THE LIPTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 21, 1997

Martina Hingis

MARTINA HINGIS: I think it was too windy for my mind, yes. It's hard to come out after a couple indoor tournaments and then you think you can hit the ball as you did indoors. It's a big difference. I think she almost didn't make any mistakes in the first set, also afterwards. I just gave her the chance to play her game. Maybe I like it also if it's a little faster, from indoors. She just played always the slice and you couldn't do anything from it because it was so slow. I just couldn't find my timing really today. It's always good to win a match like this, I think.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, I mean, how can you be pleased if you're losing and playing so badly? It's not as bad as it was one or two years agony, because I know I can play tennis. If you play sometimes just a little worse than you're used to, just try to get out of it, play the best you can at that moment. I was just trying to keep the ball in the game, and I won it, so it's good.

MARTINA HINGIS: I had my chances when I was leading 3-2 in the second, then it was 30-Love and I lost my serve from that point. I thought I had it already, but it wasn't. Later at 3-All, she had 40-Love at that point. It was maybe one of the most important games.

MARTINA HINGIS: I wasn't nervous at all when I came on the court, when I step out in, because I knew it's Patricia playing against me, and I've beaten her almost like three years ago at the US Open, one and a half. It was a tough match there. I thought I improved a little bit from that time. It was a hard match against, but I was just fighting against myself on the court today. That was maybe the hardest to get out of.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, it's not black and white on a paper yet, so I can't say anything about it. It's just a great feeling to go out there, be seeded No. 1. If you play as I played today, you don't feel very happy with yourself, so. We'll see what's going to happen in the next couple days. They're for sure going to be better matches. If I want to still compete in this tournament, I have to improve for the next matches, I think.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, for sure, everybody wants to play me now. Everyone, for sure, wants to beat me. It's the same thing I want to do, or what I wanted to do when I wasn't on the top. It doesn't make a difference for me. When I was a junior, I always had this feeling to go out there and everybody wants to beat me because I was the best.

MARTINA HINGIS: Jennifer I played in Sydney, in the finals. That was a really good match there. It was very hard to play her. She had one of the best matches there, I think, in Sydney. Venus I think improved a lot since I have seen her when she played Brenda. She played great in Indian Wells. I'm looking forward to see that match. One of these girls will win and play against me.

MARTINA HINGIS: Oh, it's hard to say. One day I would like to play Venus actually because it's going to be just a different game. For the spectators, it's going to be a lot of fun out there, I think.

MARTINA HINGIS: Indoor tournaments you have to wait much longer than outdoor tournaments, not because of the rain delay, but there are so long matches sometimes. What can you do? The players' lounge is full. You just trying to get out of it. It was hard because sometimes it was raining, sometimes less. Then they step on the court, they came back. It's hard to go somewhere because our apartment is just across the street, but we couldn't go there actually.

MARTINA HINGIS: I think for every sport, it's a great thing to became the best in what you're doing. That's what I was working for all my life, and now it's happening to me. It's a great feeling to be the best tennis player in the world, especially at my young age.

MARTINA HINGIS: It doesn't matter to me. If she can play, compete at this tournament, actually it's not my problem. She has to be prepared and try to play at these tournaments. If she's not able to, somebody else is going to step there.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, right at the moment, I can't say that. I want say that. I think I played four tournaments in a row, I didn't play badly, why shouldn't I say that? If Steffi is going to come back and play well, I'd like to play her once again. It's a long time I haven't played her, since New York. I had a great time.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, it only came like half year ago that I started to win the tournaments, started to play a little better than I was before. For one and a half year almost I always been in the ranking like between 15 and 20. Now it's just such a big difference to be in the top, getting better, improving in the rankings. It's a big difference.

MARTINA HINGIS: Sorry?

MARTINA HINGIS: No. If you don't change it -- if I don't change it by myself, so it's not changing. It's just like a little dream comes true right now, all the life you worked for, it's getting true, you're becoming the best tennis player in the world, so it's the greatest feeling you can get really.

MARTINA HINGIS: Oh, for sure it's not tennis. Maybe I've never had so much fun out there as I had last couple weeks. Not today actually (laughter). If you play well, you know, you can beat almost everybody in the world, or you can beat everybody if you feel in a good shape. It's great to go out there and play in front of 10,000 peoples. That's very nice to go out there. Sometimes, though, the hardest thing actually is if you do -- as I had the finals at the Australian Open, it took like almost an hour, but the press conference later, three or four times as long as the match was. That was harder.

MARTINA HINGIS: Well, I'm trying to improve everything all the time. But maybe my movement because I put a little weight on during the indoor tournaments, as many girls have the problem with, especially at my age right now. I just try to get my movement back, play the same as I did in Australia. I think you always can improve everything in your game.