THE LIPTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 23, 1997

Martina Hingis

MARTINA HINGIS: I have a nice present for you. There's a cute thing I found on the court. One of Venus' pearls.

MARTINA HINGIS: I came on the court. I wasn't nervous at all. I just couldn't hit the ball the way I wanted to hit it. She started pretty well. I started to serve. I was with the wind. I just didn't serve so well. She was very aggressive in the beginning, and I wasn't really ready at that time. But later I started to improve my game a little bit. What I said in the locker room to my mom, "I kind of made her play worse than I did." I felt pretty comfortable with my game today, better than two days ago.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, you saw. I had a breakpoint when it was 2-Love on her serve. I played against the wind, and it's hard to beat. She is a very powerful player from the baseline, too. She has a lot of topspin on it, too. She makes the pace, she makes the court free for herself, so it's hard to get it back. I knew I had some chances. I made some points. Then I came to serve with the wind, it was a lot easier then.

MARTINA HINGIS: Louder, please.

MARTINA HINGIS: For me when I was on the court, it was just a player. As the other one, too, she's the same age as I am, two heads taller or maybe three. It's weird. I just didn't grow so much when I was little. It's different. It doesn't seem that she's the same age as I am at all. But it's a different feeling to be out there on the court, the same age player as an opponent. That never happened before. I just played Anna before, and she's a year younger.

MARTINA HINGIS: I didn't feel the pressure. Well, there was a little bit because, you know, you're No. 1 and you kind of have responsibility to players who are lower ranked than you are. I just didn't want to lose to her, as nobody else wants to lose to her. You never want to lose to somebody who is the same age as you are, even younger, who is usually the worse player than you. At the moment, there are many lower ranked than I am. I just wanted to go out there and have fun, play a good match.

MARTINA HINGIS: Yes, I saw the game. It was a good match, yes.

MARTINA HINGIS: From what I saw, Jenny first made a lot of pressure, she wanted to make the pace. She was playing very powerful. I think I can do that against her because I'm not as strong as Jenny for one reason. Jennifer also made a lot of mistakes. She was leading. She just lost the concentration a little bit or, I don't know, she was maybe nervous. I don't know how she felt. She just also never gives up, Venus. For sure she's going to be a good player, if she's going to play more matches, get used to all this what happens around the tournament.

MARTINA HINGIS: I was confident because I knew I have a different game anyway. I can talk about that match or just make something -- or make a tactic from that match I saw because I have a completely different game.

MARTINA HINGIS: Me?

MARTINA HINGIS: Today for sure. But she made a lot of mistakes with my second serves. She just tried to hit it and make points from it. She made like I don't know how many points. It wasn't so good as the other day against Jennifer. She served better, she made a lot of points, but also a lot of mistakes from my second serve.

MARTINA HINGIS: It's hard to say. Today I won. We'll see what's going to happen next time. I mean, there are so many other players, too, which I'm worried about.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, she's going to play more tournaments, improve. If she would play more tournaments, she would -- more matches, she would know what she should do in particular points or games.

MARTINA HINGIS: Yes.

MARTINA HINGIS: You can't say. You can't tell. If she's going to have that, you don't know what other mistakes she would make. I have my good points, and I have also my bad things.

MARTINA HINGIS: Yes, also. I think today most of the time, mainly I won with my head that much. I just was thinking a lot on the court because I knew I'm not hitting the ball as well as I also did the other tournaments, so I just tried to think a lot and make her play. Today I tried to change the rhythm, come to the net, be more aggressive, something.

MARTINA HINGIS: For sure she likes if you hit it very powerful to her. She just makes the court look so small, you don't really -- against other girls, sometimes we make the points already. Against her, you don't because she's always kind of there. She makes one, two steps and she's there. That's a difference against her. The faster you play, the faster the ball comes back. Sometimes against the other players, they just try to hit it somehow. She just hits it even harder or better back.

MARTINA HINGIS: That's one of these things. She looks very tall on the court, when she steps into the net. There is still a lot of space to pass her. From what I saw yesterday, her volleys are not so good as maybe some other players which are smaller. She doesn't really know where the ball is going to go.

MARTINA HINGIS: Yeah, that was hard today (laughter). That's harder.

MARTINA HINGIS: Oh, really? Well, I'm going to beat her there, for sure.

MARTINA HINGIS: Oh, that's nice. That's a lot of self-confidence, which I don't -- slowly I'm getting there. I don't have so much self-confidence after winning one match.

MARTINA HINGIS: That's true.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, I haven't played Anna for a long time. Before she played against Miyagi, I played just ten minutes with her, just kind of hit it. We played just a couple points, maybe five minutes. She hit the ball very hard and very fast, and she won the match very easily later. I think she's going to improve. If she's going to be allowed to play more tournaments, she can be dangerous. It's hard to talk about these girls because I think I'm much more worried about other players than actually those two because they are not on the Tour all the time. I think Rubin is a tough player, Lindsay Davenport, she won last week that tournament, Irina Spirlea, Anke Huber didn't play so well for last two weeks. I always had hard matches against Anke.

MARTINA HINGIS: Right. Jana Novotna, she beat me last two time.

MARTINA HINGIS: From the baseline?

MARTINA HINGIS: I think Monica hits it very hard, if she's in good shape. Well, Steffi for sure, from her forehand. Mary Pierce hits it very hard, too. But Monica, I think she's the toughest player.

MARTINA HINGIS: Sometimes I try (laughter). I just try to hit it even faster than they do. I need the power from them. If I get to the ball, I can use the power from their points or their games. It's hard to make the power from myself. I'm just playing with a long body, and it helped me a lot already, but it's still hard.

MARTINA HINGIS: It really does, yes.

MARTINA HINGIS: Never really it was a question. As long as when I play the junior tournaments, I was still -- I still could do it with the school together. In Switzerland it's too hard to mix it up.

MARTINA HINGIS: I was never thinking about it to go really to school, as soon as I got the chance to play tennis as a job, be a professional, I spend so many weeks on the Tour, all the years, so I stopped.

MARTINA HINGIS: Physically, I'm not as tall as Venus or Steffi. I think it's a good sport to do if you're not that tall as the other girls are. If I couldn't walk, you mean, if I would be in a wheelchair or something?

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't have to give an answer to this question.

MARTINA HINGIS: Since Australia.

MARTINA HINGIS: Yes. And I haven't lost a match since there yet.

MARTINA HINGIS: That was in an exhibition match actually, or before. I don't really know.

MARTINA HINGIS: I mean, a ball boy throw her the ball. I don't know how she caught it, but she broke her finger. She played the match. I don't know how she tried to play it. It wasn't my mistake, no.

MARTINA HINGIS: That's not true. A ball boy did it, I think.

MARTINA HINGIS: Yeah. But I don't really know. She must know it better. I just don't want to tell you (laughter).