THE LIPTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 22, 1999

Anna Kournikova

BROOKE LAWER: First question for Anna.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Well, like if I would prefer something or I would be wishing for something, I don't think I'd be able to change it. It's not up to me. So I'll just take it as it is. I'll take it as it is. You know, it doesn't matter who you play, you really have to concentrate a lot. Sometimes when you play the top players or the lower-ranked players, you have to concentrate even more when you play somebody, you don't know what to expect. But I played great today. I felt very well. We'll see what happens the next match.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Well, she's obviously a very powerful player. She hits the ball hard, from the baseline. I think I played her twice. I won both times. Of course, it's going to be a new match. We all have to work hard and play as well as I played today to win. Everybody knows how to play tennis here in this tournament, for sure. You just really have to concentrate. I have to keep my concentration and work for each point.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Straight?

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Well, I don't think I was disappointed. I was not thinking about holding or breaking or whatever. I was just thinking about winning the point. That was important for me to win the game. As long as I was in the set, in the match, it didn't really matter. It's women's tennis. It's not really men's tennis. There could be a lot of breaks and everything. So it didn't really bother me.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: That's true probably. Always the easiest one is always the most difficult ball. The most hardest one is the easiest. You don't think, you just run there and play, you don't think. When the ball is easy, you're like, "Oh, it's easy, what am I going to do? Where should I play?" You have a choice, cross-court or down the line. When the ball is tough, you don't have a choice, you just go for it. Probably it's not just me, but most of the players. Also Julie today, she had easy balls she missed. The difficult ones, she passed some unbelievable shots. It's like that. When you don't have a choice, you just go for it. When you do have a choice, you're trying to think and change your mind like that.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Well, obviously, it was the best tournament I ever had. Of course, I had gained all of the confidence that I had from this tournament.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: No, not at all. I don't think about that. I just think about playing. When the time comes, you know, it comes. It doesn't matter. Sooner or later I'm going to be playing better and better.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Miami Beach.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: No, I feel great. It's great staying at home. I'm enjoying it. It's really great to be, you know, somewhere that you know. Also staying at home, like I said, not in the hotel, it's great.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: I've been in Florida for eight years, so it feels like home.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Well, there is half and half probably. I still speak Russian with my parents, with other Russian players and everything, eat Russian food, of course, go back to Russia. It's both. I'm an international person. I travel 20 tournaments a year. I'm everywhere, in every country. You eat different food, see different cultures.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Well, they don't show much on the news about Russia.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: My father is here. I don't need to call him.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: He's always with me.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Yes.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: There is some more tournaments here in the States.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: I think I have the best of both. I grew up playing on clay, then I moved to the States. I also grew up playing on hard. I got them both. I have really no problem. My game suits well both grass, I love grass, and clay court also. I can do the dropshots, angles and everything. For me, it doesn't really matter to play. I don't try to think, "Oh, my God, this is hard court, I play better here, I play worse on clay," or the other way. I try to take the best what I can use on a different surface.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: No, because I have to talk about playing my next match first. I don't look that far.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: We've always been close friends. We've always been nice to each other. It's just the media that made this big rival in everything. We never had difficulties talking to each other or anything.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Well, obviously everybody does. But, like I said, I'm concentrating on my next match. For you, you cannot say that to me, talk about the next match that I'm not even looking forward to. For you, it's writing a story that you have no idea what you're writing about.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: No, it's good for them if they won. She's 17 also like me, still lower ranked than me. But it's okay. I'm glad that the younger people are winning. It doesn't bother me. Like I said, Martina won her first Grand Slam when she was 16, 17. Lindsay won her first Grand Slam when she was 22, 23. Everybody's different. For everybody, there is their own time.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: When I was five years old, when I started playing tennis, I don't think that I thought there is any money in tennis. I'm still thinking that way, that I'm playing for tennis and for nothing else.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: I think everybody who plays tennis wants to be the best as possible. Where the result is, there the money is, of course. You have to have the result first. You have to have the result first.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: No, I don't know yet. I haven't looked that far.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: It's not close.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Well, I think just overall I've been playing better. This was just my fourth match, I think, in a month or even more. In Indian Wells, I had the flu for three weeks. This is, like I said, my fourth match in four or five weeks. I'm feeling much better with each match. I'm feeling much, much better than I felt in the first round. I felt like I was just playing my game, was attacking and hitting the ball. But I feel like I'm doing all parts of the game pretty good.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Well, my goals are, of course as last year, to improve, to go on and win as many matches as possible, play well, feel good. Why I moved here? Just because I was in Bradenton for a long time. I just wanted to stay in Florida, somewhere where there is a little bit more of everything. Plus the airport is really, really close. It's 20 minutes to the airport. It flies everywhere. It's very comfortable. But I'm basically never here.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: No, he travels with me to the tournaments. No, he doesn't quit his job right now. They have vacation now. He's a professor in a Russian University. They have a spring break or something.

ANNA KOURNIKOVA: No. He has classes, I don't know, some. But he's at all Grand Slams except Australia, it's too far. He's at all Grand Slams, mostly in Europe all the time. But here in Lipton. He travels to most of the tournaments.