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MERCURY INSURANCE OPEN

August 7, 2011

Abigail Spears

CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA

Q. Just talk about what it's like to be in your hometown and making a run to the tournament final here and playing a championship match here on stadium court.
ABIGAIL SPEARS: Well, this tournament is definitely special for me. I grew up selling programs and being a ball kid for Ronnie, still working with the ball kids. I've known pretty much everybody that's been a part of this tournament for a long time.
It's beautiful, paradise, you couldn't ask for a better location for a tournament. Yeah, like I said, I mean, my mom and all her tennis friends would always come out here and it's just a special event for me.
To be able to get to the finals this week, I've never done well here. I think last year we beat Pennetta-Dulko first round, but I don't think I've ever gotten past first round in singles or the main draw here and definitely not doubles.
It's been a great week, and I'm glad that hopefully we can build on that for the US Open.

Q. I want to bring up an incident that happened when you were playing Greta Arn. She hit a ball long and she ended up getting the point. I still don't understand that even though I saw it out, the chair umpire had an explanation, but he is an Italian with an accent so I couldn't understand what he was saying. So what kind of a rationale did they give you for that?
ABIGAIL SPEARS: Well, I didn't agree with it, obviously. But he hit a ball. I was straddling the baseline as I do. I don't like to back up, and the baseline umpire or linesman called it out, and I took it on the rise. But the chair overruled it.
Instead of replaying the point, because I had hit it, said that she had called it when I hit the ball in the net. But I sort of disagreed with that because I took it on the rise as she called it out, so I kind of stopped.
Anyways, that was just our difference in opinion and his explanation was that she called it after I had already -- what was it, before? No, after I had hit the ball -- so it was too late and I had already missed the ball.

Q. What difference does it make if you hit the ball or not if it's out?
ABIGAIL SPEARS: I thought it was out too, but that I kind of disagreed with both points. I was straddling it, so obviously when you're standing on top of it, I have a different view than everybody else because of course I want it to be out. So I'm a little biased. So I didn't really care about that part of it, because we always make bad mistakes as players and that's their job as linesmen, and I'm going to take their word for it over the Hawkeye every day and every time. But the issue was that she had called it after I hit it.

Q. What time did you get to bed Saturday after your late match?
ABIGAIL SPEARS: Oh, I haven't been able to fall asleep before 3:00, and last night I didn't sleep much. We were kind of excited to play today, so...

Q. So you haven't had much rest before coming into this thing today, right?
ABIGAIL SPEARS: Yes and no. It's doubles. It's not like we're playing singles anymore. I mean, I played singles here, but it's different to play during the day. That is the difference.
But I think we had enough energy. I think our opponents were obviously too good for us at this moment, and they are good for a reason. They've won Wimbledon and they've won I don't know how many tournaments this year and last year. But they're very good, and we always look forward to playing them.
I think we have a little bit of a mental issue with them right now. They're kind of in our heads, but I think we just have to play a little bit more solid and not try to do so much with them.

Q. What are your plans now? Where do you go from here?
ABIGAIL SPEARS: We're going to Toronto tonight, so we're headed out.

Q. You're going to Toronto tonight?
ABIGAIL SPEARS: Yep, hopefully we have a late start, because we don't get in till 9:30 tomorrow morning.

Q. You can't qualify for singles in that?
ABIGAIL SPEARS: Oh, no, the cut was 162 for qualifying. My singles is 299, and we would have missed it anyways.

Q. Larry Willens is your coach now, right?
ABIGAIL SPEARS: Yep, yeah. We're working some. We're also working with Raj, Jill Craybas' coach, Chaudhuri. So, yeah, got Larry out here for a couple of days, stole him away from the Billie Jean King Junior event that he's working with.

Q. I want to tell you I was (Inaudible)?
ABIGAIL SPEARS: Thank you.

Q. You said you take a linesman's call over Hawkeye any day.
ABIGAIL SPEARS: Yes.

Q. Could you elaborate on that?
ABIGAIL SPEARS: I just think it's their job, and to rely on a machine -- we're going to take advantage of it, yeah. We're going to challenge a call if we can, but I don't know. I just I guess I'm a traditionalist.

Q. Is it just a feeling of yours?
ABIGAIL SPEARS: Yeah, just my opinion, personal opinion. I'd just rather it be the linesman. But, yeah, instant replay is always nice, but I don't know. Kind of liked the game the way it was, so that's just me.

Q. Could you just talk a little bit about your pairing with Raquel and sort of how that dynamic works with you and her?
ABIGAIL SPEARS: Well, we're pretty much like best friends on the tour. We've gone through a lot. We've had some tough times with our families, so we kind of have become really good friends with that, and that's how we actually started hanging out because we had her -- her father passed away before my mom did, so kind of had that in common on tour.
You have friends on tour, but nobody really understands that. So in 2008 we started playing. That was the year my mom died, and then we did pretty well.
Played in 2009, did pretty well. Then I wanted to play some singles so then we both split. She wanted to concentrate on doubles, and we've always remained good friends. Yeah, so, we just have fun. We're goofy and I mean maybe we're serious on the court, but we've got a lot of the same friends.
We went to college -- she was supposed to come to UCLA, but she actually went to Berkley, so we've known each other since Juniors. A lot of our friends growing up were the same. She's Nor Cal, and I'm So Cal, yeah, Juniors. Just known each other for a long time.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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