WIMBLEDON

June 26, 2000

Louise Latimer

Q. Very good win for you. Three years in a row you've justified your wildcard.

LOUISE LATIMER: Yeah. Well, hopefully I can do a bit better this year than I have the last two.

Q. How easy was it to come back, recover that rhythm after the break?

LOUISE LATIMER: It's never easy going after rain. You never know when you're going back on court. You don't know if you should eat or shouldn't eat, should stay warm or have a shower. It's always difficult after a rain break. I managed to keep focused and came out playing better than I had actually when I came off.

Q. How do you rank that among your wins?

LOUISE LATIMER: Yeah, I mean it's up there. Obviously, she's ranked 89. You have to be a very good player to reach the top hundred. Obviously it was a very good win. I was pleased just to get through it today really.

Q. Do you believe you can carry on with this form or even better?

LOUISE LATIMER: I think I can play better. I didn't play my best match today, but I did fight hard and managed to win in the end. I'm not actually sure who I play in the next round. Whoever it is, hopefully I can play a little bit more positive and do the things that I've actually been practising rather than not do them.

Q. What was the disagreement at the start of the third set?

LOUISE LATIMER: I mean, the court was getting so slippery; it really was dangerous. She was all over the place. I was using all the strength I had trying not to just fall over. Going out for wide balls was very difficult. I think we both really wanted to stop, but they were saying, "If you wait here, see how it is." But the rain had stopped, and as soon as it had stopped, they were going to make us go back on anyway. There wasn't any point in stopping, because it was still wet when we started playing.

Q. The crowd got a bit restless?

LOUISE LATIMER: Yeah. It's understandable. They're getting into a good match. It's not nice when it has to stop.

Q. There's a real risk there?

LOUISE LATIMER: Yeah. It was actually slippery. We play with little studs on our shoes. Might as well not have been there because it was very slippery. You're just aware of it. I didn't slip over. When she pushed me out wide, it was very difficult to recover. You have to sort of go for a bit more on your shots and hope that they can't get it back.

Q. Do you think the crowd pays enough attention to situations like that?

LOUISE LATIMER: They want to see tennis, which is very understandable. The weather didn't seem to be bad enough to stop. Obviously they didn't realise how slippery the court was. If they play at club level or whatever, my parents play, whenever they're playing, maybe they don't understand we're sort of going full out, and it's actually dangerous trying to stop on turn at the speeds we're going at.

Q. What has your preparation been like for Wimbledon?

LOUISE LATIMER: I started off very well, I won the Challenger tournament a couple weeks ago, beating two top hundred players. That was the biggest tournament win of my career so far. That was good. Then I managed to win a match in the main draw at Birmingham, which I hadn't managed to do. I hadn't won a match there for three years. I didn't play too well at Eastbourne, which is a bit disappointing. I've been practising pretty well since then. Pretty good preparation, really.

Q. You played a very good service game serving for the match to hold. Were you very nervous at the start of that game?

LOUISE LATIMER: I mean, obviously I realise what the situation was. I wasn't really nervous. I was just trying to concentrate on trying to get my first serves in and then play from there. When I got my first serve in, there was a big difference if I won or lost the points. She would return my second serve very well most of the time. I knew if I missed my first serve, I was in trouble. I just tried to concentrate on just making my first serves.

Q. I'm sure you probably get asked this question a lot. With the men, we have Rusedski, Henman. Certainly on the women's side we haven't had anyone progress really well. Do you think times could be changing?

LOUISE LATIMER: I hope so. As I say, I don't know who I'm playing in the next round. Whoever it is, it's going to be a tough match. All the other girls have had really tough draws, today especially. I think Lucie and Karen are playing tomorrow. They've got pretty tough matches, as well. I mean, we come into these tournaments, and everybody, including myself, we're sort of the lowest ranked players in the tournament. Because it's Wimbledon, it's the biggest tournament that British people know, everybody seems to say, "Why aren't you winning? " If we do win, it should be, "Well done. You've done well to win the match." It's, "Oh, they've lost again." In a way, we really shouldn't be winning. It's quite tough really.

Q. Suppose it's even tougher for you as our No. 1. Do you feel any responsibility?

LOUISE LATIMER: I don't really think about it. I just try to play the matches that I've got to play really and think about where I'm playing the tennis. Hopefully the ranking will look after itself.

Q. Silly question really. You can give a silly answer. If all matches were played on grass, would our girls be ranked that much higher on the performances and results?

LOUISE LATIMER: It's hard to say really because a few people have done quite well at Wimbledon partly because they play people are sort of clay court players, whatever, they don't like the grass. If every match is on grass, they're going to be sort of playing more suited to grass. It's kind of hard to say really.

Q. It would even itself out?

LOUISE LATIMER: Maybe they would be ranked higher, but maybe it would even itself out. It's hard to say.

End of FastScripts….