COMPAQ GRAND SLAM CUP

October 1, 1999

Martina Hingis

WTA: Questions for Martina.

MARTINA HINGIS: Disappointed? Could have been worse. You think of the beginning of this match, it went a bit fast. She served extremely well; two or three aces per game. I thought I was going to run a lot. Then she let me have my chance to find my way back into the match. That's what I did. I was leading her. Then I let her get into the match again. I shouldn't have done this. I've seen that before the other way around. This way I could have been off the court a lot earlier. When I came into the match, it was almost embarrassing at the beginning.

MARTINA HINGIS: Right. Well, I once took the first set 6-1, I hit everything. Sometimes you win; sometimes you lose. Sometimes I have a great beginning; today it was her. You have these matches. You think sometimes you don't have to work too much. I just wait a little bit for the opponent to come, then you lose the first set after a break of two weeks or so. Given this power tennis, you can't afford just to wait and see; you have to stay in and to practice. This is something I underestimated a bit.

MARTINA HINGIS: No. I just didn't understand in the beginning what was happening. In the end, in terms of speed, I didn't have a problem. Sometimes I made the speed; I made the pace. Yeah, you have to find your way into the match. That was difficult for me today.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, it wasn't all that successful for me, so far. But I think it is, indeed, a great event for the players. Everything is extremely relaxed here. It's extremely pleasant to play here, almost cozy. You tend to maybe sometimes underestimate and not take it all that seriously. Some take it extremely seriously; some don't. Then things happen, as happened to me today. I haven't practiced enough for this tournament, and I have to improve this for the next event.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, he came too late, didn't he, in order to play here? Maybe he underestimated the thing a little bit after winning the US Open. He might have thought he didn't have to practice all that much in order to play here and to win a couple of rounds. And that Tommy isn't too bad a player, is he? He was a bit surprised, I suppose, the way the first set went and the speed. You live and learn, don't you? The surface wasn't the problem today, certainly not. I have been practicing for a while, and I know what it means. Well, you have to be careful. Indoors, the serve, of course, if it's a good ball, it's half the point, isn't it?

MARTINA HINGIS: No. This is going to happen in the future. You're going to play them; you're going to lose against them. Right now, we are at the top, if I may say so, for the forthcoming tournaments. I hope I can break into this top and get into the semifinals somewhere and be successful again. Here, these four players are the very top right now.

MARTINA HINGIS: Not really, no. I did some running last night, but it didn't help me a great deal. Well, the Oktoberfest, that was quite fun. But then it rained and I couldn't take the roller coaster, nothing, only in the afternoon. I had a little beer with a bit of lemonade, almost a bit too sweet. If you come from Switzerland, of course you know these things. It's a bit like a yodeler fest, popular music in Switzerland, just a little bit bigger here, ten times bigger or so.

MARTINA HINGIS: All of a sudden they all came over to my side. At 4-1, they wanted to see some more tennis, and they cheered me. It was okay. To feel the crowd is going with you and cheering for you, yeah, that was great. Then I could take the second set one match point down. I had my chances in the third, and I didn't cash in on these. 4-1, 4-3, 5-4, Jesus, two points away from the win. These are the things that happen.

MARTINA HINGIS: I only went there in the afternoon. I knew I was going to face a tough opponent. That wasn't the problem. I think I wasn't doing enough in the last two, three weeks after The Open or since that tournament. I underestimated this tournament, I think, a little bit. I just wasn't in -- not that I wasn't in 100% shape. Mentally, I think I was okay. But physically and just in general I should have done more, as I did before The Open. Sometimes you have a good tournament or a few good tournaments, then you think it's going to go by itself. That's not the thing anymore, not in women's tennis. I think since the Williams sisters are up there and Lindsay has improved, Mary is physically very well, so you have to keep up working all the time. That was probably a little bit the problem.

MARTINA HINGIS: I don't think I woke up. She let me get into the match again. I wasn't doing anything special. I just kept the ball in play, more or less she was doing the errors. I probably took even more of a risk and I just went for it. Whatever happened happened. But she made a little bit more mistakes, I think. She just cruised through the first set, yeah.

MARTINA HINGIS: I was surprised the way she served actually in the beginning. From what I remember, her serves usually fell apart when I played her at The Open. Her second serve was much better today. Even she didn't hit the first serve in, I had a little bit problems when she served the second. I usually don't make that many errors, but I would miss a few returns, which I wasn't supposed to do. You can't play Venus like that.

MARTINA HINGIS: I don't think it's only her. I think it's her sister and Lindsay. Against these players, you always have to be on the top of your game if you want to beat them. If you're on the top, it's still a question if you are going to be the winner. I think it's a great challenge. If you lose a match like I did today, you have a little bit to think about what's going to happen in the future if you really want to stay in the top.

MARTINA HINGIS: I was getting excited about it for a while because it was nice that they wanted to see some more tennis. I was a little bit embarrassed actually by what happened because I beat her the last two times I played. I'm like, "What's going on?" I was like, "All right, this can't happen. I want to be a little bit longer out on court than an hour." It was 48 minutes, it's like 4-1. I'm like, "Oh, yeah, right." Then it became a longer day at the office.

MARTINA HINGIS: Home court? We're here by car, but still Switzerland is a little bit different than Germany. In Europe, everything is so small. Still rivalries in between the countries. It was nice, you know, the crowd getting on my side.

MARTINA HINGIS: I think the crowd is mostly for the underdog anyway. I can't expect the crowd being on my side. Hopefully as Steffi or all the other older players, once they were at the end of their career, the crowd's going to be on my side. I'm waiting for the moment.

MARTINA HINGIS: The last two or three weeks, my practicing wasn't sufficient. Physically I should have done as before the US Open. I may have slightly underestimated. Mentally I was fit, but not physically.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, I tried. I kept trying to do something, but maybe not a hundred percent, maybe not a hundred percent motivation after the tournament. You can't afford at this level to step out and take a break. That has been shown clearly here.

MARTINA HINGIS: No, not really. Slightly more aggressive. She had less to lose in the beginning, I suppose, but you consider her serve. Indoors, the serve is an important factor. Of course, it's hard to return, especially with her.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, she had a lot of winners in the beginning, of course. You have to count the winning points and the mistakes. Well, if you don't get into the match, you don't make many unforced errors because you lose the set in no time at all.

MARTINA HINGIS: I suppose I need some more power.

MARTINA HINGIS: I had a Tigra from Opel. It was a nice present. We went to the Oktoberfest, which was one of my greatest wishes to go there. It was a very, very nice birthday. It rounded off my perception of this event.