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US OPENSeptember 4, 1998Kimberly Po-MesserliFlushing Meadows, New York Q. You have had some big wins -- you have beaten some Top-10 players. How does this rate? KIMBERLY PO: It is always exciting. I mean, every time, it is not like, oh, well, win again. No, I mean, it is always -- it is the furthest I have gotten here and so that means a lot because I have beaten seeds, I think in the first round of Grand Slams. So it is nice to win in the third round, beat a seed. Since I haven't played first half of the year it is kind of nice to win here. Q. Can you describe what happened with the shoulder surgery? KIMBERLY PO: My cartilage, they just shaved a little bit of my cartilage off. It was arthroscopic. Q. How long did it put you out? KIMBERLY PO: Six months. Q. (Inaudible.) KIMBERLY PO: I didn't hit a ball from November until April. Q. Drove you stir crazy? KIMBERLY PO: No. I enjoyed it. I have never been home that long. It was very nice. I think ever since I was young never been home that long. Q. Probably can always tell when you are in love because you are playing well? KIMBERLY PO: Oh, you talked to Robert. He always says that to me. If I am happy, yeah, if I am happy in my life, obviously I am going to do better in tennis. If -- that just goes with everything, if I am not enjoying what I am doing, you can tell, yeah, I have been struggling a little bit, kind of waving with what I want to do. But it hasn't been hard here to be motivated and to know what I want to do these two weeks. Q. So you have some players don't have much of a problem leaving their personal problems off the court once they get on court. But you have got a bit -- KIMBERLY PO: It is not like I bring them with me, but it is just my overall feel, I guess, it is not so bad anymore because, yeah, I am concentrating more like if I am going to play, that is my decision and no one else's. Whatever happens out there, I might have a bad day and I am not going to -- that is just the way it goes. Q. Who is coaching you now? KIMBERLY PO: Donnie Young. Q. Are you driven to get back to Top-20 where you once were, driven to beat the players you were once beating or you have that sort of cliched Southern California attitude that, well, you know, whatever happens here is okay with me? KIMBERLY PO: That is a good question for me. That is what I am struggling with a bit: Is this what I want to do? I mean, to be honest with you. That is what I said here at the US Open I don't have a problem motivating myself, but I -- yeah, I am going back and forth on it. If I decide to keep playing next year, then my answer to that will be, yes, then I am driven and I am, you know, that is what I want to do. If I am not playing anymore, then the answer to that would be no. Q. Does it matter how well you play? Does that factor into your decision at all? KIMBERLY PO: No. Q. It doesn't? KIMBERLY PO: No. Q. When you beat a Top-20 player like you did today -- KIMBERLY PO: Yeah, no, it doesn't matter. I mean, I love it, but it is not like I am -- that I am suddenly like, okay, I am going to keep playing. No. Q. What else is there for you then in life? KIMBERLY PO: What else is there? Q. Yes. KIMBERLY PO: Just everything else, I mean, tennis is for me a way to learn about myself, like to grow, but that is also my problem, trying to decide what I want to do. I mean, if I had something else that -- I could go back to school or do -- I love dogs. I want to try and do something with dogs, but yeah, I am trying to -- it is kind of hard to figure all that out. Q. Do you want to be like the first person who trained a dog to play tennis? How many dogs do you have? KIMBERLY PO: Two. Q. What are they? KIMBERLY PO: They are muts. Saved from, you know, you adopt them from someone. Q. What is the spectrum of stuff that you are interested in? KIMBERLY PO: Dogs. Dogs is No. 1. Being with my friends. Being at home. Computers. But that might be because I travel so much that is my communication to being back home with my friends. I enjoy going out dancing, things that I try to do all the time so that then I don't feel like I am suffering when I am on the road or something, that I am not doing what I want to do. Q. Do you feel boxed in by the Tour? KIMBERLY PO: What do you mean? Q. Does it keep you from examining other parts of your life? Does it keep you from exploring other parts of life that you seem to be thinking about? I think it can very easily -- KIMBERLY PO: It depends on -- I think, yeah, it is so easy to just get caught up in your own little thing and your own little world and just the Tour. It is very easy because they make things very easy for you to feel like you are the center of the world and no one else matters. Q. Would you prefer fewer mandatory tournaments, a way to be on the Tour and compete in the rankings, but still spend significant time away, would that keep you going longer maybe? KIMBERLY PO: Maybe for me, yeah. Like a season? Or do you mean just like certain tournaments a week? Q. No, some players have talked about, boy, if only you had to play in -- KIMBERLY PO: You know what, that is their choice, they can do that if they want to. They only want to play 14 tournaments, why not. You do well in those 14 tournaments. Q. But you mess up in one all of a sudden -- KIMBERLY PO: But then you have made that choice, so that is -- I mean, that is another thing I need to look at. I might not play as much, if that is something that is important to me to be home more and to have a balanced life, but I would still like to play. Then I will make sure I do that. Q. Can you talk about how the Tour has changed just in the last few years, this new generation of players and really what seems to be a real lift in the level of play? Is that something from the outside is also noticeable? KIMBERLY PO: Yeah, I mean, you go to a tournament and first round, you look at every match and there are just unbelievable matches, every match, every matchup. Before you kind of have had maybe a couple of good matches, but now I mean, it is not like you look at the draw going, okay, am I in a good spot, you just -- I mean, I just know, all the summer tournaments I just knew from the first round on -- Q. It doesn't matter almost -- KIMBERLY PO: Right you are playing someone in the Top-20, Top-30 right away. Q. Who out of the teenagers obviously have impressed you? Obviously Hingis, but who -- KIMBERLY PO: I really don't watch anyone. Q. Who that you have played, that you have come up against and said, boy, that is -- she is going to be great? KIMBERLY PO: The only one I played -- I played Serena in Moscow. Q. You beat Serena? KIMBERLY PO: Yeah, that was -- I mean, you could definitely tell she had so much energy, but didn't quite know how to control it, I'd say. She'd hit one winner, and then she'd hit literally the fence and I mean, I could tell she just -- she had a ton of talent. I was wondering if she'd be able to figure out how to play which obviously she has. Q. Have you seen her game just completely evolve in that year? KIMBERLY PO: I didn't -- Q. You haven't watched? KIMBERLY PO: No. I played Lucic when she was young like a couple years ago and I could tell, she took the ball early. She -- and Laura Granville I played in the second round, she is a good player, as well as has a good mind, I think. She is very, very even. You don't see her going out there -- Q. Having a good mind is an underrated aspect? KIMBERLY PO: Yeah, and she is very nice too which was a nice -- Q. Then she will never go for it? KIMBERLY PO: Yeah she can. Q. I would guess some players who crack the Top-20, age 16 first thing they are thinking is I want to keep going, Top-10, Top 5. Do you remember your emotions when you hit 16? KIMBERLY PO: (Pause.) Q. Apparently not? KIMBERLY PO: Not really. I try not to base my worth or my achievements or my success on what number I have become. Q. That is a nice number because it gets you a seeding at the Grand Slams. KIMBERLY PO: Yeah, that is a good number. That was nice. Yeah, I'd get an extra pass at Wimbledon or the US Open. That is okay so now I will get four instead of three, yeah. Yeah. But, you know, there is a little more pressure because if you lose, it is not -- you don't just kind of like hide. You can lose in the first round of a Grand Slam and if you are not seeded, no one really notices, but if you are seeded, that will come up somewhere, so -- Q. What if you happen to beat Monica Seles next round? There will be a lot of attention put on you then. Will that change your mind at all? KIMBERLY PO: No. Q. What if you won the tournament? KIMBERLY PO: No. I mean,. Q. Come on, it wouldn't be hard to retire to say, you know what, this isn't what I want to do after winning the US Open? You get all the dogs you want. KIMBERLY PO: I could have a dog farm. No, I'd still -- there is still things that I would have to deal with. I mean, I am not one of these girls that loves tennis. Q. But still after working so hard for so long -- KIMBERLY PO: Yeah. Q. -- To have it finally bear fruit - not that it hasn't borne fruit before - but to finally have it - it would seem very difficult to say at this moment in time, this isn't exactly what I want to be doing, so never mind that I have finally reached this point, I am going to go start again, especially when there is no particular thing you really start again with? KIMBERLY PO: For me if that is not the thing that makes me happiest, then I am not going to do it. Q. As for right now then there assumption is, that it still is or you wouldn't be here right now? KIMBERLY PO: Yeah, I am still trying to figure that out, yeah. Q. Who are your parents, American born? KIMBERLY PO: My dad is from Singapore and my mom is Japanese-American, like third generation, born here, so.... My dad has been here since he was 17. Q. How old is your mom? KIMBERLY PO: (Laughs) 52, I think. Something like that. Q. Did she have -- what happened during World War II? KIMBERLY PO: Her parents were put in the internment camps. Q. Here? KIMBERLY PO: In the States? Q. In the States? KIMBERLY PO: Yeah. Yeah. Q. Was she born in an internment camp? KIMBERLY PO: No. No, she wasn't. But my grandfather, actually they got out because then he was teaching judo like he found a way to get out. Q. Was it in California or the north west? KIMBERLY PO: California. Q. Are they still living, your grandparents? KIMBERLY PO: No. Q. Did your parents receive part of that settlement? KIMBERLY PO: No, because they weren't alive. My grand -- they only did it if you were actually alive. I mean, the people that were in the camps. Thanks. End of FastScripts…. |
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