US OPEN

August 28, 2002

Elena Bovina

ELENA BOVINA: Yes. I just found my rhythm from the beginning and I knew it was going to be a little bit windy outside. I just tried to make a lot of balls, especially at the beginning of the match, you know, make her play. I guess she just couldn't quite find her game today. You know, I made her move, I made her hit, you know, a lot of balls. I think I felt pretty comfortable out there.

ELENA BOVINA: A little?

ELENA BOVINA: Yeah, I mean, she made a lot of errors today. But, as I said, you know, it was quite windy out there. I don't know what's the reason of her playing that way. I mean, obviously it's not my problem. I just try to play my game. I just tried to do what I had to do. You know, I won.

ELENA BOVINA: Yeah, I'm trying toward the direction, trying to move forward as much as I can. I did it a few times today. I did a few approaches today. I won a couple of good points at the net today. But I still think I can do it more often. It's just something that I'm not quite used to yet. But I think I should do it a little bit more.

ELENA BOVINA: Yeah. I mean, that's what I have in mind right now. That's what I'm working on. For sure, I mean, women's tennis is progressing, it's moving forward. You know, it's more physical, it's power, so you have to follow it, you have to make adjustments to your game and improve it.

ELENA BOVINA: Yes, both. I've been practicing in Moscow basically all the junior years that I've been playing. I went for a couple years to Nick's. I went back home again. Now I'm kind of, you know, wherever. It's all over the place. Sometimes if I play in the States, I practice in the States. If it's in Europe, then I'm back home.

ELENA BOVINA: Basically it was a great experience at Nick's. He's a really great coach, I think. He's great technician. You know, he sees technically like mistakes unbelievably well. You know, probably there's not like particular reasons. Was just for me time, you know, to move on, to play tournaments. Basically he had a lot of children, too, that he was coaching. Like he couldn't concentrate only on you because he had Paul Henry, Xavier Malisse. I kept counting, counting. He had a bunch of kids. It was hard this way. He's definitely one of the great coaches I ever met.

ELENA BOVINA: Yes. I really admire, you know, John. I met him. I was so happy and excited. We even hit at Roland Garros a few times, Wimbledon. He's really clever. He's really smart. I mean, he's been the best player, you know, in the world. I had a lot of great experience just by talking to him. He told me a few things here and there. I mean, I'm thankful for this. And also Brad Gilbert has been helping me a little bit also. I've been practicing at his house in California for a few weeks before Los Angeles. You know, he helped me unbelievably also. I mean, he's unbelievable guy. He knows so much that it's just scary. I mean, yeah, also he helped me a lot.

ELENA BOVINA: The most important thing? You know, there was not such thing as the most important thing. Everything that he says is important because you know he's just a legend, you know, of tennis. It was a lot of stuff. It was not like one thing that he said, "This is the most important."

ELENA BOVINA: He's a really good friend of my coach. They're like unbelievably good friends. You know, Brad invited us for a couple of weeks before, to prepare for the series of tournaments in the States. He has his court at his house. It was just great. Unbelievable experience for me. I think from that point on I improved with my game unbelievably.

ELENA BOVINA: I didn't even see the draw. Every time I play, I try to play like one match at a time. All I knew at the beginning of the tournament is that I play Clarissa Fernandez the first round. Then the next day, you know, my coach told me who I played next. I didn't even see the draw, so I didn't know I was going to play Dokic. It really didn't matter to me. I just wanted to work on my game and try to improve my game. For me right now winning is not that important. It's more important, you know, to try new things that I've been working on, see how they go. Whatever feels comfortable for me, just keep doing them in matches.

ELENA BOVINA: Who?

ELENA BOVINA: No, I never did. You know, she's probably tired. As I said, I don't know what's the reason, you know, why she was not maybe a hundred percent today. But this happens, you know. It's not that she's the only player out there that happen something like that. It happens to every player. What you do is you just try to find a way out of this situation, try to go through that day. You know, maybe she didn't feel -- maybe she's sick or something, I don't know. You know, basically she was trying to go through the day. I knew, you know, that she's not -- like she doesn't play her best tennis. I was just solid. I just made her hit a lot of balls.

ELENA BOVINA: Yes, I got a little bit nervous there. Not that nervous; I got confused a little bit because the situation, I wasn't familiar with, it was something new to me, to play a Top 10 player. Especially it was a long match, I got a little tired. Of course, you know, I was like thinking about serving for the match, which was probably my mistake. I should just go out there and, you know, serve another game, so. But definitely today it helped me a lot, the last match against Mauresmo. I was feeling comfortable. I basically knew what to do on that service game, the last game.

ELENA BOVINA: I don't know. We're probably -- if we do something, we try to do it a hundred percent, we try to be the best. You know, it's not only Russians. I think all the players are like that. If they do something, they want to do it great, they want to be the best at it. It's just I think we had a lot of great players before. They couldn't get out of Russia. You know, was difficult times back then. Right now it's you can do whatever you want. A lot of girls go practice to Spain, on the States. They have a bunch of opportunities, you know. That's why I think, that's the main reason why. It's not like we never had any great players. We did. Unfortunately, it was just those bad times that they couldn't travel much, they couldn't get out of the country.

ELENA BOVINA: Yeah, it's pretty good. It's not the best in the world, of course. It just depends on what you want to do. But I know a lot of girls that are staying back home, like Dementieva, Myskina. Young girls like Safina, Kuznetsova. They go, they practice in Spain, I don't know. It just all depends on how you feel.

ELENA BOVINA: Basically, you know, I think it's just every player is different road. I just probably needed a little bit more time, you know, to understand, to get used to stuff because probably I wasn't quite ready like mentally to reach that high level. It's just a matter of time. I think it depends. Hingis, she was pretty fast. In one year, she was a Top 10 player. It just depends on the person probably, mentality.

ELENA BOVINA: I don't know. I don't think so. I still think Lindsay is higher than me. When we were playing, I kind of briefly looked at her. I think she was taller than me. She's still taller than me.

ELENA BOVINA: I don't know. Probably not. I haven't grown in like a year or so. I think I'm stopped pretty much. I'm glad.

ELENA BOVINA: When you grow so fast, it's difficult to adjust because you don't feel your body that well. It's tough. I remember that feeling when I was completely -- I couldn't coordinate my movements. It was just very difficult. Right now, you know, I feel pretty comfortable with my body. I still have bunch of things to improve, to work on, but I feel better. I feel good.

ELENA BOVINA: I don't know. It's a tough question. But for sure this kind of thing is in every girl's mind right now, every Russian girl's mind, you know, to reach a higher level, to become a Top 5 player. I mean, we're all trying. We're all going to try to do our best. We definitely have a good opportunity there.