AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 27, 2006

Samantha Stosur

LISA RAYMOND: Yeah, I mean, obviously, we were controlling the second set and we kind of let them back in a little bit. And then, you know, they're tough to play because they just kind of, you know, jerk you around a little bit. But, you know, we were playing them well and then, I don't know, I mean, I guess we just let them back in a little bit. And, you know, once you get to a breaker, you know, it's kind of anyone's game. And they went for it. You know, we had those couple match points and, you know, just didn't get it done.

LISA RAYMOND: You just say you have to start over, you have to just completely put that set behind you. You know, it's a Grand Slam final. You know, you try everything you can to just, you know, win that last set and just -- you just have to just forget about it. You know, I think we, you know, did a good job of that at the beginning. You know, we were positive with each other. Yeah, we got down that early break and then got it back. Then just, you know, I didn't play a great game at 3-All and, you know, and then they sensed, you know, the finish line.

SAMANTHA STOSUR: I think just that, you know, both of them staying back on our serves is a little bit different to a lot of teams. Then so you got to find the angles on the court, then you don't want to open up the angles too much to give them room to pass you. They were pretty good lobbers as well, so you couldn't, closing out, you couldn't really back off either. But just you just had to try and pick what they were gonna do and do it. We were doing that for a set and a half. And then they, you know -- once they got a sniff, they kind of didn't let it go and they really, I think, picked up their game a bit in the end to close it out.

SAMANTHA STOSUR: Yeah, I think -- well, I think myself anyway, I was kind of backing off a little bit and not moving forward, through the ball when I needed to be. That kind of is hard to do when they're hitting hard ground strokes at you and you're moving backwards. You've got to go forward and really mete it out in front. I kind of stopped doing that when it got close at the end of the second set and in the tiebreak.

LISA RAYMOND: Yeah, I mean, absolutely. You know, I mean, I think that any time you have a country who misses, you know, a Grand Slam in order to play their national games, I mean, they're pretty serious about, you know, patriotism. And as far as playing for their country, you know, it's obvious. There's so many Chinese girls now. When I first started playing, I couldn't name one, you know, 10, 12 years ago. Now there's -- I don't know how many were in the main draw here. And obviously, you know, they have two very good doubles teams now.

SAMANTHA STOSUR: Yes.

LISA RAYMOND: Yep. One loss isn't gonna tear us apart.