AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 14, 2006

Mary Pierce

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

MARY PIERCE: I hope so. You never know. I come into every tournament confident, feeling ready to play, eager to compete. You know, why not? You never know what can happen. The field is very open. There's a lot of strong girls playing well. There's a lot of depth in the game. You never know. We'll see in the end of two weeks.

MARY PIERCE: No, not really. Like I just said, it's really open, but at the same time we have so many girls that are playing so well. It's going to be really exciting, I think, to actually see how the tournament unfolds.

MARY PIERCE: I'm happy. I love Martina. Played doubles with her for a year in 2000. Had a great time. I'm personally just happy to see her back because I missed her. I enjoy her. I'm happy for her.

MARY PIERCE: I don't know. I haven't seen her playing, you know, lately. Beginning is always tough more physically. Mentally, as well. It's tough in the beginning to come back. I think in about two or three months it will be easier to kind of tell. She's a champion. She's a great tennis player. Like I said, it's pretty open right now, so it's a good time actually for her to be coming back, seeing if she can be back in the top again.

MARY PIERCE: Just basically it's always the same, not because it's just a different number of the year or day, every day for me is pretty much the same. I always try to improve my game and myself as a person. Just do my best and see what happens. Of course, you know, I can tell you specific things like I did last year ranking-wise, tournament-wise, things like that. I think those are kind of secondary. If I always do my best, everything else will kind of follow. Of course, I have goals. Of course, I have dreams in a certain way. I'd like to be No. 1. I've never done that in my career before. And play well at Wimbledon. Hopefully make a finals there in singles. I've never been in the finals in the singles in that event. Kind of looking for new experiences, things that I haven't done in a career of I guess 17 years, and to have firsts that are still achievable is exciting and motivating.

MARY PIERCE: How far do I need to go? What do you mean?

MARY PIERCE: Well, no one likes to lose. Everyone wants to win, every person that's here competing in this event. And there's only one that comes out a winner in the end. That's just how it is. I know there's a plan already set in place for me. As long as I just do my best, that's all I can really ask of myself. I enjoy it. I love what I do.

MARY PIERCE: The only thing that I can remember is last time I played her was in Canada, and I won that match. I think it was over a year ago. That's all I can think of tennis-wise.

MARY PIERCE: No, not at all.

MARY PIERCE: Yeah. I always believe that I'm always doing the best I possibly can all the time. There's nothing I can think of. I wouldn't do anything differently.