TOSHIBA TENNIS CLASSIC

August 9, 1998

Mary Pierce

Q. Please tell us about the ingury. How did it affect your play?

MARY PIERCE: Definitely, you know. I was quite upset about it after the match; not before. I tried to do what I could with it during the match. But afterwards, yeah, frustrated. I'm disappointed because I've been having a great week, feel like I'm getting better and better every day. That's part of the sport, that's part of tennis, things like that can happen. It's out of your control.

MARY PIERCE: This morning, at the end of my practice, when I was hitting serves, I hit one serve and felt a pain in my leg. I think it's my adductor, either my quad, groin. Pretty high, pretty deep. It's a tough spot to really get to.

MARY PIERCE: Everything. You know, serve, just moving. You know, to play against someone like Lindsay, you need to be at the top of your game. You need to feel like you can do what you need to do to compete, give yourself a chance. You know, I have to give Lindsay credit. It's always difficult to play against someone you know that's injured. She had to come on the court and make me move. She did.

MARY PIERCE: Yeah, you never know. Like I said, I always go on the court with a positive attitude, I believe in myself. I just try to go out there and realize, you know, see what I can do, try to keep her in rallies, hit a few dropshots, try to make her move so she doesn't make me move too much. It's really frustrating.

MARY PIERCE: I knew it was going to be difficult from the beginning. I tried to see what I could do with it, make the best out of it.

MARY PIERCE: I think the trainers and doctors, they gave me treatment before the match, iced it. I had it wrapped so it wouldn't get worse. If I did feel it was getting bad, I would have thought about it then. Never got to that point where it was bad enough where I couldn't walk or couldn't play. But it was at the point where it was annoying, it was bothering me.

MARY PIERCE: Just anti-inflammatories.

MARY PIERCE: I already had my leg wrapped underneath, had it taped up. Then the trainer gave me like one of those wraps, groin wrap, with like Velcro. Tried that for added support. But it didn't make any difference.

MARY PIERCE: I don't know. I guess everybody does to some degree. Everybody has always got something. No one's ever like perfect. You don't have some little thing here and there. You try to keep the momentum, keep it strong.

MARY PIERCE: Well, hopefully I'll get back, see how I feel tomorrow morning, continue treatment, hopefully it will get better.

MARY PIERCE: Pretty frustrating. I tried to not let that really play a role during the match. Just tried to kind of take my mind off t. It's really hard to do because I was unable to get to a lot of balls. That was frustrating. I really feel like I've been competing well this week, playing well. You know, just did the most I could do. It's disappointing for me. Kind of admit it's a blow in my spirit. I want to get to a ball, but I can't.

MARY PIERCE: Definitely. I feel I've had a great week. I feel like it's a great tournament for me. My first tournament back since Wimbledon. My first tournament on hard court, getting ready for the US Open. So I think I played a lot of great matches this week, I've learned a lot, I know what I need to work on for the future. Hopefully I will get better. Looking forward to my next tournament and the US Open.

MARY PIERCE: Well, like I was just saying, consistency is the thing that's missing in my game. I think that's improving. I think I showed that this week. Even when I was down, even if I'm losing, that, you know, I can just stay calm, focused for each point, point by point. That was always difficult for me. I think I've had a lot of practice at that this week.

MARY PIERCE: No. It's the finals. You just have one match to play. I convinced myself just to play and try ignore any pain or whatever, play the whole match. You know, I don't know what could happen. I don't wish anything bad on anybody. But like Venus, she got hurt. You always have to hope that you always have a chance, never give up. That's what I did today.

MARY PIERCE: That's true. You never know what can happen. If I would have had a chance to go 3-2, I was able to get the second set, one shot, one point here and there, it could be 3-All.

MARY PIERCE: Well, I don't think there's really anything that I want to change in my game, just to improve and to add. You know, we've only been working for about a month now. Good hard work pays off. We've been working hard for a month and a half before coming here, so things are going well.