US OPEN

August 25, 2003

Kim Clijsters

KIM CLIJSTERS: I'm trying my best. I'm trying to be as prepared as possible. But that's not what I think of. You know, I try to win my match. That's what I was focusing on today. The first one passed.

KIM CLIJSTERS: Well, I think there's a lot. I think especially with the draw being so open, I think there's a lot of players now who are really tough, and a lot of players who are feeling more motivated and can, you know, cause upsets. I don't think there's one particular one. I think it's just a matter of, you know, there's a few out there, yeah.

KIM CLIJSTERS: That's not really something I worry about. I just want to focus on playing my next match. I don't think there's one player out there who thinks about who they're going to play in the final. That's not my attitude towards my matches, especially not when it's only Monday, the first day of the tournament.

KIM CLIJSTERS: Yeah, I felt good. It was hard in the beginning. I didn't play a match since I lost in Toronto. Playing another night match is always a little bit different. I've always been practicing when it was warm and humid and stuff. It was a little bit windy still out there. But I still felt good. I felt like I served well. I think that's always important. I ended well. I felt like I was moving good. That's always a nice feeling to have to take that with you into your next round.

KIM CLIJSTERS: I mean, yeah, because that means they think you're good enough and capable of doing it. Of course, that's nice if you can have sort of I think the respect from people. That's nice. But that doesn't mean because a lot of people think because I'm No. 1 in the world, the No. 1 seed here, that I'll get there like with nothing. You know, I mean, I still feel like I have to do my job out there and that I have to, you know, work as hard as possible and I have to play my best tennis. So, yeah, I mean, the questions get asked a lot. But I think, you know, it's already a lot more quiet now than it was, let's say, in Toronto.

KIM CLIJSTERS: I do. I don't know if I was tired from playing so much before. When I played my first match, I felt really good. There were so many things going on in the days with jet lag and everything coming from LA. Those are always tough situations, I think. You know, there were a lot of commitment things to do in making the No. 1 that probably got a lot of energy out of me. But I still enjoyed it and it was a lot of fun. It was definitely a couple of days that I'll always remember.

KIM CLIJSTERS: Nothing has changed now. I think everything is still the same. It was just the moment when I got to No. 1 on that Monday, when the official rankings came out, then the ceremonies and a lot of interviews. I think everything with the jet lag, it just took a lot out of me.

KIM CLIJSTERS: Yeah, sure, it's definitely very emotional. But I think in a good way, too. There was definite butterflies out there when I was standing there on the court during the ceremony. It was nice.

KIM CLIJSTERS: Oh, there's so many.

KIM CLIJSTERS: You hope every tournament you play, you try to do as good as you can and you try to win whatever tournament you play.