WIMBLEDON

June 24, 2003

Elena Baltacha

MODERATOR: Good afternoon. Elena Baltacha.

ELENA BALTACHA: My serve wasn't superb today. I picked it up kind of in the second set, kind of -- well, at the start of the third set. Yeah, my serve kind of let me down today. But, I mean, it was a good match, and the tactics I set out to play with Allen and Joe, I talked to them about it before my match, was just to play my own game, just to see what happens. I thought I done that well today. Although, there was a lot of unforced errors, but I think I stuck to it pretty well.

ELENA BALTACHA: Yeah, I've got liver damage.

ELENA BALTACHA: Yes.

ELENA BALTACHA: It's liver damage, and it's fatigue that I feel most of all. I mean, when I saw the specialist, the professor, he kind of said that, you know, by playing you're not going to do any more damage to the liver, but obviously the performance is -- it's going to affect the performance. But I get really fatigued maybe a few days during the week. On those days, I have to take a day off, on that particular day. So, I mean, it's been difficult. Obviously, I haven't been able to practice as many hours as I want to. But I have to be patient. That's what he says. Just have to get on with it. I think next week, whenever I'm completely out of the tournament, I have to take two weeks off to do another few tests because they're still unsure what it is.

ELENA BALTACHA: No, it's just some days. I mean, it's not like, you know, the next hour I'm like tired. Sometimes I'll wake up and I don't really feel kind of that active. So then I have to take a day off. But it's just listen to my own body and being sensible about it.

ELENA BALTACHA: Yeah, it was fine. I mean, I was up for it from the word "go," so that wasn't a problem.

ELENA BALTACHA: Basically I saw the specialist about two weeks before the French, quallies, and I kind of wanted to do it straightaway. He said, "You know, you have to be two weeks out." It wouldn't have given me enough preparation for the qualifying. He said, "Don't worry about it. Just go flat out for the next few weeks and then I'll see you after Wimbledon."

ELENA BALTACHA: Well, it's been worrying because I still don't know what it is. But, I mean, I'm in the best care. I'm seeing one of the top guys. I mean, I'm pretty confident that he'll get to the bottom of it.

ELENA BALTACHA: I have improved on a few things. I mean, I've still got lots and lots of things to work on, and that's exciting.

ELENA BALTACHA: Not really, because if you think about it, by playing, I'm not doing any more damage. I don't see how that can change over a few weeks. I mean, obviously, you know, when I first was kind of diagnosed with liver damage, I kind of thought, "Oh, my gosh, that's it, I've had it." But I've done quite a bit of research into it, and I'm pretty confident that it won't.

ELENA BALTACHA: Well, since September last year, when I had my tonsils taken out in November, late November, because I got really bad bouts of tonsillitis.

ELENA BALTACHA: Yeah, I had a lot of chances, especially in the first set, 40-15 up, 40-Love up. But, you know, she is a good player. I mean, her ranking speaks for itself. She kind of got away. But I had a great time out there. I learned quite a lot of things out there. It's back to the practice court.

ELENA BALTACHA: Yeah, obviously, you know, I was really frustrated. But, you know, I was so close. You know, it's just trying to get all these problems sorted first, trying to think of kind of my future.

ELENA BALTACHA: Well, different matches, different type of players. I mean, Dokic, for one, hits the ball much harder. So I actually had, you know, some sort of, you know, pace coming back. I mean, there were some fantastic rallies there, and I played the best I could today.

ELENA BALTACHA: No.

ELENA BALTACHA: No, because you don't know what to expect, in a way. And, as I said, you know, No. 11, she can pick it up big time, and she did. You know, both of us out there fighting for it. It was an exciting match, and there was a lot of people there, you know, who were supporting me. Some stages the crowd was going mad for me. It was a great atmosphere.

ELENA BALTACHA: No. It depends. It was nice of them to do so, but at that time I was actually kind of looking at my coaches, just trying to kind of get myself up for it.

ELENA BALTACHA: It's another biopsy. I had one done about a month and a half ago, something like that. The results basically came back, there wasn't enough sample of it, so they need to do it again. And I don't know what it's called when they put a camera into the pancreas and into the liver. Unpleasant test, but it has to be done, I know that.

ELENA BALTACHA: Biopsy.

ELENA BALTACHA: Yeah, they take a bit of the liver, the actual liver, a bit of it.