TMS - INDIAN WELLS, WOMEN

March 10, 2001

Evie Dominikovic

EVIE DOMINIKOVIC: Yeah, this is my biggest win in my career so far. I mean, today I didn't really expect it. I just wanted to go out there and give it my best shot. I came on top.

EVIE DOMINIKOVIC: I think my serve helped me a lot; at crucial points on my returns; when she was coming to the net, my passing shots also helped me quite a bit.

EVIE DOMINIKOVIC: Well, Nathalie is a pretty good player. There was nerves there because I was like, "Oh, my God, I'm in a winning position." I was serving 40-15. I knew that Nathalie has been out there for a while. She's won Wimbledon, was -- she was in the final of Wimbledon. She's a pretty smart player.

EVIE DOMINIKOVIC: Well, I went out there. I mean, I've been playing pretty good tennis, so I thought I would give it my best shot. I mean, I always thought I could do it, but I didn't know I was going to do it today, against Nathalie.

EVIE DOMINIKOVIC: Yeah. I was working on my game quite a bit in the last couple of years, especially this trip. I've been working with Leslie Barry (phonetic). She's helped me quite a lot. Yeah, I mean, after the juniors, I didn't really do much as I really would have liked to. I mean, it's just starting to come, and I'm pretty happy.

EVIE DOMINIKOVIC: Yeah, I mean, there's a good opportunity at home right now. Jelena is a great competitor for Australia. She's a great person to have as an idol for Australia because she's so young and she's in the Top 25, whatever she is. But it's a shame that she left Australia. You never know, she could come and play Fed Cup.

EVIE DOMINIKOVIC: No, not at all.

EVIE DOMINIKOVIC: Yeah.

EVIE DOMINIKOVIC: God, I don't know. I suppose Australia, the juniors -- we've got good juniors. All of a sudden the women juniors kind of fall off a little. I mean, the men have stayed pretty good, like Lleyton Hewitt, he was a pretty good junior. You don't see many juniors go up well.

EVIE DOMINIKOVIC: It's hard to say. We've got so many in development in Australia. I think we get kind of spoiled a little too much, so we take it for granted.

EVIE DOMINIKOVIC: No, they don't.

EVIE DOMINIKOVIC: With all the coaching. We have a lot of coaches in Australia. Like I was in Tennis Australia and AIS. Tennis Australia helped me quite a lot in my junior years. This is really my second full year that I've been traveling by myself. Before they used to pay for everything, like hotel, food, coaches. We all -- I shouldn't say. I really took it for granted. I kind of didn't train as hard as I should have. Now that I'm by myself on the road, I'm training a lot harder.

EVIE DOMINIKOVIC: Yeah, I did. I mean, it didn't come my way. I knew I wasn't training as hard as I should have been. I knew that was kind of missing.

EVIE DOMINIKOVIC: Juniors, you can get away with matches. Seniors, there's no way you can get away with matches. You've just got to stay in there, stay tough the whole match. You can't like win the first set and then go for like a wander. They're going to come on top of you, get their confidence, take the match.

EVIE DOMINIKOVIC: Oh, a lot better (smiling).

EVIE DOMINIKOVIC: I watched a bit of Farina at the Gold Coast. I didn't really watch and study her. I know Jankovic won the Australian Open juniors. I watched her playing a bit of an Australian girl at the Australian Open. I wasn't really concentrating, watching how she really plays.

EVIE DOMINIKOVIC: It's too early.

EVIE DOMINIKOVIC: My goal is to -- beginning of this year was to make it in the Top 100. Now it's Top 50 by the end of this year.