HOME DEPOT CHAMPIONSHIPS

November 6, 2002

Chanda Rubin

Q. How was the court playing out there today? Was it fast or slow compared to the other ones?

CHANDA RUBIN: Well, I mean, it's fairly slow as compared to courts overall, but practice courts are pretty much the same, so it wasn't a big change.

CHANDA RUGIN: Just didn't start off loose enough. Didn't serve well at all. That was the first thing. I had many chances on her serve, break points that I didn't capitalize on. I didn't play the big points well at all. I didn't give myself a chance to win the match.

CHANDA RUBIN: I was feeling pretty good, hitting the ball pretty well, and even in that match overall I was hitting the ball well. I didn't play smart on the big points. You know, a few shots that you have to make at different times in a match that I probably didn't make any of them, so it was tough to really have a shot, you know, playing the points that I did.

CHANDA RUBIN: It's definitely been a fairly good year coming into this tournament. I only had half a year of tournaments, so it was great for me to be here and have a shot out there today. I'm just disappointed at this time that I didn't take better advantage of it and play a better match. I will put it into perspective a little bit later.

CHANDA RUBIN: Probably that it was a second injury, and I spent the better part of last year as well injured and trying to come back from the injury. It was tough this year having to do the same thing, and at the beginning of the year, knowing I needed another surgery and have another half a year the way that I did last year. I think that was the toughest part about it. You know, I just had to put that into perspective as well. You do what you can to get back and get healthy and look forward to playing.

CHANDA RUBIN: Fairly. I mean, there is days like today that could have been much better, so I have had a few of those over the course of the year, and I'm just going to try to, at a certain point, look towards next year and, you know, starting out, getting fit and trying to start out the year and be healthy. I just look forward to that.

CHANDA RUBIN: No, I hadn't.

CHANDA RUBIN: She played a pretty good match, pretty clean. It's tough, you know, to say that as well, because I feel like there were some chances I had that I didn't capitalize on. I gave her too many points. She played well enough.

CHANDA RUBIN: I wouldn't say there is a secret or anything like that. I don't know that anyone can say that. No one has beaten her consistently this year. She's still won the last three Grand Slams. You have to go out there and feel confident and good and moving well, hitting the ball well. It depends on your game. You have to have a certain amount of confidence going into the match.

CHANDA RUBIN: I only played her once before. I hadn't played her before. I had not previously played her and had a lot of experience with her game besides just hitting with her here and there. It's not really something I can say conclusively. It's this, this and that. It's a match where things came together for me at the right time. I felt I had the game to beat her, enough game to match up and win. I think that's the most important thing going onto the court. You have to feel like you can win.

CHANDA RUBIN: I think first rounds are always a little bit tough. It's tough for everybody. I mean, it's not a whole lot of players that come right out of the gate and play their best tennis in the first round. You have to look at it that way, and I mean, it's a match where, obviously, it's a tough first round, the toughest first round you're going to get. You're in the championships and you expect that when you come here.

CHANDA RUBIN: I think a little atmosphere is always good. In this particular arena you didn't have a whole lot of it because it was fairly empty. I mean, we play in different conditions. Sometimes there is a huge crowd. Sometimes the crowd isn't quite so big. As I said in the previous questions, it's the same for both players. You just have to try to find different things to sort of get yourself going. It's not always going to be the crowd. You're not always going to get everything from the crowd.

CHANDA RUBIN: At the moment, no. I mean, I'm focused on this match, and so that's what I'm having immediate thoughts about at the moment. I mean, that was a shot that I thought of for probably a couple weeks after the US Open, but you know, I don't think it just comes down to one shot, you know, in a match. There are big points and points you need to win and where you have to play a higher percentage and that type of thing, but I don't think a match comes down to one shot. It was an opportunity on that shot, and then I had another opportunity on the next one. I didn't play quite as relaxed at that point as I needed to. She also came up with a couple shots that she needed to on the next couple of points, so it's a combination of things. You just have to learn from it and get better for the next time.

CHANDA RUBIN: At the moment, I don't know. I'm not up to grading it right now. You know, I mean, overall it's been a good year. You try to keep that in perspective. The biggest thing is I'm healthy, at the end of the year I'm healthy. That's something I haven't been in the last couple -- probably the last two years I haven't been healthy at the end. That's the one thing that I think is great.

CHANDA RUBIN: I still take care of it. I still try to get the work that I need on my body after a match to be able to continue, you know, in the tournament. If I have a match the next day or if I have a day off the next day, I try to get a little work on it. It has been fine. It has been feeling good, and the main thing is I've just been trying to get overall fitness and keep everything else strong and make sure I keep focusing on the rest of my body as well. I don't want to have an injury somewhere else as a result of not being balanced, so that's been the most important thing.