U.S. OPEN

September 3, 1995

Mary Joe Fernandez

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: I just wanted to win the point very badly. I knew I had hit the ball, I couldn't let her dictate the point. You know, usually top players when they're down they go for more and I knew that at 5-3 she played a really good game and hit out and attacked and I tried to hit it and fortunately she mistimed the ball there at the end a little bit.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: That was a trick question. Not for a while, I haven't been ill since before the French.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: It's been great. I had a little patch of a stomach flu for a few days but healthwise, knock on wood, I've been feeling pretty strong.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: No, never a time to be greedy. I feel a little bit fortunate to be alive in this tournament, first day I was pretty close to being out and I hung in there and I'm hitting the ball pretty well and just trying to focus on my game and trying to attack as much as I can against a player like Arantxa and, you know, really taking it one at a time. I've had tough matches throughout the whole week and they're going to get tougher, so I've got to get stronger and, you know, start playing even more aggressively.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: I never gave up. She was playing real well, not making any mistakes. That was a long game at 4-1 down the first set I was serving and I had a few chances to hold and I got to turn the first one around a little bit, but, you know, she was hitting the ball on the rise and moving me around and I felt I was a little bit late for the ball. I was missing by a little bit and I think I persevered in the second set even though I was down a break. I knew I was still kind of in it and that just one break that tied up at 4-All turned things around for me.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: Yeah, I'm up 40-Love --

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: I don't know, it was just a spur of the moment kind of thing for me. It's not something I do naturally, so I have to think about it a little bit. So I was up 40-Love, lost two points in the back and I said just go for it. And, you know, I serve better when I serve and volley, I know I have to hit it better, I don't want to try to hit a volley too difficult volley for me. So, fortunately it was right there and it was a little shaky, I almost missed, but I got the end of the line.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: Yeah, I don't think she was expecting me to serve and volley on that.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: That took a lot out of me in the first set, 5-1 was a pretty uphill battle for me and I think a big game in the second set was at 1-All, it was on Love-40 and I held to go up 2-1. At the time it didn't seem like that big a game because she was winning, but when I look back now, I think it could have turned things around for me.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: I'm just drinking some Tough. It's called Tough, it's a carbohydrate drink that the trainers have here.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: Oh, yeah, it's great. The crowd gets so loud after a point, you don't hear yourself. And it is a pretty exciting feeling. There's no crowd like the New York crowd, and it's much better, obviously, when they're behind you. And it definitely spurred me on and gave me encouragement.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: That's the last time, yeah.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: Yeah.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: I don't think so. I think players change from year to year, and that was a long time. I think she's a much better player now than she was then, and hopefully I'm a better player too. She's been No. 1 in the world already and she's a kind of champion here, so I don't think you go back to that match too much. You're kind of here in the present and you play the way you're playing now.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: It's mixed feelings. I mean, my dad's from Spain and all my families' there, but Arantxa has been a great champion and she's been a great representative for Spain and it's nice to have a victory over her.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: She shanked that, she shanked it. I was like "Oh, no." Believe it or not I thought of that match when Becker played Rostagno when the ball hit the net and it went over, I go "Oh, this is great, she's going to win the tournament, that's not good." But I hung in there and fortunately got through.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: No. That's just something I have to go for. She has a pretty good forehand cross court, she gets me out there and if I hit it up the line she has a pretty good backhand cross court, she can get wide, so my best shot's my back cross court to her forehand.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: I don't know. I have no idea.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: Victory, I think, is victory any which way, but sure it will mean more down the road knowing that "Hey, I hung in there, I came back against someone who is very tough mentally as well and such a good player. Hopefully, you know, she knows that I do have courage and I hang in there and I never give up.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: Yeah, I have a big water loss every time I step out there. I've got to start drinking, good you reminded me.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: No, I sweat a lot at any time, fortunately it hasn't been too hot this year and hopefully it doesn't get too much hotter, but I've just got to keep drinking.

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ: I think it's a mixture. It's always a combination of both. Why did she make unforced errors, hopefully it's because I was pressuring her and she was thinking about it. But I think, you know, I put the pressure on her and forced her into some of them.