US OPEN

August 28, 2003

Nicole Pratt

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

NICOLE PRATT: Probably Australian Open, January.

NICOLE PRATT: Yeah, second round there. Kind of knew that the match was on my racquet today. Same situation: grand Slam. I thought I performed pretty well.

NICOLE PRATT: Like I said before, I haven't been looking at all who's in front of me. Just found out after I won I play Sugiyama. Certainly, you know, that's another player I actually feel quite sort of confident going in playing against. I know she's been doing particularly well the last sort of six months. I don't think she likes playing my style of game. Obviously, Grand Slam, big arena, like you said. It will be a good match.

NICOLE PRATT: Yeah, played her a number of times. I think we're either even or I'm ahead on head-to-heads.

NICOLE PRATT: I mix up the pace quite a lot, I get quite a lot of balls back. That's the type of game she doesn't like. She actually feeds off other people's pace. With me, she has to generate her own pace. She knows I'm going to stay there all day if I have to. Those type of players, I think she sort of gets a little nervous about.

NICOLE PRATT: I think, you know, looking at what type of player I am and making everything about what I do specific to me. How can I be a better tennis player? Not fitting into any mould. Just looking to get the most out of myself physically. I've tapped into the mental side, as well. You know, I've worked on aspects, technical aspects. Spent a hell of a lot of time November, December, doing a lot of technical stuff. When you play the better players, they expose those flaws. I knew I could go out and compete with, you know, Top 50 in the world, and I've done that the last sort of four or five years. But I want to finish my career knowing that I can beat, you know, Top 20, Top 10 players. This is what it's all about right now.

NICOLE PRATT: No, not at all, no. I mean, it's been a long sort of journey. It's been a lot of hard work. You know, we sat down and we looked, Noel and myself, "What are we trying to achieve here? What type of player are you setting out to be?" We just started from scratch, to be quite honest. I just had to make sure that I had the belief in myself and who I was working with to achieve that.

NICOLE PRATT: I pretty much couldn't hit a topspin backhand. I mean, you know, I can slice all day. I can look to run around my forehand. At the end of the day, technically, I could hit one out of five well. You know, I had to totally revamp that. My serve wasn't holding up against top players. Changed technically my serve. You know, they're big changes. They take a while to sort of... The Australian Open I was actually surprised at my results there, given how much technical changes had taken place in the couple of months prior to that. But now, you know, the building blocks are coming together.

NICOLE PRATT: Yeah, sometimes I get -- more so I -- I guess I look at younger players, and you get frustrated that they can't see it. You sort of just want to grab them and say, "Come on, you really need to develop your game first before you get out here and grind, grind, grind." No, for a while I got frustrated with that, but I actually just dropped it and said, "Right, this is the new me, this is a new career at whatever age, I don't care how old I am, this is what I want to go and do."

NICOLE PRATT: I didn't have direction. You know, I think there are very few people that believed in my ability, to be quite honest. Sort of everything came within myself. You know, 23, 24, 25, you know, you don't quite sort of have that. I always loved playing tennis, but I didn't have people backing me saying, "We believe you can be a Top 50 player, Top 20 player." I moved to the States five or six years ago, and it was a lot of hard work. It was almost getting away from Australia and starting anew. It's actually quite ironic I'm back in Australia starting new again. It's about recognizing the different times in your career that you need to make changes. You know, it's been a lot of change for me in the last 10 months.

NICOLE PRATT: I just lost intensity. You know, I just lost that little bit of belief, pretty much just finishing off the match. You know, she's a quality player. Maybe she saw that and thought, "I've got nothing to lose, 4-2 down." She played well again. You know, I think maturity-wise, to come out, to do what I did in the third set, which is just put the second set behind me, "Yeah, I lost it, pretty upset with myself," but then you drop it and move on. That's what I did.

NICOLE PRATT: Well, the generation I came through was like a mould generation. It was a group of players together, you all played kind of one way. At the time there was always one exceptional player, Tennis Australia, whoever, thought were the top players. The players behind that sort of kind of got left behind a little bit. I know now they're looking to make it more individualized for younger players. So, you know, hopefully that program gets up and running, they look to make it more specific to the individual. Not just tennis, but everything: fitness, mental, technique as well. It's all a package. If they're looking to do that, then they'll have success. If they're not looking to do that, they will not have success.

NICOLE PRATT: It's a little bit the big fish in the small pond in Aussie think sometimes. A lot of success, achievement is probably a little bit taken for granted. It's probably not realistic in the big wide world, the scheme of things. There's been a thing where younger players, and the people around those younger players, think, "They're on their way to success." It takes time. It takes commitment, hard work. Also, too, you're going to have ups and downs. That's what you were saying. I realize there's going to be ups and downs and I've learned that. It's about whether you really want to play tennis and you really want to get out here and grind and enjoy the competition. That's what I love to do. If any player loves to compete, they're going to do very well out here - talent or no talent.

NICOLE PRATT: No. But there's -- you know, I recognize there's a lot more talented people out there than me. You know, it's evident across the tour.

NICOLE PRATT: I've already decided, as soon as I'm done playing tennis I want to coach tennis. I love tennis. I want to be involved in tennis. I think I have a lot to offer to junior players or players actually coming out of Juniors and on to the pro circuit. I know the mistakes I made, the direction I didn't have. I would certainly embrace something like that, to do something like that. That's definitely something I want to do.

NICOLE PRATT: It depends what would come up. Certainly I wouldn't be involved in an institution if I didn't believe it didn't have the right philosophy. If that means going out and doing it on an individual basis, then that's what I'll do. I don't think conforming to a certain philosophy, if you don't believe in it, it's not the right thing to do for yourself and the player, as well.

NICOLE PRATT: Just depends. I would love to be able to do it in Australia. My passion is Australia, Australian junior players. I see how they're doing, how they're playing. You know, always look out for the younger girls, things like that. I've been training a lot with Christina Wheeler - I help when I can, identify the pitfalls. I enjoy doing it.

NICOLE PRATT: It has to be individualized. It has to be individualized, finding the right people to make it individualized. It's fine to say that that player has their fitness trainer, that person has their coach, that player works with the sports psychologist. But, are they the best in their field? Do they understand what this player is doing, how they're going about becoming a better player? That's a really hard question. At the end of the day, the player is accountable for that. I think too often the people around the player aren't accountable, and at the end of the day it all falls on the player. It's pretty tough to make those choices when you're young. That's sort of where someone like myself can pull in different resources, who I think the best are in their field, and I wouldn't have any hesitation in recommending different people that each player should work with.

NICOLE PRATT: Definitely. I had to find my own way. In the end, that's maybe why I am how I am today and enjoying what I'm doing. If it was all too easy, then I wouldn't be still here probably playing.

NICOLE PRATT: I don't know. I don't know much about like the men's program. I just sort of know about the women's program.

NICOLE PRATT: No, I'll leave that to himself.

NICOLE PRATT: I think everyone wants to do a lot of things.

NICOLE PRATT: I just want to play tennis.