|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
TMS - INDIAN WELLS, WOMENMarch 11, 2000Cara BlackINDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA WTA: Questions, please. Q. Pretty big win for you. CARA BLACK: Yeah. I was really happy with it. Q. How does this rank with your other victories, beating Jennifer as well as she's been playing for the past few months? Is this one of the most important wins of your career? CARA BLACK: Yeah, definitely, I think so. I played Jennifer just before the French in Strasbourg last year. It was one of her comeback matches, I think. I had an opportunity there, as well, but I think it means more to have beaten her now. Q. Are you pretty happy with how your career has progressed in the pros since you were the ITF junior champion? CARA BLACK: Yeah, I have. It's been taking a while. It's been up-and-down, you know, as can be expected. But I'm happy with the way things are, yeah. Q. What adjustment did you make, if any, after the first set? CARA BLACK: I was just trying to get in more, you know, attack, get to the net. I think I hung back a bit in the first set and didn't get up to the net as much as I would have liked to. I just kept attacking, you know. Q. You had an easy Slam there in the second set, you missed it, yet you were able to come back. You could see the frustration on your face. You were able to come back after that. CARA BLACK: I had to shut that off, yeah. I just totally rushed it. I wasn't even looking at the ball. Just slammed it. Yeah, I had to put that out of my mind. Q. Set-winning game in the second set. Went on for about 15 minutes. Did you feel confident after that that you could take her in the third set? CARA BLACK: Yeah, it was. I think just to get a good start into the third set, I didn't really want to carry on playing in the second set as well as I was playing. You know, I wanted to move on. I was really happy to get that break. Q. Have Byron and Wayne given you any valuable information about life in tennis or could it not translate because they're on the men's Tour? CARA BLACK: Yeah, constantly. They're always helping me, especially just different areas, you know, with my game, with financial things, little things about traveling. All the time, they're always giving me information, helping me out. Q. What kind of information traveling? CARA BLACK: Try to eat right, don't eat all the junk in the airports, you know, drink a lot before getting on planes. You know, little things, yeah. Q. Are these kinds of events where everybody is together kind of special? CARA BLACK: Yeah. Q. You're out on your own and they have each other. CARA BLACK: You have Australian Open, a couple weeks there, Sydney, then these couple weeks leading up to Lipton, then the Slams. It's fun. It's fun for me, yeah. Q. You're brothers and sisters, there has to be a little competition. Is it fun to go out there and win? Your brothers say, "I did my job, go out and do yours tomorrow." CARA BLACK: I don't really think of it that way at all. We just spur each other on. If we win, great; if not, just more encouraging, you know. Q. Did you like the facilities today? CARA BLACK: Yeah, it's awesome. It's got a great atmosphere out there. Q. Had you given any thought to doing like University in the States? I know Byron had. CARA BLACK: Yeah, I did. I had a couple offers to go to University. I was thinking maybe of just going for a year, you know. But then I played the juniors. I was seeing everyone was going on to the Tour so young; I didn't want to waste too much time. I just thought University I can go back to always, but tennis you just have a few prime years. Q. Do you travel by yourself? CARA BLACK: No, I have a coach with me, and with my doubles partner. Q. How much do you think athleticism factors into a match like this? CARA BLACK: I think it was huge. I think that was one of the key factors today. I think Jennifer was a little tired today. I managed to get that little bit ahead of her. Q. I know you have a coach that travels with you, but do you talk to your father very often? CARA BLACK: Yeah, I do. I call back home every few days. Q. Does he offer a lot of advice or is it hard to do it from so far away? CARA BLACK: Yeah, he's just more encouraging than anything. It is tough to give advice when he's not really here. Q. Some of us went out to visit him in Zimbabwe. He said he had you all up at five in the morning, something about the contract. CARA BLACK: Yeah (laughter). We used to get up at five in the morning before we went to school and practice for an hour or so. Then when we got back home like at two o'clock, and then at four o'clock again. Q. Were there many times when you said, "I want to roll over and get more sleep"? CARA BLACK: For sure, yeah (laughter). He kept us going, which was good. He was always encouraging, you know, willing us on. It's paying off now. Q. How often do you get back to Harare? CARA BLACK: Every two months or so. Q. You weren't there for the Davis Cup? CARA BLACK: I was there for the Saturday and the Sunday. Q. Was that exciting to see it in your hometown? CARA BLACK: It was amazing, just great. You know, my two brothers brought America to little Zimbabwe. It was just an amazing feeling for everyone to show the people what tennis really is there. Q. Was this more fun than meeting Tom Cruise? CARA BLACK: Yeah, it was. Q. When did you meet Tom Cruise? CARA BLACK: It was a couple Wimbledons ago when we were juniors. Q. What is the biggest win or biggest moment of your tennis life? CARA BLACK: I'd say probably winning the juniors at Wimbledon. That was pretty special for me. You know, Wimbledon has always been high up there in my standards. Just singles and doubles, it was just an amazing feeling, you know. Q. What year was that? CARA BLACK: '97, I think. Q. Done anything fun out here besides tennis? CARA BLACK: Not yet, no. We might go up to Big Bear and ski or snowboard for a little while. I've never done it before, so... Q. Do you have any specific goals in your career where you'd like to be ideally? CARA BLACK: Yeah. This year I'm hoping to reach -- you know, get into the Top 20, make a breakthrough, and eventually as the years go on, like Top 10, see how far I can go. Q. I've heard a theory that somebody like you who likes to get to net, it takes a bit longer to develop that style and perfect it. Do you think there's anything to that? CARA BLACK: I think a little bit, yeah. I think it takes a little bit longer to groove it, to find the confidence to do it in matches. It's easier to do it in practice. But, you know, to go out there and to put it into play is a different thing, so yeah. Q. When you made your adjustment today, that's when you won. CARA BLACK: Sorry? Q. When you were hitting so hard from the back court, you made the adjustment to rush the net, that's when the game turned around. CARA BLACK: Right, yeah. Q. Which universities had you received offers from? CARA BLACK: Stanford, a couple in Texas. I can't even remember. SMU I think it was, yeah. Q. Do you have a home base anyplace else besides Harare? CARA BLACK: London sometimes. Both my brothers have got apartments there, so yeah. Q. Who do you think is the best player in the women's game? CARA BLACK: I'd say Martina. Q. Her consistency? CARA BLACK: Yeah. I mean, she's got incredible feel, you know. She goes out there and she's in control, you know, all the time. I mean, I admire that for someone my height. Q. That's someone you would sort of model, in some ways, yourself after? CARA BLACK: In some ways, yeah. Q. Both of you guys were having problems holding your service game. What did you do to try to get back on track? CARA BLACK: It was kind of tough out there. The court surface, it's pretty hard to get your serves going. You know, it sits up a lot. But I was just trying to work on getting more first serves in, putting a bit more spin on. Q. Do you think that's a major problem out here? Seems like a lot of people were having trouble holding their serve. CARA BLACK: Yeah, it's just sitting up and it's easy to return. End of FastScripts…. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|