PILOT PEN TENNIS

August 27, 2004

Elena Bovina

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

ELENA BOVINA: Maybe a little bit, but I wasn't, you know -- I didn't give myself a chance to be surprised. You know, I tried to just be focused on every point and play point by point, you know, without thinking too much if I'm winning or losing or, you know, what's going on with her, if she's playing well or if she's not playing so great. You know, I just kept -- I was very focused out there. Maybe she didn't play her best tennis, but I definitely played well, and that's what I was looking for today.

ELENA BOVINA: Yeah, I knew I would have an opportunity to break her eventually. You know, maybe I wasn't -- I was waiting for the right moment. When I had a chance, I just took it. Maybe I wasn't getting so excited on my returns. I was taking it very seriously because, you know, if you think, "Okay, her serve is so bad, I can break her," sometimes you just get maybe too excited and you can't do it because you're too obsessed about it. I took it very seriously. When I had my chance, I took it.

ELENA BOVINA: No, it's better. It's actually better. But, you know, I think there's always something that's going to be hurting you, maybe if not a little bit, you always feel something. Maybe if it's not the back, it's the hamstring. If it's not the hamstring, it's your arm. You know, you play so much and you run. Especially on hard courts, you would get, you know, pain more than if you would play on clay court or grass because it's softer, the surface.

ELENA BOVINA: Yes, yes, just as a precaution because it was pretty bad maybe two days ago. Fortunate for me, you know, I did a lot of stretching and I saw a physio. It's much, much better today. But, you know, I just think it's better to, you know, protect a little bit.

ELENA BOVINA: Yeah. I think it's very important to find your rhythm and to find your best feeling on the court, you know, to be focused and don't care so much about the score because if you get too much involved in the score, sometimes it can take you wrong direction game-wise. But if you just think about things that you need to do throughout the match, not so much about the result, the final of the match, I think it's much better. For me it's much better.

ELENA BOVINA: Yes.

ELENA BOVINA: Definitely. But, you know, maybe sometimes girls get too focused, you know, on the return games and they kind of forget about their service games. So I think you just have to take it as just another, you know, return game. If you have an opportunity to break, you just have to take that opportunity.

ELENA BOVINA: Yeah, well, I wasn't -- I think I wasn't consistent enough with my game and my results. You know, I was struggling with a coach for a while. But now I have a very good coach. I've learned a lot from him. He has a lot of experience in women's tennis. You know, just some things, just some small things that we kind of corrected a little bit, I already feel much better. But I feel like I can improve a lot more than, you know, I already am. It's good also, I just need some time. Maybe off-season I'm going to be working on some new things. You know, I don't want to stay at this level. I want to improve my game on another level.

ELENA BOVINA: It's all of that stuff. It's footwork. But I think most of all it's mental stuff. Basically, you know, how you need to stay focused on court, you know, maybe things that bother me on the court, how to deal with those things. But it's also technique things like footwork or hitting a forehand or backhand. You know, there are many things that I can improve on. It's a good news for me. I'm looking forward to off-season to do that.

ELENA BOVINA: You know, today it just came out naturally for me if I had a short ball. Because I know Elena doesn't like when she gets pushed, she likes to stay aggressive. She doesn't like so much when her opponent, you know, play aggressive. So I kind of tried to use that as my advantage today. If I had a chance to come in, I just came in naturally really. I didn't have to force myself to do that.

ELENA BOVINA: Yeah, you know, it's funny because, yeah, we have a big group of Russians. I tell you for sure it's more fun than if, you know, there would be just two or three girls. There's so many of us, and we all get along fine. I think we're all mature enough to leave all the things, you know, on the tennis court and just be normal people off the court. All of the girls are really nice and we know each other since we were little Juniors, we were playing Juniors together, so we know each other well. We help each other a lot sometimes with advice or if someone is having problems, you know, we help each other out. There is no competition outside the court. When we're on the court, yes, we play for win, but outside we have good company.

ELENA BOVINA: Well, maybe yes, sometimes. Maybe they try to write some things. But, you know, we don't really care about that stuff. We know how we feel with each other. That's all that matters. The media can, you know, write whatever they want to really because sometimes you need something to write (laughter).

ELENA BOVINA: You know, people would be interested in reading and stuff. But we know what's going on inside of our circle. It's okay.

ELENA BOVINA: I don't think you have a chance to win a tournament without beating like three or four Russian girls now (laughter). That's okay for us. Personally, I don't care if I play against a Russian girl or if I play against an American girl. Doesn't matter for me because, as I said, I try to focus more on my game and on what I'm doing on court rather than, you know, against who am I playing and what I have to do to beat her. It also matters, but more I pay attention, you know, to myself.

ELENA BOVINA: You know, in tennis career I think you have so many opportunities. It's like every week you have an opportunity. I think also that's one of the best sports because it's so great because every week you have another chance to prove yourself, to do well. You know, if you take a sport, for example, like I have a friend, he's actually at the Olympics now, he's doing canoeing. He's been preparing for this one start for 500 meters maybe for one year now. It's so strange to me because I'm used to playing every week and having another chance every week. I think it's great. It takes a lot of pressure off you because you know if you don't make it this week, you have another chance next week. But, you know, it works better for me.

ELENA BOVINA: Maybe not the best tennis, but I'm definitely getting there. You know, hopefully I will continue same way. As I said, you know, I don't want to stop on what I have now. I want to improve more.

ELENA BOVINA: Basically everyone has a chance to get to the finals. Maybe one week you play so great, you feel great, you like the surface, you like the place where you playing. You never know really. Of course, maybe four or five or six girls are most likely to win the tournament. But you never know, you know, anybody can do it.

ELENA BOVINA: Exactly.

ELENA BOVINA: Well, you know, definitely because obviously if those girls got to the semifinals, they can't be playing bad. It doesn't really matter if it's not Williams or if it's not Davenport. For sure they are playing very good tennis if they got to the semis here. So you have to take it as seriously as any other player, any other match.

ELENA BOVINA: Well, I think they're a little bit different. Raymond likes to come into the net a lot. She kind of slices her backhand. She's playing really smart. And Dechy, I think she's more of an all-court player. You know, she has very good variety in her game. So, I mean, either/or is going to be good match.

ELENA BOVINA: Well, I hope not. You know, I'll do everything I can today to be fine for tomorrow.

ELENA BOVINA: You know, it's definitely another side of sport, being able to talk to media and, you know, be able to. You know, you have to say what you think. It's very important. I like it. I enjoy doing it, especially if I'm doing well (smiling).

ELENA BOVINA: I'm going to watch Friends. It's the best show. I watch like four series in a row, so... That's the best preparation for me.