U.S. OPEN

September 7, 1994

Martina Hingis

DAMIR KERETIC: She says, well, of course they're same age and they're not -- they haven't really had the chance to become best friends or anything, but she says there's a lot of pressure from media and press and from everybody on the two of them and that makes the situation a little more intense between them, let's put it this way.

DAMIR KERETIC: She says they played in Wimbledon against each other already and that was the first time that they actually played each other, and that that match was totally different than now. Now she knew what she had to play against her and she played very well. Of course, she didn't expect to win that easily, but she kind of knew what was waiting for her.

DAMIR KERETIC: She says if they will put it up, then she'll just have to play juniors for a few more years, but she hopes that since she's already starting this year to play, that she will be allowed to continue playing, because as you know, she will be allowed to play starting -- well, actually, starting this month and she will be -- and she says it won't only effect her, there will be other players that will have to step back again that would have had already the opportunity to play this year or last year, even.

DAMIR KERETIC: She personally probably would? What can she do?

DAMIR KERETIC: She is playing Zurich, her first tournament, and Filderstadt and a third tournament. We don't know which one after this year.

DAMIR KERETIC: The week after.

DAMIR KERETIC: She says that generally, the level of play, of course, is higher than in the juniors, but even the juniors now, it's usually the first two rounds that are fairly easy and then she's already playing players that are actually playing on the pro tour. I don't know if you're aware, at the French Open a lot of the girls who played in the main draw of the lady's event were also playing on the juniors.

DAMIR KERETIC: Do you think so? I don't know. I don't think there's more pressure on her now, because everybody expects her to win every match and she's physically behind other players and for 12 or 13 year olds, I think their pressure is probably bigger than when she comes out and plays players that are actually ahead of her.

DAMIR KERETIC: In what regard?

DAMIR KERETIC: She says there's no pressure. Her mom is her coach and her friend, and the person that's practicing with her, and that she says her mom can -- is the person that can judge the best whether she's ready to play and who she's ready to play and she knows exactly how good she is. And she trusts her judgement.

DAMIR KERETIC: She just started eighth grade, she had to miss this week because of the U.S. Open. She started two weeks ago, the school year started again, and she has a racket deal with Yonex and a shoe and clothing deal with Tacchini.

DAMIR KERETIC: Yes.

DAMIR KERETIC: Yes.

DAMIR KERETIC: No. Even under the old rule, where she was allowed to play 12 tournaments a year, you have about -- your vacation time is close to pretty much three times a year, so if you schedule a tournament -- both the tournaments, Filderstadt and Zurich are both during the Swiss autumn vacation, doesn't miss one day of school. If you do your scheduling appropriately, you might have to miss maybe three or four weeks per year. That was under the old rule when she was allowed to play 12 events. Now she'll probably be allowed less of --

DAMIR KERETIC: She says for her, it's very important to go back to the -- to the school because when she comes back from the tournament, she's got a regular schedule again and she's got her girlfriends in school that she can talk about regular normal things that she's used to, spend time with her, you know, time off the court.

DAMIR KERETIC: She says she has played a few girls in the Swiss National Championships and in the Swiss Team Championships and she's beaten quite -- well, most of them, actually. Some were ranked 25 in the world already or 50 in the world and she feels if she was able to play regular, she could definitely be in the top 100 pretty soon.

DAMIR KERETIC: Are you asking me or her?

DAMIR KERETIC: She says she can't really judge, she doesn't know Jennifer. From what she heard, there might have been problems in the family and she also says that she's only starting right now and she thinks that the pressure on the players in Europe is not as big as maybe the pressure here on the players in the U.S.

DAMIR KERETIC: Her mom is actually a tennis coach, not only a tennis coach because of her-- generally. She was a coach even before and she's working-- and she's also working with other kids that are doing very, very well in Switzerland, she's very successful in doing that and she has a whole variety of things she likes to do in her free time. Mostly horseback riding. That's her biggest hobby. She likes to spend every minute that she can on horses and she likes a lot of skiing, basketball -- soccer, and those are the things she likes to do in her free time.

DAMIR KERETIC: She bought a horse.

DAMIR KERETIC: Yes.

DAMIR KERETIC: She thinks she's actually far enough now that she doesn't really need to have an idol and she doesn't really have anybody that she would say, "Well, this is the person that I want to become like." She says everybody has their own style. She's just different to the other girls. You know, she wants to develop her style.

DAMIR KERETIC: I mean, first of all, I don't know if you heard it, but she's going full-time to school. The reason why she's playing those tournaments is mainly because the level of competition is appropriate for her. She's not going to stop her education because of it. And she's only allowed to play a certain amount of tournaments. It would be silly for her to say, "I'd rather play the weaker tournaments that I'm practically winning every week anyway. I want to compete with players on my level."

DAMIR KERETIC: That's okay, I understand.

DAMIR KERETIC: That didn't answer the question?

DAMIR KERETIC: She doesn't know why she shouldn't compete against --

DAMIR KERETIC: The point is really, she says, "Look, I appear to be good enough to play against those players, why should I say, okay I want to wait another year before I compete against them."

DAMIR KERETIC: Excuse me?

DAMIR KERETIC: Until she is finished with school, another four years, probably.

DAMIR KERETIC: It is not up to us, I guess, from what I understand.

DAMIR KERETIC: If she's allow to play, she would like to play, she said all of them, what we don't know is with Australia because it's very far, and in fact, this is the first time she's traveled outside of Europe. We have been trying to keep a schedule so she doesn't have to travel very much, so I don't know that Australia would be a factor yet.

DAMIR KERETIC: If there were no restrictions.

DAMIR KERETIC: She says that it is a question of scheduling, really. How much would fit in. She will probably play somewhere between 8 and 12, really depends on how things would be going. And it's also something I have to say we haven't discussed internally, because we're waiting for the rule. There's really know point in discussing how many tournaments she's going to play if she's not allow to play more than six or four or eight. So this is what we're waiting for and that's when we start discussing schedule.

DAMIR KERETIC: I won't, no, but we'll have to see what.

DAMIR KERETIC: She says the level of play, mainly, because she says, now, in the juniors, usually the ball is going back three to four times and she gets a few free points. And when she's going to play with a professionals, she feels that she won't be getting many free points and she'll have to work a lot harder for every point. And that the girls are thinking much more professional than the juniors that she's playing against and they are practicing a lot more, three to four hours a day, and that's perhaps why she feels the level of play is going to be the main factor. She doesn't play more than an hour and a half a day, yet, so that's also a big factor for her.

DAMIR KERETIC: Horseback riding.

DAMIR KERETIC: We've spoken about that lots of times and she's not frightened. She feels totally different. She feels they come from different backgrounds and they feel they're doing everything in a healthy way. I mean, we've discussed it lots of times. You can discuss it with her if you want.