CHASE CHAMPIONSHIPS OF SANEX WTA TOUR

November 14, 2000

Julie Halard-Decugis

Q. What happened in the match?

JULIE HALARD-DECUGIS: She was really playing good. She was serving pretty well today. I couldn't do anything on the serve. I think she's not making mistakes on her first serve and she was making a lot of good points. I think she knows my game pretty well, too. She was just too good today. My strength, I couldn't use it as much as I would like to against her. I try, but she was just playing too good today.

JULIE HALARD-DECUGIS: How do you know? Yeah, it's the last match of my year and of my career. I'm going to stop after this tournament. So I feel I played a lot of years on the Tour, it's like 14 years I've been playing on the Tour, and I was very happy to be No. 1 team here in doubles and to qualify for the matches, I was 16. I was pretty happy about that, and I prefer to finish well and I have other things to do in my life. I just have this feeling now and I would prefer to stop.

JULIE HALARD-DECUGIS: Well, a little bit year -- but I was focused this year because I wanted to play well. And in doubles I did very well and even in singles I had some good tournaments, like Lisbon and the two Tokyos and it just became -- now it's just a feeling that I want to stop, have a family life, and do something else.

JULIE HALARD-DECUGIS: Only one? It's tough. It's tough to say, because you have some -- some different souvenirs, and I think I have plenty of good souvenirs during these 14 years. One was here in this tournament. I beat Sanchez she was No. 1 at this time. I won 7-6; it was really a great match. And so it's good to beat the big names, like Steffi Graf in Berlin, it was a good one for me. And to win the tournaments on all the surfaces. I have many good wins. I think I have won 14 tournaments in singles and 14 in doubles. This year in doubles was like unbelievable, like the final in Wimbledon and the win in the US Open. I was very happy to win a Grand Slam event, and I'm very happy to have done that during my career.

JULIE HALARD-DECUGIS: No. I think the good thing is that I have some good friends. And I was very happy to know her this year. Hopefully, we will stay good friends, and, who knows, the life of tennis, I have some very good souvenirs.

JULIE HALARD-DECUGIS: Yeah, sure. I like tennis. It can be a son, too. For sure. I have some very happy years playing tennis. I know that I can -- I would be able to play some more years, because physically, I feel very well, and I know I can do it, but I trust my mind. I want to do something else. It took me a long time to decide. And I'm happy that I have a good choice and decide that I want, and I just make this decision now.

JULIE HALARD-DECUGIS: I think it is just the end of the year, maybe it is too late. Maybe next year, if we start -- I think it will be earlier next year, and I think it is very important to do it, that players have at least two months' break or six weeks' break. It's very important, because otherwise, you are playing too much, and it will be difficult to stay very long on the Tour playing like that. So it will be very important to have like -- finish at the beginning of November, and for sure, to know that players will stop for a while and do something else, even to train physically, or do tennis without any match. I think that is very important for the tennis players.

JULIE HALARD-DECUGIS: No. I played many times on the Tour, I don't know how many, 25 or -- I don't know exactly. But I didn't play like team matches, because it was really too much this year. And with the doubles, it was unbelievable. I think I had like 83 matches in doubles. I think it is already pretty good, and I wanted to have some rest and to be fit for the important tournaments. You can't do too many things. I didn't do any exhibitions or anything like this.

JULIE HALARD-DECUGIS: No. I stop everything.

JULIE HALARD-DECUGIS: For me, it was "the Masters" in New York. For this, I knew New York. For me it will be difficult to say "the Masters" in Munich. But for the European players, it will be better, for sure. I don't know. Maybe I like it here because I start here, so you always wants to go where you started first. But, I don't know. I think definitely for Europe, it is very good, for sure.