TELECOM ITALIA MASTERS

May 16, 2003

Amelie Mauresmo

AMELIE MAURESMO: I would prefer to win in two, yeah, that's for sure. But, you know, eventually I was ready. It was close, you know. It was very close. Very tough points in that tiebreak - long points, long rallies. But, you know, I was there still.

AMELIE MAURESMO: Not much, no. Not today.

AMELIE MAURESMO: I don't know. I was feeling good in that rhythm. I never do too many dropshots. That's not my favorite thing.

AMELIE MAURESMO: Yeah, I could feel that I was playing well and I could, you know, obviously feel it was a good game. I think it went actually better and better as the game was really going. But I'm happy, you know. I'm happy about the way I played. That was really my goal today, to really let it go and try to be aggressive and try to go forward. I'm happy, satisfied.

AMELIE MAURESMO: I was 40-love? Okay, yeah.

AMELIE MAURESMO: To be honest, I didn't ask myself that (laughing). I was just really concentrating on my game. Yeah, I didn't really think about what she should do, you know. I am just trying to think about what I'm supposed to.

AMELIE MAURESMO: Yeah.

AMELIE MAURESMO: Yeah, at some point she was little bit pissed off. But I think she does that very often, and I'm not sure it's getting her concentration somewhere else. I think -- I'm sure she's used to, you know, do these things. But, you know, I just try to stay in there even though sometimes I was set point down, and it worked out for me today.

AMELIE MAURESMO: Well, we'll see tomorrow. We'll see that tomorrow. I'll tell you after the match. No, I think -- yeah, it's gonna be interesting to play against her on clay. Obviously, never have played against her. I've had, you're right, two sets easy losses against her in the last few meetings that we had. So nothing to lose, just try to, again, play my game and, you know, try to, you know, keep improving. And for the first two matches, I don't think I had the matchpoint.

AMELIE MAURESMO: No, I don't think so.

AMELIE MAURESMO: Oh, that's a... No, I think, yeah, obviously, center court is not full and it's a shame, I think, that people maybe do not get interested enough in tennis. I'm sure in the weekend it's gonna be better, and I hope so. But I'm not sure it's, you know, solution, to move it somewhere else.

AMELIE MAURESMO: Yeah, I feel good. I feel physically strong. Hopefully, it's gonna, you know, stay like this and I can really work on my game without thinking about, you know, getting out of injuries. So far it's going on well for this year even though I had the problem at the beginning of the year. But, you know, it's okay for the moment, so...

AMELIE MAURESMO: Well, at Key Biscayne I was going out of being sick for 10 days, so I couldn't really have enough strength and energy to really move and make sure I put that ball in. So, you know, since then I worked -- I felt better, first. Then I worked hard on my physical training. So it's better, much better.

AMELIE MAURESMO: Yeah, I just wake up some day and... (smiling). No, of course it's related to clay court. You cannot, obviously, play the same way you play on hard court or grass court than you play on clay court even though I'm trying to be aggressive, I'm trying really to go to the net and go forward. But you can't -- I think you cannot play the same way. So it's not that I wake up some day and think to myself, "I'm gonna serve and volley." No, that's not this (smiling).

AMELIE MAURESMO: Well, I just saw the first three games. But, yeah, I think she has some weakness and, obviously, when she's playing well, when she really feels good, it's very hard to play against her. But, hopefully, you know, I have some keys to make her really work hard.

AMELIE MAURESMO: Yeah, I think they are talking about it a lot, but I'm not there, so (smiling). That's what people tell me.