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WIMBLEDON

June 27, 2006

Martina Hingis

WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen. We have Martina Hingis. Questions.

Q. Were you available last night to take a penalty kick?
MARTINA HINGIS: Okay, I don't want to say something which could turn against me. No, it was a great match, a great battle. Unfortunately, not the right outcome for us.

Q. There are a lot of very good women players who are succeeding, but there's always a glitch in their game. There are very few players like yourself and Justine who are at the top of their game who are just about flawless in technique. How do you explain that? Why aren't there more players out there with great technique rather than just sheer power?
MARTINA HINGIS: I don't know. You ask the coaches. Myself, I do not respect many of the coaches who are out there because I don't think they're doing the right thing with the girls.
I don't know what the reason is, whether they're not watching or why they do things which are technically incorrect, even today. But, you know, everyone has its own way how they got there. You know, I really don't know. You would have to ask them why they think that's right or that's wrong.
I mean, what is right and what's wrong?

Q. Can you expand on what you meant by you don't believe in a lot of the coaches that are out there. What do you mean by that?
MARTINA HINGIS: That they're not doing -- like they don't teach the girls the right things, what's played today. I mean, if you watch Roger Federer, who's playing really the top-notch tennis out there, I think you always have to learn from the best. Like he is the best, so you better watch him. Go out there and watch him, what he's doing, even practice, and try to learn from that.

Q. You played some exquisite dropshots today. You seem to be really enjoying the game. Is that very much the case?
MARTINA HINGIS: Well, I had to do something, especially on grass. You have to try to have a lot of variety in your shots because somehow you always look for the ball. If you don't give the opponent the same shot twice, it definitely helps because the bounces and everything is just already so hard to get ready for, to control the ball. That's just to mix it up and so the opponent doesn't know what you're doing.

Q. What was it like to be back on the grass? It's been a while.
MARTINA HINGIS: Yeah, don't tell me (laughter). It was nice. I mean, when I got here, I felt comfortable right away. I had a good preparation. I practiced well mainly indoors. I think that's in a way somehow my secret, how I succeed here, how I've been playing well, had some success in the past. I don't think I'm the only one. When Andre won, he was practicing indoors. Somehow it just gets your technique back together again. Even this morning I hit there.
I think on grass, you can't ever teach someone to play on grass except trying to move in and just really have an offensive game.

Q. "Indoors," do you mean quicker?
MARTINA HINGIS: Quicker, yeah, but it's also the bounce is right. It's not such a huge difference. You don't have all the outside effects because on grass you're always looking, searching the ball. I feel like I need to get some rhythm before I go out there and play because it kind of messes up your technique. Once you get back in the rhythm, it's all back together again.

Q. You've been away for five years. They throw you into the graveyard the first time.
MARTINA HINGIS: I love that court.

Q. You do?
MARTINA HINGIS: Yeah, I have no bad experiences on that. I don't like Court 1, but I do like No. 2. They can have me play there all the time. I don't care.

Q. What do you like about it?
MARTINA HINGIS: It's small, intimate. Great atmosphere. Like yesterday, when I walked on the court, you really feel the fans. They're very close to you. I like that court. I never lost on that court.

Q. What is wrong with Court 1?
MARTINA HINGIS: Somehow it's a lot bigger. You feel like, I don't know, probably none of the greatest memories I have at Wimbledon.

Q. You say that everybody should play like Roger Federer. I'm sure everybody would agree with you.
MARTINA HINGIS: Well, Nadal has his own way how to beat him. So I didn't say not just everyone has to play like Roger, because you can't copy.

Q. How difficult is it, because the players say the balls are heavier, the courts - not at Wimbledon, but generally in the circuit - are slower. How difficult is it for coaches to try to get their mind around trying to play like Roger Federer?
MARTINA HINGIS: Well, like I said, Nadal found a way how to beat him. You have to be really strong to be able to do that. I think the way Roger plays is an easier way of also saving your body and not having to force yourself into so much. I think you can be (indiscernible), as well.
I think it's just the way he practices, the way he trains, the way he does things. Always open-minded, always willing to learn, just really having this kind of mind to come in, come forward. I mean, like a lot of players in Spain, the Latin players, in general, I mean, if my mom wouldn't have forced me to come in, move in, I'd be back on the baselines.
I think it really is the mentality and the coach who helps you to force and to get the best out of you.

Q. I was going to ask about the atmosphere. Yesterday when you were waiting, some of the crowd shouted something, you laughed and applauded. We couldn't hear it. Could you explain it?
MARTINA HINGIS: I think it was just that section who couldn't hear it. They were singing the Top Gun song. I don't know what it's called. They were pretty good, too. It was special, yeah. I don't think that happens all the time. It happened to me for the first time, especially here at Wimbledon.

Q. Could you talk about what it was like last night to go home with the match not complete? Did it weigh on you terribly?
MARTINA HINGIS: Not at all. I was happy to have completed that first set. That last game took forever. We had ad, deuce, ad, deuce, like five times each. I was happy to close it out, to go away like that with the first set in my pocket.

Q. What time did you finally leave?
MARTINA HINGIS: Was it like 7:30 I think they told us. Then I just grabbed something to eat real quick, went home.

Q. What did you do all the time you were here? How did you spend the time?
MARTINA HINGIS: Play some backgammon. Just hang around, I guess, in the locker room a little bit. Just watched the rain. We watched the prognosis.

Q. A couple of questions about changes in the game since you were last year. You've talked about how much bigger the players are today. Do you think someone who is 5'4", even shorter, can be a top player, top 20, 30 or top 10 player; they make up for that lack of size in movement, strategy or court sense?
MARTINA HINGIS: Well, it's a tough question. I mean, I'm already pretty much at the limit for the size. I mean, Justine and me, we are pretty much the smallest. Yeah, you have Anna Smashnova or even smaller girls, Llagostera. They're not like in the top 10.
I would say, you know, sport evolves everywhere. You don't see gymnasts who are two meters. I think it's the way future kind of puts the sport into that direction.

Q. Are you aware of the number of Asians that are now in the game than when you were playing a few years ago? Is that something you've recognized since you've come back on tour?
MARTINA HINGIS: Yeah, I mean, when I kind of moved away, it was still a lot of Russians. Now it's even more. But now it seems like it's moving more to the East, yeah.

Q. Is this the best chance you have at a Slam this year, because it's not as physically demanding as the others?
MARTINA HINGIS: It's physically demanding in a different way. You really have to bend your knees, that's for sure. If you're not going to do that, you're nowhere.
Yeah, it was like your muscles and everything, I've been practicing that. But indoors, still you're not forced to do it as much as probably here on grass, to just really be that low.
It was nice. I think also it's so much up in the head, the mental focus is so important as well. It can just turn against you, like in an instant (snapping fingers). If you're not watching, one or two shots, you lose a break, it's hard to come back from that here.

Q. Intense focus, but not like going out there against Kim at Roland Garros when you know you have to run side to side?
MARTINA HINGIS: Yeah, it's mentally more intense, yeah.

Q. What are your thoughts on the difference in prize money between men and women here?
MARTINA HINGIS: I think I would agree with a lot of the female players who are living in the 21st century. I think we can stand up for that because I think it's definitely time to have the equality. Otherwise women, probably if we weren't moving forward, women couldn't even vote today. I think we're definitely moving into that direction.

Q. What do you think of the arguments that the Wimbledon folks are making for the discrepancy?
MARTINA HINGIS: That they're for it?

Q. Wimbledon has this disparity in the prize money. They have a couple of arguments as rationale for that discrepancy. What do you think of the arguments?
MARTINA HINGIS: I don't know exactly their arguments which are against it. I don't think sometimes it's the quantity that people are out there, but it's more the quality. I think the female players just as much attract, especially at the Grand Slams, people to watch and attend the matches as male players.

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