U.S. OPEN

September 11, 1993

Gigi Fernandez

Natalia Zvereva

Q. After you guys won the first set, did feel tight, things start-- did you get nervous at all?

NATASHA ZVEREVA: Well, I wasn't like conscious. Maybe a little bit nervous but I wasn't conscious there thinking, yeah, I'm nervous or anything like that.

GIGI FERNANDEZ: Yeah, I think it got a little tight particularly close to 3-All, I know when I served at 4-3 I played a really tight game, so, there was some nerves, obviously, that ball doesn't drop so fast--

GIGI FERNANDEZ: Well, they got better also, I think the she doublefaulted at 30-All twice, and they got better and started getting darker and we had the lights and then playing at night, which is difficult for us, particularly for me. So, just unlucky.

NATASHA ZVEREVA: Arantxa was a bit down in the first set.

GIGI FERNANDEZ: Kind of out of it.

NATASHA ZVEREVA: Yeah, not really-- and after they broke us, she got very confident. She started to psych up and going for the shots.

GIGI FERNANDEZ: I think it's just another loss. I mean, we won six Grand Slams in a row. How lucky do you want to be?

NATASHA ZVEREVA: It would have been great to win the Grand Slam. We have to be proud of what we've done and what we've accomplished. It will hurt, I'm sure. It's too bad we had to wait so long to play this match. We played our last Tuesday and I think that played a part for me, it was really a chance for me.

NATASHA ZVEREVA: My fault anyway, I got sick.

GIGI FERNANDEZ: She has the fever and the flu, so it's difficult to win four Grand Slams in a row. Everybody has to be fit for eight weeks, two weeks of Grand Slam be and if one person gets sick or injured and I think just to be able to do what we've done and deal with the injuries and NATASHA has been sick for the Grand Slams and we were able to win. It can happen.

NATASHA ZVEREVA: Because I was in such a good form, I was moving well and stuff, but, I didn't-- I was in bed for one day, not doing anything, and then I came out and one day I was like really out of there. I was very weak and just-- I don't know, bad.

GIGI FERNANDEZ: Bad timing.

NATASHA ZVEREVA: No, I was-- my body was a bit weak at those two-- like yesterday, I had-- I was really, really weak, and today at practice I thought I was not moving well, but I guess my adrenaline kept coming up in the match, so I didn't have a lot of problem with that.

NATASHA ZVEREVA: I think there were two drunk teenagers who just ran behind us.

NATASHA ZVEREVA: I kept very calm until after the match.

NATASHA ZVEREVA: And then I nicely showed something to them. I don't want to say what.

NATASHA ZVEREVA: Sorry?

NATASHA ZVEREVA: What?

NATASHA ZVEREVA: My English is not that good, I'm sorry.

GIGI FERNANDEZ: Yeah, right.

GIGI FERNANDEZ: I was thinking about it 24 hours a day-- excuse me. You know, we knew this was the match we had to get through in the Slam. Probably we saw what happened with the bottom half and we were progressing well, playing every other day and getting better, played really well, and we played our quarters and we were waiting four or semi on Thursday, and it rained and Friday, we couldn't play because Arantxa requested not to play two matches in one day and then she ended up losing, so it didn't matter, and then Helena was-- we couldn't play, I think, one Thursday, so we were actually scheduled Wednesday, so we played on Monday, it was five and a half days, so that, you know, you're thinking about it 24 hours a day coming out here and practicing and just waiting and waiting to get on. It started well, got a little tired and it got better, and-- it happens.

GIGI FERNANDEZ: Financially-- I mean, we won the prize money.

GIGI FERNANDEZ: I don't think it's going to change anything. We're the best team in the world, whether we won this or not. I don't think-- I think the bonus they weren't saying they were going to give it us to-- the million dollar bonus wasn't on our minds.

Q. Thank you.