U.S. OPEN

September 7, 1994

Mary Pierce

MARY PIERCE: Things, but not too much. I started off kind of slow in the beginning of the match, and that's something tough to do because I knew Jana was maybe a little nervous, so, you know, I mean she just played a great match, have to give her credit. She played real-- really tough. I was surprised she stayed on the baseline as much as she did. I thought she'd come in more and she played tough, never gave me free points.

MARY PIERCE: A little bit. I was hitting really -- I thought I was hitting great shots, and she kept hitting them back and deep. So it was really hard for me to finish the point.

MARY PIERCE: Sorry?

MARY PIERCE: At the French Open?

MARY PIERCE: No, I don't think so. I would not say that. I'm not as happy about how I played here the whole tournament except the match against Majoli the other day. That's the only match I really felt close to the French Open. I think at the French Open I was playing a little better than here.

MARY PIERCE: It was a mix of both things, of her playing really well and of me maybe being a little impatient was because she was getting so many balls back.

MARY PIERCE: No, because I've learned not to let those things bother me anymore. You know, it's just so tough, I was down 3-Love and came back to 3-2, fought back from Love-30 to 30-All and, you know, and then give away to miss two returns two of the shots, you know. It's kind of tough when she was up 4-2 and you had a chance to go, 3-All and same thing, you know, 5-4 had a chance to go 5-All. Yet those are games that I think before that I would convert, you know, that I would win those games. I think that's the difference in the match.

MARY PIERCE: Definitely. I mean, even when I was down 3-Love, that's why I started coming back. So, it definitely would have changed things in the match if I would have-- even things out at 3-All or 5-All.

MARY PIERCE: Yeah, I mean, she usually just doesn't stay on the baseline very much that I know of. She has good strokes from the baseline, but she always used to come to the net a lot, so, you know, she played really well.

MARY PIERCE: I don't see why not, if she plays as well as she did again against me today, I think she'll give Steffi a good match.

MARY PIERCE: No, never, uh-uh.

MARY PIERCE: It did?

MARY PIERCE: When?

MARY PIERCE: No, I mean, I just tried different things, because you know I kept hitting the ball and she kept hitting them back and playing well and seemed to be in a rhythm and I thought I had to change the pace a little, hit some high balls hit a little short or hit in some dropshots.

MARY PIERCE: I have heard about it, but I really don't know enough yet to be able to, you know, answer any questions or to give you any answers about that. I don't really know enough yet.

MARY PIERCE: I mean, yeah, I really don't see anything that I'm not satisfied with. I just go out and play my matches, basically. I'm not into very much the politics of what's going on.

MARY PIERCE: I know that I haven't felt like I'm playing my best, but you always think that, you know, you might wake up the next day and everything is going to be okay or you're hitting better. I am a little disappointed. Like I said before, I tried, there wasn't much I could do and Jana played a great match.

MARY PIERCE: No, I don't feel like she outthought me. I did play a couple of stupid points, which now, when I think about it, I knew I shouldn't have done it, but during the match, I guess I wasn't thinking very much.

MARY PIERCE: Well, I mean, no, that really didn't come into my mind, but I do know that sometimes she can get nervous. But those are the kinds of things you hope happen, because you can't rely on things like that to happen if you want to win a match or things like that. So, you know, I really try not to let those things play in a match.

MARY PIERCE: Everybody is human, everybody can do that, I guess.

MARY PIERCE: Uh-uh.

MARY PIERCE: Can we go to French questions, please?

MARY PIERCE: I could have maybe tried to come to the net a little more, but a couple of times I did, I didn't win the points and that didn't discourage me, but, I mean, I did try to come in a couple times.