STATE FARM EVERT CUP

March 12, 1997

Mary Joe Fernandez

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: I had that at the back of my mind. I knew she made a great comeback last night. When I got ahead, I tried to play more aggressively, not let her dictate the play. She plays very well when she's down. She always tries to do a little bit more, plays more of an attacking game. Fortunately in the first set I served out a good game. I was up 15-40 at 5-4, put some serves in there that were good. Same thing in the second set, played a very good game to close it out.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: Definitely. We studied both players, see how they were playing. I've played both of them before. Against Conchita it's a tough match for me, because she moves the ball around the court very well and uses different spins. Today when we practiced, he tried to imitate that a little bit so I could get used to it. Against some like Conchita, you have to play aggressively and take chances. From the back of the court, she's very solid and very quick. It paid off to have watched her last night.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: It is her weapon, her forehand. It's also the shot that breaks down, in my opinion. I could tell early on in the match she miss-hit a few. Like she said, didn't get a lot of spin on the ball. That gave me an opening to know that, "Okay, I can attack that side now," instead of being a little bit more fearful of it.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: Well, Arantxa and Spirlea are on the other side, I play Davenport or Williams. Tough match for me. Hard hitters, big serves. I'm going to have to really play well and try to be the one that takes the initiative, which is very difficult against big girls like Venus and Lindsay because they take the first ball and go for a big shot.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: No.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: I'm doing okay. It is definitely hot out there. It's a dry heat, and that helps. Coming from Australia, anything is better than that.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: Yes.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: It's hot in Miami, too, yeah.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: No.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: No.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: I did that for I think a year and a half.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: It was Burger King as the sponsor. It was a program to help kids stay in school and the dropout prevention program. I just visited a lot of schools, talked about the pressures of quitting school, the benefits of staying in school, why I stayed in school, tried to give a bit after motivational speech to the kids. I enjoyed it tremendously. I love working with children. It was amazing for me to see how much these kids had gone through in their lives, being so young. Took a lot of courage for them to get back and be in school, to get back on the right track.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: Sure. I think in general, the people who are in the public's eye are role models. You have a responsibility to behave well and set good examples, especially children, because they look up to you. Hispanic or not, it's important to set a good example.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: I'm big on staying in school. I think education is very important. It's something that you can always use and fall back on if something else goes wrong. I know in my situation, when I was 13, 14, I turned pro. A lot of them were like, "You should play full time." You never know. You never know if you're going to get hurt or burned out. There's always life after your profession sometimes. Now I feel that I can go on and do other things. I think it's very important for kids to know how important it is to stay in school. It's tough, but you get through it. I have two nieces who struggle. Every day it's like, "Do I have to go to school tomorrow?" I think it's very important. If they're doing a sport, I think it's important to enjoy it. It's very hard if you don't like what you're doing, to be involved in it.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: I speak Spanish with my parents, yes.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: Both. I think my dad more in Spanish, maybe my mom in English.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: 25.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: I'd like to go back to school. I'd like to go to college. Like I said earlier, I love children. It's always been a dream of mine to be a teacher. That's in the plans right now. We'll see what happens.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: I like doing that. I like commentating, too. I don't know that I'd do that full-time, but that would be something I'd also be very interested in doing.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: It's a huge honor to represent your country in team competition. I can honestly say the highlight of my career has been playing in the Olympics, competing in the Olympics. It was a bonus to win the medals. It's just a very special feeling to know that you're not just out there for yourself; you're out there for your country and your teammates. I've always enjoyed it and felt very fortunate to have been able not to compete in just one, but two Olympics in my career.