US OPEN

September 13, 1998

Jelena Dokic

Q. Where is your family from?

JELENA DOKIC: Yugoslavia. Yeah, it was fairly hard, that's the reason why we moved. I think it was a better place to live anyway.

JELENA DOKIC: No.

JELENA DOKIC: 15.

JELENA DOKIC: April, next year.

JELENA DOKIC: Yeah.

JELENA DOKIC: Yes, it does. I think -- I knew it was going to be fairly tough going into the tournament, but I knew if I played well I could win. There is a lot of matches and a lot of good players to beat. I knew I had to play well to win. You got Pat and Mark playing the final, just the -- I think that Aussies doing quite well now. I think we need someone in the women's -- we need a few more players to be ranked better than they are. We've got good men. You look at Rafter and Mark, I would like to be up there. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Hopefully, yeah, we've been doing quite well and playing well.

JELENA DOKIC: Sydney. I'm planning to play juniors in the Orange Bowl (sic) this year. I am actually playing a WTA event, going to try to get into it.

JELENA DOKIC: I don't know. I'm limited so I might play that. It was huge at home. I think I got my confidence then and played very well just doing it for Australia it was great to get us back to group two. Then I was trying to get home and getting ready for this. The juniors are better players, but I think still playing in the juniors if you look at the top juniors Carol Black is doing well. I think the top juniors -- it's good to play the juniors tournament there is a lot of good players, to win those matches are very important. You sort of got to get used to those players. I've been working on pretty much everything with Leslie, groundstroke, a bit of everything. You can always improve. You need a lot of shots you have to have everything to play.

JELENA DOKIC: Yes, definitely, I was No. 1 after the French, a couple points behind right now. But by winning this I'm back to No. 1., that's one of my goals to finish this year -- to finish No. 1. I think that's fairly important to me. I wanted to win a Grand Slam anyway. I got close in all the Grand Slams. I really wanted to win this one and get my No. 1 ranking back.

JELENA DOKIC: Semis, Australian. Finals at the French. Semis at Wimbledon.

JELENA DOKIC: Rollerblading, shopping, but I haven't got much time for that. I don't think tennis players have got a lot of time.

JELENA DOKIC: No, not right now.

JELENA DOKIC: I am actually doing correspondence in Dover Heights, in Sidney.

JELENA DOKIC: History and science, I hate math.

JELENA DOKIC: No, just (inaudible), she's always traveling with me now.

JELENA DOKIC: Brother, seven.

JELENA DOKIC: No.

JELENA DOKIC: Yugoslavia.

JELENA DOKIC: Yugoslavian at home, sometimes English. They speak to me, but my brother and I speak English all the time. No, not really I think every player is different. It's just the way you play, you cannot sort of copy someone else of what they are doing. I've been told a lot that I sort of play like them. You shouldn't model your game on anyone because the game you play is always different then someone else's. I am actually going to speak to Mark in 15 minutes, before he goes on.

JELENA DOKIC: Groundstrokes, I think I pretty much do everything in my groundstrokes. I've been working on my volley and my serve has improved compared to the way it was. I think my serve has sort of helped me. Semis, Australian. Finals, at the French, and semis at Wimbledon.

JELENA DOKIC: Six.

JELENA DOKIC: My Dad sort of got me into it. I had chances at Wimbledon and I sort of always look back at that. I had chances there. I should have won it, but that passed. I was sort of -- I always take it one at a time. That was an important point that I said I was not going to miss. I think you should always take the first chance because anything could happen after that. Plus I came back from a lot of matches, match point down. I like it a lot, I'm used to it now. Sidney is great. I like to play. Two years away is still a long time, anything could happen. But I like to play. I've been in Australia for five years. Yeah, and that was the main reason. It was very hard over there to play tennis and get out of there to play tennis and travel, it was very hard. In terms of everything, it doesn't matter how much you were earning, it was still very hard.

JELENA DOKIC: I was away for ten weeks, then I was home for a week, went to play Fed Cup, played for three weeks, now I'm back up (inaudible.) I like traveling. The time goes fairly quickly. I think traveling on the junior circuit, I really enjoy it. When I've got time, yes. She says you should look at this player and see what he does, or see what she does. I think that's important too, the way they are playing. I am going to watch Mark and Pat this afternoon. I can't sort of finish everything when I am playing tennis. I'll leave in the morning, come back at nine and you don't even have time. When I'm away for ten weeks, I have to come back and catch up on everything. Well, my parents; my coach thought it was too much trouble so. Beginning of this year after the Australian Open.

JELENA DOKIC: It's going to be tough, I think Pat will. He's more experienced. I think Mark might be a little bit nervous, but I think Pat will. Pat has been playing great the last few weeks. He beat Pete yesterday which I didn't think he would, it's going to be tough. I don't know, it's just a matter of -- it's tough, I don't know why they're sort of doing well. We've been playing well lately, especially the men, women not as much.

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