PACIFIC LIFE OPEN

March 17, 2005

Nathalie Dechy

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Nathalie, please.

NATHALIE DECHY: Well, obviously I lost. But I think the first set was a pretty good level of tennis, and then I dropped mine in the second set, and she raised hers. So that make the difference on the score board.

NATHALIE DECHY: I think it was more physical drop-off. I start to be much more late on the ball, didn't run as fast. Against a girl like this, it doesn't help.

NATHALIE DECHY: Yeah, I think she start playing really well when she was down 6-5. She was with the wind, and she really start to change her serve a little bit, start to be more flat, go for -- even on the second serve, she went for some really fast serves. Same in the tiebreak, just went for her shots. And it worked pretty well.

NATHALIE DECHY: Yeah, well, she did less unforced errors, but I think I was not the same on the second set. It makes a huge difference.

NATHALIE DECHY: And?

NATHALIE DECHY: No, I don't think. You can be distracted if you think there's a mistake like at the end of the tiebreaker or something, but it was just the beginning of the match. It was not the biggest and the most important point of the match. I knew -- it was more like she was starting to be frustrated than getting something about the mistake.

NATHALIE DECHY: No. I think it was more like the matches I played before.

NATHALIE DECHY: Well, I think at the level she is, she cannot be slow. That's for sure. But I think she's moving really well. She doesn't seem like, but she's able to catch a lot of balls. She's pretty fast.

NATHALIE DECHY: Because they play like a different type of game. They're just so really -- it's so hard to play against them because they don't play like you teach about, they play just completely the opposite and it works.

NATHALIE DECHY: No, it's completely unclassic.

NATHALIE DECHY: Well, they just really solid on the baseline. They're able to lob very well. That's about it. Good team, I think. They function really well together. They're really good friends. They've been playing together forever, it helps.

NATHALIE DECHY: I think it's getting tougher to do -- like to be able to see one player really dominate the tour for many years because you need to be really fit and be consistent all the year long. And I think it's more fun to see many, many players being able to play well. So what we have on the last few years, I think it's good for the women's tennis to see like all different kinds of player: Lindsay, Amelie, the Williams, the Russian. It's like really a big competition out there and it's much better like this.