PACIFIC LIFE OPEN

March 9, 2003

Emmanuelle Gagliardi

MODERATOR: Questions, please.

EMMANUELLE GAGLIARDI: I like the conditions here. I think the court fits me good. With this ball, I think it just matches my game. I've been playing good since the beginning of the year. Sometime just didn't win the match, but I have the feeling I was improving my game. Here I have some few wins in a row. It just confirmed that my tennis is improving.

EMMANUELLE GAGLIARDI: The courts, I told you, are pretty slow. I don't know, I just feel fine. There is not so much wind. I like this place, like many others. It seems like I have pretty good - how you call it - record here with matches and wins.

EMMANUELLE GAGLIARDI: Yeah, it was the shoulder. I already felt this morning a little bit during warm-up. I tried to treat it before the match. I don't know, it was like it was a little bit shut down and it was not really reacting. I was stuck from the upper part of the thoracic spine. She just unstuck me from there. It took a few games for it to really get better, then it was fine.

EMMANUELLE GAGLIARDI: No, I think it took me two games to get -- to have the feeling back again, and from there on it was fine. I had three breakpoint at 5-All, didn't play the first one very well, then she served well, and it was back again an advantage and deuce. Tiebreaker come up, and I think I played pretty solid, pretty consistent, good points in the tiebreaker.

EMMANUELLE GAGLIARDI: Yeah, because it was this call, the overrule. I mean, the game was almost mine, then I was down a break point. Especially after -- after a tiebreak like this, you want to keep ahead on the score, and keep here as low as possible in confidence. I really tried to fight as hard as I could to keep that game. It just took a long time to have it back.

EMMANUELLE GAGLIARDI: It was many. It was a real long game. From there, I think her level, her game, stood a little bit back and it was a little bit easier for me.

EMMANUELLE GAGLIARDI: Well, as I told you, I think I did a good job to hold that game. I tried to keep my level there. I think she - how you say it - she played a little bit worse, making a little bit more unforced error. I think her running was a lot worse. She's a player who really puts a lot of his game on running. Once she was running less, it was easier for me to play. I didn't expect it, but I was happy it was happening.

EMMANUELLE GAGLIARDI: I think it's wonderful for her if that's what she wants from her life, when you are 22 and you turn a page of your life which you did so well. I think her expectation has always been so high that she didn't want to come back and was not up to the task to be No. 1 again. Maybe she didn't feel like it anymore. So I think she was right. As long as you make a decision, turn over the page, and you are happy, then ...

EMMANUELLE GAGLIARDI: I don't know why she did, the real reason. Sorry, but I don't always trust newspaper, so I rather speak with her before I say anything. But I think it's just fine. She looks happy.

EMMANUELLE GAGLIARDI: No, it was not.

EMMANUELLE GAGLIARDI: Well, I think a little bit shocking because she was our No. 1 player, always been. When you have such a good player like this, you don't want, as a country, to lose her. She did so well, I mean, fine with that.

EMMANUELLE GAGLIARDI: No. She was being really nice to me and helped me out, with her and her mother. She been a really good friend even outside of the tennis court. I really treasurer our friendship. But, of course, she's been something positive for Swiss tennis.

EMMANUELLE GAGLIARDI: I think anybody. It's not where you were born, it's what you put into your job, the effort and your talent. It's just been really nice for such a small country be on top of the tennis for so many years. And I think she really teach a lot of thing to women's tennis. I think she was just something positive.

EMMANUELLE GAGLIARDI: Yeah, my coach did that for me. No, I think it was a pretty nice draw. There are tougher player I could play. Last week, too, I had a good draw and I didn't take the chance. So it's always -- by having a chance and taking it, it's not always as easy as it seem, you know. I think we will see. Tomorrow is another match. I have to take this one before looking ahead.

EMMANUELLE GAGLIARDI: I think it's Martinez, no, Rittner? They still have to play. I might go and watch it, but I know both player well. I played Martinez already once and Rittner, never played with her, just practiced with her. I think when you play good tennis, now the woman tennis, the level is so high, you can always have a chance with anybody on a given day. It's always that day that the condition, the player, how they're playing. Anybody has their own chance.

EMMANUELLE GAGLIARDI: Yeah, I think the more you win, the more you get used to win. It's like a little bit like circles. You try to build up on your win and try to learn from the mistake you made the day before, try to make it better. I was really happy to have straight sets so I can recover a little bit. Of course, the more you go through the tournament, the better your confidence is.

EMMANUELLE GAGLIARDI: A little bit of both. You know that you have lots of points to defend, but it's also nice to have that. It means that you played good the year before. And you want to have points to defend, because that is how a top player are doing every week. Of course, you cannot change anything. You just go out there and try to make, as all the tournament, because it doesn't change - the court, the balls, the opponent. You always have to keep the thing as you always do, otherwise you're playing another matches and you're not playing the reality. I think, of course, puts a little bit pressure when you don't do this every week. It's a new situation for me. It's the first time I have to do it. I'm feeling fine. I think that's what all the good players doing every week, so you just have to get used to it.

EMMANUELLE GAGLIARDI: When I was 4-All, 15-30 on her serve, I mean, everything there was possible. Doesn't mean I would have make it as good as she did on the final. It was just a very positive, good experience for me last year. It gives you the feeling that you can achieve really something. Then from there on, you have to build up so every week you play that good tennis. But you never think, "Oh, what could happen," because it didn't happen. Just losing your time there.