WIMBLEDON

June 25, 2004

Amelie Mauresmo

AMELIE MAURESMO: Yeah, I feel pretty good, actually. I'm really enjoying it. It's good to come on a surface that you can finally come in easily in good conditions. So, yeah, I'm just trying to put this game together. And so far it's going well, so...

AMELIE MAURESMO: Yeah, sometimes I can do little bit better. But, still, I think it's already, you know, it's a good level. I'm hitting on grass for more than two weeks now, so I'm feeling pretty good on this surface.

AMELIE MAURESMO: I arrived earlier, yeah, like five days before. Then I had some good matches there. So it was pretty good.

AMELIE MAURESMO: Well, you just - how do you say? - yeah, I didn't know about that. But, again, you know, I'm feeling pretty good on the surface. I like coming in. Again, I'm really enjoying myself doing that. So it's good for me to know that these kind of players that have won this tournament and that know how to play on grass are telling that.

AMELIE MAURESMO: Yeah, I feel I can do it. I felt I could do it two years ago when I was in the semis, but didn't happen. You know, you cannot say it's gonna be this time or... it's very tough to say. I just feel that, yeah, I have some chances to go til the end. So many things can happen.

AMELIE MAURESMO: Like what?

AMELIE MAURESMO: Of what I'm doing?

AMELIE MAURESMO: Yeah, I don't know (smiling). No, I feel like -- no, I don't feel that. I feel like I'm pretty sure of what I'm doing. Confident on the serve. Trying, of course, sometimes to return a little bit better. But, no, I feel good.

AMELIE MAURESMO: Well, yeah, we see a lot of injuries for couple years now. We all had our problems. But what can I say, you know? We need to play a lot of tournaments. The level of the game is, you know, stronger and stronger, and it's getting more and more difficult to win some matches. So, yeah, sometimes it can happen that an injury make a player go down a little bit. It happened to me; it happened to other players. But what can you do?

AMELIE MAURESMO: I don't know. You have to -- I think the main thing is probably shorten the season. I think November, like the championship is a little bit too late. Fed Cup is very late also. So probably shorten a little bit the season.

AMELIE MAURESMO: We are trying. Yeah, I think so. But it's not easy. We want, on one side, more money from the tournaments. And on the other side, we want to shorten the season. So we are trying to find the right balance, which is not always easy.

AMELIE MAURESMO: Yeah, I saw that. Well, I didn't see what happened because I wasn't watching at that time. But people, like, told me about it. It seemed very strange that Venus didn't pay attention to that or didn't say anything, I think. I don't know. Did Sprem notice that, or...

AMELIE MAURESMO: What can you say, you know? It's very strange, yeah. Very strange. I learned that this morning because I didn't watch the match yesterday. But I couldn't believe it, yeah, it's...

AMELIE MAURESMO: I don't know. But the thing is, apparently, she wasn't -- she didn't even pay attention to that. I mean, that's what I was told so... If you don't notice it, you can say nothing, you know? But it seems strange, yeah.

AMELIE MAURESMO: Well, they don't win as much. Again, you are talking about two, three years ago. Serena was winning all the -- I think she won the four Grand Slams in a row, not in the same year. And then Venus in the final each time. So of course when you see players being beaten, you know, a little bit more often, of course it gives you, I guess, a lot more confidence, you know, when you walk on court against them.