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NASDAQ-100 OPEN

March 26, 2006

Jill Craybas

MIAMI, FLORIDA

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. That was a good follow-up win.
JILL CRAYBAS: Yeah.
Q. How are you feeling? I mean, the draw is starting to open up and you're cruising right now.
JILL CRAYBAS: Yeah, no, I feel great. I mean, woke up today, I felt pretty good considering it was a long match yesterday. So I felt pretty refreshed and I got a good night's sleep. I just was ready to go today.
Q. Were you able to bring yourself down a little bit?
JILL CRAYBAS: Yeah, I mean, obviously I enjoyed the moment yesterday but I knew that I had another round to play the next day so I tried to keep my focus and, you know, I'll celebrate after.
Q. Have you played Zheng before?
JILL CRAYBAS: Only once and it was a while ago, it was three or four years ago. I played her in China, yeah.
Q. What happened?
JILL CRAYBAS: I won. Was a really long match. Very long match.
Q. She gets them back?
JILL CRAYBAS: Yeah, we play a little bit similar, run a lot of balls down, get a lot of balls on the court. So it should be a good match.
Q. I know you say you live for the moment. Do you get a chance in that moment to look ahead at the draw at all?
JILL CRAYBAS: No, I don't. One match at a time.
Q. Superstitious?
JILL CRAYBAS: Not really superstitious, that's just how I've always looked at the draw, just one match at a time.
Q. This crop of Chinese players are is coming in. Do you see a type of style you can identify?
JILL CRAYBAS: They're all just great hitters, they have a lot of energy, they're just really confident right now and you can tell they have fun out there when they go out there and play. They do hit the ball pretty similarly, pretty much flat and hard, most of them hit it like that.
But, you know, you can tell they're just out there to have fun and that's why they're doing well.
Q. Have you played Dementieva before?
JILL CRAYBAS: About three or four years ago as well, yeah.
Q. How did you do?
JILL CRAYBAS: I won, yeah. It was on clay, I think, in Charleston.
Q. You attack her serve.
JILL CRAYBAS: God, it was so long ago, I can't even remember. And it was a completely different surface than a hard court, so...
Q. (Inaudible)?
JILL CRAYBAS: Are you looking forward to the draw (laughing)?
Q. Jamea Jackson plays...
JILL CRAYBAS: Petrova today.
Q. If she loses, you're the only American standing.
JILL CRAYBAS: Is that so.
Q. Is that a strange feeling?
JILL CRAYBAS: A strange feeling, no,. You know, there's a lot of cases where, I mean, sometimes there's only one American left in the draw. I mean, obviously, I want the Americans, you know, to do great. You know, I follow their progress all the time.
But, you know, if I'm the last one standing, I'll do my best to stay in there.
Q. You've been on the scene a long time. Of course we don't know where the Williamses are going at this point, but when Lindsay retires, do you feel there might be a gap in talent after them? Who do you see coming up that might be able to...?
JILL CRAYBAS: I think, I mean, everyone out there has the potential to get up as high as, you know -- to get up to the Top 20, Top 10. You know, I think a lot of it just has to do if you believe you can get there. I think there's a lot of talented American players out there that have the potential to get there, I think it's just a matter of if they believe in themselves enough.
I think most of the Americans out there today are talented enough to get there.
Q. Is there any younger player that has really impressed you? A junior, just out of Juniors?
JILL CRAYBAS: I prefer not to name specific names, but I think there's a lot of good Juniors that are out there that have the potential.
Q. How do you pronounce your last name?
JILL CRAYBAS: "Cray-bas."
Q. Did you have some bad nicknames over the years?
JILL CRAYBAS: Oh, my God, yes.
Q. Any you can tell us?
JILL CRAYBAS: I've gotten called "Crayfish", "Crayon", a lot of people say "Craybass", but what can you do.
Q. Why don't you get married, change the name?
JILL CRAYBAS: I know, I know (laughing).
Q. You having fun?
JILL CRAYBAS: I'm having a great time. It's fun. I still enjoy the game, I love it, and that's why I'm still playing, so...
Q. Did you always have this attitude? Is this kind of lately?
JILL CRAYBAS: No, I think after I got out of college I was struggling a little bit, the first couple years on the tour. I was traveling by myself and I wasn't really enjoying playing that much, you know. And then, you know, I started working with Raj, and, you know, he brought a whole different perspective of the game of tennis to me. I started just enjoying it. He's just like, you know, "Who gets to come out and play?" Just enjoy hitting the ball, the freedom you have, just go out and play and you are talented enough to play. It was a whole new perspective, I've never looked at it that way. I've enjoyed it since.
Q. When did you guys get together?
JILL CRAYBAS: About six years ago, I think.
Q. Were you ever contemplating quitting?
JILL CRAYBAS: Yeah, after college, yeah. That's how, I mean --
Q. How many years after college?
JILL CRAYBAS: Well, I took a whole year off. I played the US Open in '96 then took the whole year of '97 off.
Q. Why?
JILL CRAYBAS: I was injured. Yeah, I was injured.
And then I started January '98, and the first couple years I had considered quitting because I just wasn't having fun.
Q. What you would have ended up doing?
JILL CRAYBAS: I majored in TV and film production, so maybe something along those lines.
Q. Like producing?
JILL CRAYBAS: Yeah, producing, directing, yeah.
Q. Is that something in the back of your mind? You'd like to pursue that some day?
JILL CRAYBAS: Yeah, I'm still very interested in that. I think the industry has changed so much since I've graduated so I'd probably have to relearn a lot of things, obviously, because each company has their own style anyway.
Q. Have a degree in it?
JILL CRAYBAS: Yeah.
Q. So you could edit tape?
JILL CRAYBAS: Yeah, editing was one of my favorites actually, yeah.

End of FastScripts...

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