adidas International

January 12, 2001

Martina Hingis

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Martina, please.

MARTINA HINGIS: The heat didn't affect me at all today. I was playing a player at least ten years older than me, so I felt like at the end it should definitely affect her more than me. I'm 20, she's 29. (Inaudible). Also, sometimes she took so much time. That made me a little bit nervous and I just panicked a little bit every now and then and I wanted to overdo it, do it too quick, too well. That's why she came back from 4-1 to 4-3. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy about the game. (Inaudible.) Compared to yesterday's match, it was the total opposite. Sometimes it was like, "Okay, be patient, don't freak out." But I'm, you know, it was good to be out there and just play the match and get it done with.

MARTINA HINGIS: (Inaudible.) I mean, it's not easy definitely later on, but I'm happy with the draw. Actually, the beginning, the first few rounds should be, you know, fine. The way I feel right now, it's okay. And then we'll see. I mean, you just take it round by round. But if I win the Australian Open this year, I definitely would deserve it, yeah. (Laughing.)

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, the more matches you get down before a Grand Slam, the better. Then you just have the confidence going into the tournament. And, you know, if you beat the players over and over, it's always good. It doesn't matter. I prefer to have a match and get, like, the practice down instead of waiting and not knowing.

MARTINA HINGIS: I guess it's a little different compared to the guys' Tour, you know. The men didn't play each other -- like when I played with Roger, I asked him about, "So how is your score against, you know, Ferreira or Jan-Michael Gambill." And, like , he never played Wayne Ferreira so far in the two years. He had like 2-0 against Gambill. And I'm playing Lindsay tomorrow, which is like 11-9 or something. We played each other 20 times over the last five, six years. So I think it's a little different in the women's Tour, that we play each other so often. But in a way, it's good. I mean, the interest is there. I'm No. 1, she's No. 2. So it's great having a finals like this. But it wouldn't have to be every week or, you know, before a Grand Slam tournament. But at least we know tomorrow what we have to get better on and we know how it looks. But it's definitely not going to be as important tomorrow as the Australian Open, the ultimate.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, I feel confident now but definitely have more respect for a player like Lindsay or the sisters or, you know, Monica. You take them more serious than somebody who is not of that level yet.

MARTINA HINGIS: Yeah, definitely. My standard right now I think is very high. I played very well in the Hopman Cup at the beginning, but now it's -- at a tournament, it's very difficult to maintain, you know, the high level, the high standard. But, you know, I'm happy to be in the finals here again, and we'll see the outcome tomorrow. And, otherwise, it's -- you know, tennis is not so easy if you have to play like match for match, day by day. I mean, your just biological rhythm is always up and down anyway. But I think against the players who are a little bit lower ranked, you can really consider the top six, seven players who you have to be 100 percent. But it's nice for me to know, even if I'm not 100 percent, I still beat a lot of players. Especially like the day when I played Kim, I definitely wasn't at my best, at my peak, but it was still good enough. Or yesterday.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, it's hard to have a consistency in practice and have a routine. It's so much easier being at home. You know you have the 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock every day, and not worry about it, you know, not worry about who you have to hit with. It's just so much easier. At the tournaments, the schedule, you never know what's gonna happen. Then the flight, the change, the time change, it's so many factors which affect just the whole routine, which is not easy to cope with, but, you know, whoever's at the top does the best job.

MARTINA HINGIS: No. I mean, I like it more because I know the better I am in practice, the better I'm going to be in matches. That's the way it's been when I was really little -- maybe not that much. I didn't enjoy that much in the last -- two, three years ago. But now definitely I know I have to work on myself on a daily basis.

MARTINA HINGIS: We'll see tomorrow. I mean, I played her in Philadelphia last time, the one time I won in Zurich at home which was a great thing. But I feel confident. I played her in the doubles, which is not the same. But I think right now I have little edge over her if you would think, because I played the Hopman Cup already, I have played more matches than her and tougher ones. So we'll see. I mean, I can't tell right now. I mean, I'm not going to say I'm going to win tomorrow and I'm going to lose. So... I just feel confident going into the match. That's for sure. I also feel much better going into the match against Serena already because we beat them in the doubles, and I just wasn't kind of scared going out there. It's like sometimes you go out there and you hope not to get killed or not to get, you know, embarrassed or lose. But definitely that -- yesterday I was in the fighting spirit. I feel better.

MARTINA HINGIS: Yeah, it's better. I had to, you know, take the needle out and the girls at the WTA helped me. Otherwise, the night before, I couldn't almost sleep. I woke up at one, two and four in the morning and it was kind of poking, like constant pain I had in there. And it was -- I felt like I couldn't really move. But during the match against Serena, you little bit forget about it. Then I just, unfortunately, had to pull out of the doubles because I didn't want to aggravate it even more for today's match, and, yeah, just get it healed.