U.S. OPEN

August 30, 1995

Martina Hingis

MARTINA HINGIS: She just-- she doesn't know. She doesn't now how she felt. She was playing badly. She made a lot of mistakes. She doesn't know.

MARTINA HINGIS: She said that she knows she wasn't very nervous, but you just -- you never know how you are going to play, and you have nothing to lose. And she definitely improved during the second and the third sets, but that her serve was horrible.

MARTINA HINGIS: Yes, I play in Zurich, Filderstadt and Brighton.

MARTINA HINGIS: She said she hasn't played since Paris, and she just -- she wasn't playing well there. She made a lot of mistakes. It just wasn't her game, this particular game. And it is not a question of her being No. 8, just not a good game.

MARTINA HINGIS: She hasn't seen her playing in a while. She hasn't played her in a while. She knew she had to hit the ball back and keep getting it back and just play faster and keep it going.

MARTINA HINGIS: She said that the first time she played in a big place was at Wimbledon, and that last year she played in the grandstand and there weren't that many people. And the other thing is that talking about the Americans and how undisciplined they are. You have to get used to the Americans and the way they are. But in general, it was a great feeling to be out there, she felt good.

MARTINA HINGIS: Between every ball, they are going all over the place, just walking around. So, that is what she means by not sitting in one place.

MARTINA HINGIS: She said she is playing next -- she is playing Patricia Hy, and she, a couple of years ago, she was playing really well. She expects it to be a difficult game, but every game is a difficult game in Grand Slam. If you turn around and she feels that she has a chance with winning the game.

MARTINA HINGIS: Not so much has changed other than that she was playing the 200th ranked and now she is playing the 8th ranked. That now she feels like her game has improved, and that she feels like she does have a chance against the top-ranked players.

MARTINA HINGIS: Yesterday she bought a camera. She doesn't know. She doesn't really know. Between the tournaments she buys clothes, souvenirs.

MARTINA HINGIS: (No response.)

MARTINA HINGIS: She said about Monica that it is amazing after a two-year break that she is playing exactly the way she did as if she just stopped playing yesterday. And she is playing very well, and she is playing in a Grand Slam and that, that is really impressive. She said that, well, Martina Navratilova is 38, so that -- and now she is playing doubles. She had to quit two years ago. Maybe that -- everybody has to decide for themselves when they have to stop, and she hopes that she can play as long as possible. But there is not -- she is not giving an age saying that is too old.

MARTINA HINGIS: She said first, she said, oh, it is always the serve. It really depends on how she is feeling mentally for the game. There is, of course, a difference between playing No. 8 and No. 9. Of course, everybody doesn't want to make mistakes, but it happens, and she feels like it has gotten better and, she felt like yesterday her serve was good.

MARTINA HINGIS: She said that they work through all of the forehand, backhand serve. They work them all through, and she works the serve at the end. And that the other reality is that she doesn't have a body like Steffi Graf or Monica Seles. And that she can't hit a 200 kilometer per hour serve.

MARTINA HINGIS: She said no, not really, because Steffi has been playing the same and hasn't really changed her game and yeah, she is No. 1, but she is not -- there isn't a development, there isn't a change that she has seen, and she is No. 18 and Steffi is No. 1, but that doesn't mean that Steffi -- Steffi's game is staying stagnant and she is moving up and she is 18 versus No. 1 means that she shouldn't be changing coaches.

MARTINA HINGIS: Steffi never asked her, so she -- she played Majoli last week and that was fine, but, no.

MARTINA HINGIS: She is not the only one. There are other people that started when they were 13 or 14.

MARTINA HINGIS: She feels that she is nothing special, nothing different; that she is just doing what a lot of other people have done before her and that is a normal ---

MARTINA HINGIS: She said it doesn't really bother -- that is one of the things that you have to train to be able to do this to be able to concentrate and to not pay attention to what is going on around you, to be able to play your game.

MARTINA HINGIS: She said, first of all, she is Martina Hingis and Jennifer Capriati is Jennifer Capriati. She lives in Europe. Jennifer Capriati lives in America. It is another family. She doesn't know Capriati and there just hasn't been the same kind of theater, as she says, around her as there has been Capriati.