THE LIPTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 23, 1998

Martina Hingis

VERONIQUE MARCHAL: Questions for Martina.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, I was up already like in the first 2-Love up. She kind of made four games in a row. I pulled it back to 4-All. Then I was getting a little bit tired maybe. I just didn't play as fast as I did in the first. I was probably also a little bit nervous because she played the game which I didn't like so much. She just put everything back, very flat. I kind of didn't know really with what to make the point. Not all the things were working today.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, usually you always need a good match like this in a big tournament. I'd rather not to have one like this, when almost at the end you're cramping. At least, I see I'm in pretty good shape. I won the third set. I was a little bit upset after the second because I knew I had some chances to made it easier to myself. I didn't took the chances. Then I just went for it. I tried to be a little bit more aggressive. I thought, "She can't play like this and run and run forever."

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, you see her at the other tournaments. I saw her playing. I played a doubles match against her. She hits the ball pretty hard. I think her game is a little bit smarter than her sister's, but she doesn't have the power as Venus has. She doesn't have such a big serve. But I watched kind of a little bit of the second set. Well, she makes points and mistakes. I never played her. It's a good win for her. But I'm looking forward kind of to that match. I haven't played her before. It's always kind of funny to play somebody who's younger than you are. So rarely it happens to me. I just like to play sometimes a player like this, that they always talk about. We'll see.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, that's a tough question. When I was younger I always liked pretty much Monica Seles. Since I'm on the Tour at the same time with her, she's my opponent sometimes at the tournament, especially last year she's been a couple times in the finals when I played her. So far I've never lost against her. Hopefully keep it up. But I think Chris Evert, she was always a lady on the court. And Martina, for her I just have the biggest respect of what she did, winning Wimbledon nine times. Also Steffi, she was so good for so many years. You can't really say. Everybody was different. They all have something special about themselves, otherwise they wouldn't be there for so long.

MARTINA HINGIS: Out of all players? I thought only women.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, let's see. Sampras is not my favorite player, but I think he's the biggest of all time. I think always the No. 1 at the time, you play right now. Tennis has improved in the years, so I think always the player in this time, this decade or century is always the best one, in the present year, I got it (laughter).