TMS - ROME

May 15, 2001

Martina Navratilova

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: This is Rome, you have to be dramatic, no? (Laughter.)

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: Well, yeah, we let a whole lot of balls go down the middle last week, so it was better today, it was only a couple. And then we crashed actually, so that was good. I said, "Better we hit each other then, say, ahhh, back off." So, yeah, I'm getting there.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: Well, French, Eastbourne Wimbledon, Toronto, the US Open, and we'll see after that.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: How what?

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: Well, I think it's obviously a lot of fun. That's why I'm here, because, you know, I can always come to Rome and go sight-seeing and eat a lot. Actually, I can eat more if I don't play. So it's great to still be able to, you know, hold my own on the doubles court at least, and win once in a while. It wouldn't be much fun if I was losing a lot, but, you know, there's still enough to win a match here and there and have a good time.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: Who was on Center? (Laughter.)

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: Oh, well... (Laughing.) Well, I don't know what the other courts are doing, but it was nice to have the fans behind us anyway, yeah...

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: I think a little bit of everything, you know, just everything is just not as good as it was 10 years ago or 15 years ago, but it's better than when I was about 15 I guess. (Laughing.) Better than 30 years ago. Yeah, I think just a little bit of everything. I mean, technically, I feel better than I've ever been. But, you know, just a little bit slower in responding to the ball, a little bit slower getting there. I mean, if I ran the 40 meters, you know, I don't think I lost more than two meters over the 40 meters, but that's still enough, you know. And on the court it's maybe this much, but that's enough.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: Well, I mean, I just don't see any serve-and-volleyers, and that's what I was pretty much. And there's, you know, Pat Rafter, you know... (Laughter.) But he's got better legs. Better-looking.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: How was my feeling?

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: Well, we have to communicate. I think last week when we played we didn't do enough crossing, and I was not enough of a quarterback. So I think, you know, I need to take charge, and I did that most of the time and sometimes she took charge, so we were much better at communicating today, and we have to keep doing that. But Aranxta really held me up. I mean, she played great today. I thought she returned really well the whole match, and we both served pretty well and they returned well. But we had to keep mixing it up. With these girls, they return so well that if you just play normal, you know, they get grooved and keep hitting that cross-court return. So we have to keep talking because we have to keep creating new situations. So...

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: That I what?

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: Oh, that I like the least?

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: Waiting. Waiting for matches, you know, rain delays, waiting at the airports, waiting for your luggage. You know, waiting. When there's time that's sort of dead time, so... But that's okay, you know, small price to pay for having fun and getting paid for it. It's a good thing. And I didn't miss it, by the way. When I was away, I did not miss it. But when I came back, it was nice, so...

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: When I'm waiting for my luggage? (Laughing.)

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: No. No, I mean you can't do anything in that time. It's like waiting in line for bread, you know? It's like you sort of just stay there, maybe talk to the person next to you.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: Well, I enjoy most giving money away and least making it. But I think the one that I like the most, which I haven't done last year because tennis got in the way, is flying.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: (Laughing.)

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: I don't know. You need to talk to them. They don't tell me what they think. Some, I would practice with and they want to take a picture afterwards. So, yeah, you get a little bit of that. But I think most of them just regard me as a peer. So it was funny getting -- the other day I didn't have my badge. I went out and tried to get back in, and the guy said, "Where's your pass? Where's your pass?" I felt like saying, "What, do I look too old to play tennis here?" I'm like, "I'm Martina, I don't need a pass!" (Laughing.) So I got a pass. But it's more likely I would hang out with the parents than the players, yeah. (Laughter.)

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: You know, I didn't know I didn't win here until you reminded me. (Laughing.)

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: I guess I was in the finals enough. Yeah, that's too bad. Especially the last couple of years here, my fans were just amazing. But by then I was not playing as well as I did in the '80s. Yeah, that's too bad. Maybe I'll win the doubles. (Smiling).

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: The Martinez one, I had chances. I remember set point and I missed that forehand, yep, forehand volley. Yeah, if I had won that first set, I think I would have won the match. But I didn't play -- the best tennis years I didn't play here, so... Unfortunately. For whatever reason.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: No. I don't know. I don't know. No. You know, there's over, what, 1500 or something? I don't know which one. It's hard to pick. Let's see, second round at... (Laughing.) No. Probably beating my grandmother, yeah. That was big. She's a good player.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: Yep, '73. Yeah, I remember beating Nancy. That was like 3 and 3 or something. I remember beating Masthoff on Court 6 here - it was '73 I think, 7-6 in the third, 14-12 in the tiebreak. Yeah, that was a big match. I kept serve and volleying, I kept coming in, she kept passing me, and 13-12 I was serving, I stayed back, she was so surprised, she dumped the return in the net. That was a stroke of genius on my part because I had no idea what I was doing. But, yeah, I remember beating Nancy on clay. That was big.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: Well, she was like 10 or 11 when I heard about it first, so she was not a big player yet. So I thought, "Oh, it's just another parent that named their daughter after me." I had a taxi driver, a Romanian taxi driver in New York that told me he named his daughter after me. I thought, Oh, this was the fourth or fifth kid I heard about being named after me. Then she turns out to be No. 1 in the world, so, yeah, it's pretty amazing.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: Birth. (Laughing.) No, it's still in the works - being a very good person. That's still a work in progress.