WIMBLEDON

July 3, 2000

Martina Hingis

MODERATOR: Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen. Martina Hingis.

MARTINA HINGIS: No. I mean, I was playing well. I wouldn't pressure her all the time. Towards the end of the second set when I had the match point already, she can swing the ball so hard. I was just trying to, you know, get everything back and play point by point and just stay aggressive.

MARTINA HINGIS: Not the last two ones. I remember I played her US Open, and that was like 2-2. The last one in Hamburg, 3-2. The last couple matches, I play very well against her. Her game suits me.

MARTINA HINGIS: We'll see tomorrow. We play tomorrow?

MARTINA HINGIS: No, I don't think it's that different. So far I had pretty much all of the girls who are kind of hard-hitting, like the pace. But the first one, Montolio, but that was like warm-up. Now I think they play very well so far, and we'll just see. I mean, so did I. Tomorrow's going to be definitely a good game, yeah.

MARTINA HINGIS: I mean, it didn't happen at the Australian Open, didn't happen at the French. There I lost against other players. No, I mean, just you have to play whoever is on the other side. I was able to beat Venus. So far I lost all the time against the second one when I had to play them both. But I always had to play them consecutive days. That's very hard. You have a three-setter. You're happy you made it through. Then the next day, the other one is waiting. Now, hopefully, if I would beat one, I got another day off. That makes a difference.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, you know, I feel good, I feel confident. As I said, you have to play against whoever is on the other side. Definitely they're not easy. But anything is possible.

MARTINA HINGIS: The Williamses, they serve hard. I mean, they get a lot of free points off their serves. You know, I think because we just like to return also, we're more defensive than the guys are that just attack, aggressive. Whatever happens, they just go it for it. But the girls are more like, they just see first what happens, then they are aggressive. On grass, the serve is not that important as in the guy's game. You just get into a rally. Whoever is better there, it's -- I think on grass, also once you take over the rally, it's almost impossible to kind of fight back.

MARTINA HINGIS: Who knows? I can't answer until we play tomorrow.

MARTINA HINGIS: Without a day of rest.

MARTINA HINGIS: I think Key Biscayne. The last one was the US Open, but no other recent ones. Either one or the other played. They never played together at the same tournaments.

MARTINA HINGIS: I don't know. It's like you can't go by strategy or statistics. We'll see.

MARTINA HINGIS: What do you think?

MARTINA HINGIS: I have no idea.

MARTINA HINGIS: I think any shot is important you get back on grass. Every bounce is just different. Anything can happen. Hard court is just more regular, the same timing over and over. Here on grass, I think serve is very important to keep the other one unbalanced, take it shot by shot.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, sometimes you just have to try to be quicker at the net than your opponent. That's probably the case against Venus because she's, you know, very tall, she's got a lot of reach. I like targets. I mean, I was able to win this tournament against Novotna in '97. I liked playing somebody who came in. I think it doesn't make such a big difference whether it's on grass or any other surface. I just like playing here. Just if you're confident, it's more mental I think in the women's game than in the guy's.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, I don't think it affected me so far because I was able to, you know, beat especially Venus when it was really important, at the Grand Slams. I always had the edge over them. But definitely Serena, you know, because she beat me US Open, so it's more even with her.

MARTINA HINGIS: Definitely. I mean, they came with a new game into women's tennis, a lot more power, a lot more physical abilities. Everybody had to, you know, improve on their physical abilities, and so did I have to. Just work out more, hit the ball harder basically. That's what it meant.

MARTINA HINGIS: I feel very good. I think I can be very, you know, happy about the game I played so far. Now the tournament begins.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, maybe because I was also able to, you know, step it up when it was a crucial time, just not make an easy error as they probably would do in the past, or Venus did. I haven't played them in a while, so I just can't tell how it's going to be tomorrow. Just hard to say.

MARTINA HINGIS: Oh, I mean, that's what you do it for. I mean, I think we're going to play on Centre Court. You know, it's just a great occasion, yeah. It's a great honor to be out there on Centre Court of Wimbledon playing Williams, I mean, one of the best players in the world right now.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, I haven't read like daily what came out. I mean, from what I can see how the fans are towards me, I like it very much. I think they're honest to me. It's nice. The crowd has been very nice to me so far.

MARTINA HINGIS: Why, what do they say? Well, I do read it sometimes, yeah, but I don't know if I read like everything good and bad about me. But Mario goes almost like daily to the stores and buys some of the papers.

MARTINA HINGIS: You forgot Mary. She won the French.

MARTINA HINGIS: No, because I think I was very consistent so far throughout all my matches. Now I think I gradually got better. I didn't really have an up-and-down in any of my matches, so that feels very good. I think the second round match against Yi was very good. The other ones, I was just very steady, high standard of my game. Hopefully it's going to be up against Venus tomorrow.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, I didn't like the second round match at all. I mean, she played very well. I had to fight for every point I played. It was just a very good win there playing second round on Centre. I think that was a pretty good test. After that, I just didn't let anybody a chance to come back into the game. I was serving very well and played just very consistent. If it's going to be enough tomorrow, time will tell. You know, it will show.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, I practise at Aorangi. There are many other mothers or coaches or whoever, they can go in there.