US OPEN

August 30, 2000

Martina Hingis

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Martina, please.

MARTINA HINGIS: No, all right? (Laughter.)

MARTINA HINGIS: Sounds pretty good. As I said, I never played Kristina before, so, you know, I saw her at the other tournaments but I didn't know exactly what she's gonna play like. And I just liked her game. I mean she was quite far from the baseline. She gave me enough time to really play my game and to dominate throughout the match. So I could come in and be aggressive. That's what I was trying to do in matches like this. It's nice to hear, only four unforced errors. (Laughing.)

MARTINA HINGIS: Oh, definitely. I think I, you know, showed in today's match that I can play real well. But I don't -- this is just the second round. I mean you shouldn't be like ready in the second round of the tournament. It's just like daily business almost. And I'm gonna play doubles and mixed doubles tomorrow, so matches like tonight, you know, you just want to get out of the way as soon as possible. Especially the night matches; you don't want to stay out here too long. It's a tough day tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it. I think I just played a very good match today. Almost no mistakes. I, you know, came in, played some good volleys. I'm pretty happy about that.

MARTINA HINGIS: She obviously serves big. It doesn't matter where the ball she hits to, if it's a good first serve, it's hard to return it. Like Serena, she can also place it very well, and you just have to get them to crucial times so they don't serve that big. I think you have that in the men's game and when people try to, you know, get a little tense, everything gets a little, you know, closer to each other. You know, once I get to play them again in this tournament, they'll be great and I mean they also -- you know, the harder you hit, the more it's also on your body. I mean it's just -- you can't keep up hitting the ball like every, you know, shot like that, as hard as possible. Sometimes it gets flying. I mean tennis is not about hitting the ball the hardest you can.

MARTINA HINGIS: If Venus hits it, it's somewhere in the corner, you got no chance. I guess it's pretty much anybody, if you place the serve very well, it's already a good serve, 100 miles is already almost unreachable. And if they hit it like 110, you know, 115 occasionally, so it's -- it depends where they place it more. But maybe I have more difficulties with Serena's serve, to read it.

MARTINA HINGIS: I wasn't here all day, I came out here, it was 5:30, I was practicing. I didn't really get to know much about it, no, I'm sorry.

MARTINA HINGIS: I just got to hear about it lately. I'm sorry, I really don't know what happened, what the reasons why. I don't know. I can't really talk about it, so... That shouldn't be like the main thing at the tournament, definitely not.

MARTINA HINGIS: Yeah, I do. I mean there's some players you talk to more and some less. But those, you know, I haven't played before, I ask a little bit. She's not unknown on the Tour, she's 34 in the world. So there was a few times that I almost had to play her and, you know, either me or she, we didn't get there to play each other. But I just kind of knew her game. I mean she doesn't live that far from me, actually now here in Tampa, she's at a camp there. I'm not that far away. So I got to know her maybe a little bit better.

MARTINA HINGIS: No, never. I never -- never, nothing. I mean I saw her a lot at the tournaments, so I knew her game a little bit.

MARTINA HINGIS: No, I try to keep it all up there. (Indicating.)

MARTINA HINGIS: No, as far as I went to school, as long as I went to school, I could always rely on my memory. Some time I was on the last day preparing for the test the next day so I knew I could keep it in my head.

MARTINA HINGIS: Concentration. I think it's all about concentration, to keep it and to really believe in it that you can -- I mean visualize things because of the tennis; you see a lot. So from seeing things, I can remember them better than from hearing probably.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, I think that maybe when they go on court they might have little respect from what I achieved so far, you know, in my career. But depends, a little bit. Especially against Venus or Serena, they're so different from the other players. They're big, just by walking on the court, I was walking behind Venus or Serena, you're like, "Ut-oh, what's gonna happen". But if you have the game and if you believe in yourself, you can do a lot. It doesn't matter what size you are. Just everything -- tennis is nice, you know, it's still a game and you can equalize a lot of things with, you know, cleverness or just game.

MARTINA HINGIS: I mean in the early stage I was always better than them. So just continued to grow with each other.