more difficult to serve. Normally we know which ends we're serving from. With the wind blowing like that, you have no idea which side you're serving from. No excuses out there. The wind was the same for all four of us, but it definitely made it a lot tougher to play today.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: Consistent. Very consistent but not enough wins certainly, so far. I mean, just won one tournament. Lee and I were in semifinals here, finals in Melbourne. Had matchpoints against Black-Black at Wimbledon, semifinals of doubles in two other Grand Slams. I mean, consistent but not -- certainly the results haven't been as good as I thought they would be, but I'm playing better tennis than I did last year. That's all I can go on. The effort's there and, you know, the game is better, but the results are worse. So that's how sometimes it works out. Sometimes you don't get a fair result. But that's how the game goes.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: I have no idea right now. So I just want to go home and rest. I've been in Sarasota for all of two and a half weeks this year. I'll be there two and a half weeks the next few weeks. I'm excited about that. Hopefully Ivan won't hit us too hard. It's bearing down that way. We escaped Charley just barely. It's kind of now I'm worried more about the weather than anything else.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: Yeah, pretty much. I'll have some things to do here, I'll be here till Monday. But then I'm planning on going there. What worries me more than anything is the election. Four more years of Bush will be a total disaster for our country and I'm really, really, really, really worried. The one thing I would like to tell people is find out about the issues that matter to you, that are important to you and the country, and vote, vote, vote, vote. Not enough people vote in this country and it drives me mad. So that's what really worries me more than anything. It's not my game, it's the election.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: I don't do it for the results, I never did. Certainly don't do it for the money. Somebody somewhere said I needed to play to make money. I'm like, "I'd be better off doing speeches. Make a whole lot more money doing that." I don't need to make the money, period. I enjoy the game, I love the process, I love working with my coach Stefan Ortega. Being on the court with Leander is a treat every single time we play. I enjoy competing. I enjoy competing against myself to see how well I can play and how well I can handle everything. The results haven't he met the expectations, but then the expectations really were just to have a good time, do the best I can and, you know, stay passionate about the game. I mean, I love the game, and that's what, I think, comes across more than anything. And that's the message I'd like to give people. Be passionate about what you do, and that way the results don't matter, because you enjoy every single moment of what you're doing. If you're in there just to win, that moment goes by very quickly. So you're happy for five minutes, but really the world doesn't care. It's really what's inside that matters. That's why Lee, I think, and I have such a good time playing together. We're in it exactly for the same reason: We love playing the game.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: You did?

LEANDER PAES: Me?

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: Oh, I thought you were talking about Leander.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: Well, I'm not thinking about it because I don't know if it was. So, you know, I'm not definite one way or the other. I don't get very nostalgic about anything. Because I'll be back anyway. I just might not be playing. But because I've been playing so many more years than I expected to play, I think maybe that's why I don't get so, you know, emotional about it. I mean, again, it's about playing the game everywhere, not just the US Open, not just Wimbledon. Those are very important events, but it's, again, playing the whole year, playing everywhere. I give my best effort everywhere I go, whether it's Vienna or Eastbourne or the US Open. And so I get just as upset when we lose a match somewhere else, depending on how you lose or how you win. So this might be my last US Open; it might not. I don't know. And, you know, we'll go from there. I'm not worried about it one way or another. I'll be back. I'll be here one way or another.