TMS - THE ERICSSON OPEN

March 27, 2001

Martina Hingis

THE MODERATOR: First question in English for Martina, please.

MARTINA HINGIS: I hope so. Well, devastating, how do you mean? My second set, yeah. First set was a little close. I mean she had a set point. Who knows what would happen? You can't always get lucky in a set point. But I definitely start picking up my game again after that, and I felt better when she was serving actually than me in the beginning. She was right away in the beginning I had a little trouble. I didn't know exactly what to do against her. I haven't played her in a while. She started off firing and then I was up 3-2 and let it go. There I definitely should have hold on. But, no, definitely, you know, after this match I played a little bit, I was running back and forth. Especially those angles, she has those kind of angles which are hard to do something off it. But my forehand was almost better working today than my backhand, especially the one down the line. I don't know, yeah, I'm looking forward to play Venus again.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, it can't get worse for her, no. I mean, just in a way, nothing to lose. And she also definitely wants to prove herself, you know, from what happened last week. So I think even it's a little extra pressure on her, but I don't know. I mean, I just try to, you know, we both have a day off tomorrow and just get a good practice done and then we'll see.

MARTINA HINGIS: I always put pressure on myself because, you know, people now definitely want to see what's going to happen because they, like, in the States I haven't played a while since the US Open. And Australia's far away. They may be watching on TV, people, the fans and everybody, but they maybe can't really understand what would happen there, it was 6-1, 6-1 in less than an hour. They expect me probably to, you know, to win again and I don't know. It's always hard to play her, you never know what's going to come out of it. But I feel better about my game again, you know, since last week. I think I played better.

MARTINA HINGIS: To the Melbourne match, which one?

MARTINA HINGIS: In Melbourne.

MARTINA HINGIS: I think we both will be fresher, that's for sure. She had a tough match. Especially me. She won only 8-6 against Amanda the day before, and I played Serena which was also 8-6 in the third. So I can only say she handed that match over because I beat Serena, so that put extra pressure on her. I don't think she was in great shape at that time. Not physically, she always looks like tiny and in good shape. I mean, nothing against that. But just tennis-wise, I don't think she really practiced that much or, you know, she was injured and all that. So she didn't have enough practice matches. Now, she has played and done well. I mean, she served well, so just definitely have to get my returns in.

MARTINA HINGIS: I think it's all three of them. I mean, it's the sisters and Lindsay, definitely. We are the best. We get to the semis or finals at least when not all of us are competing. It's been me, Lindsay, Serena or Venus winning the tournaments.

MARTINA HINGIS: They've been saying that for the last four years. I won't give it up just like that. You still have to beat me and play maybe more tournaments. I mean, it's easy just to be fresh and in great conditions like five, six times a year. Throughout the year, that's tennis. It's an eleven-month season.

MARTINA HINGIS: It's still a long way to go.

MARTINA HINGIS: Eighteen months?

MARTINA HINGIS: I think it's possible. I made it so far. So I think the last one I beat was Monica's record. I think the first two are almost impossible, Steffi and Martina. But Chrissy's is still within reach I could say.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, definitely I've been asked about it, and I'm trying to prepare myself for it, too. It's definitely on my mind. But I hope soon, as soon as possible to get it done with and it's gonna be over forever and not have to think about it anymore.

THE MODERATOR: I'm sorry. Can we leave that issue and move on to tennis questions, please.

MARTINA HINGIS: I didn't see her play too much. I only saw like two games, two points when she played Garbin. But they didn't show the whole match, so... I know how Garbin plays and I saw her at Indian Wells a little bit. But I had to practice, get my matches done. So I -- it's always different when players play me than someone else. You can't really compare. I don't see a difference. I barely saw her, so I don't know.