USTA 1995 US OPEN at Flushing Meadows, New York on Wednesday, August 30, 1995
Martina Hingis defeated Magdalena Maleeva, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2

An Interview With MARTINA HINGIS:

At age 14, this was Martina's 1st US Open in the adult draw.
This interview was conducted through an interpreter.

Q. What were your thoughts the way the first set ended, particularly that doublefault?

MARTINA HINGIS:: She just-- she doesn't know. She doesn't now how she felt. She was playing badly. She made a lot of mistakes. She doesn't know.

Q. Was she nervous before the match started and during the first set, did she feel nervous?

MARTINA HINGIS:: She said that she knows she wasn't very nervous, but you just -- you never know how you are going to play, and you have nothing to lose. And she definitely improved during the second and the third sets, but that her serve was horrible.

Q. Martina, I think this is your eighth tournament of the year, and I think you are entitled to play 12. Will you play four more and if so, where?

MARTINA HINGIS:: Yes, I play in Zurich, Filderstadt and Brighton.

Q. Are you surprised beating an 8th ranked player in the world here?

MARTINA HINGIS:: She said she hasn't played since Paris, and she just -- she wasn't playing well there. She made a lot of mistakes. It just wasn't her game, this particular game. And it is not a question of her being No. 8, just not a good game.

Q. What was your strategy going into the match?

MARTINA HINGIS:: She hasn't seen her playing in a while. She hasn't played her in a while. She knew she had to hit the ball back and keep getting it back and just play faster and keep it going.

Q. Can you talk about the atmosphere of playing on the stadium court today? Did you sense that the crowd wanted you to win or how did you feel about being out there today?

MARTINA HINGIS:: She said that the first time she played in a big place was at Wimbledon, and that last year she played in the grandstand and there weren't that many people. And the other thing is that talking about the Americans and how undisciplined they are. You have to get used to the Americans and the way they are. But in general, it was a great feeling to be out there, she felt good.

Q. What does she mean by undisciplined?

MARTINA HINGIS:: Between every ball, they are going all over the place, just walking around. So, that is what she means by not sitting in one place.

Q. What were your expectations of how far you could go in this tournament, before it began and have they changed now?

MARTINA HINGIS:: She said she is playing next -- she is playing Patricia Hy, and she, a couple of years ago, she was playing really well. She expects it to be a difficult game, but every game is a difficult game in Grand Slam. If you turn around and she feels that she has a chance with winning the game.

Q. When you were here last year playing juniors, a lot of talk about you being 13, and how it was going to change your life. How has your life changed?

MARTINA HINGIS:: Not so much has changed other than that she was playing the 200th ranked and now she is playing the 8th ranked. That now she feels like her game has improved, and that she feels like she does have a chance against the top-ranked players.

Q. With the prize money that you have won this year, what special things have you purchased for yourself?

MARTINA HINGIS:: Yesterday she bought a camera. She doesn't know. She doesn't really know. Between the tournaments she buys clothes, souvenirs.

Q. Not interested in Trump Tower at all.

MARTINA HINGIS:: (No response.)

Q. What age to you is an old tennis player and how would you classify Steffi, Monica, and Arantxa in terms of their age?

MARTINA HINGIS:: She said about Monica that it is amazing after a two-year break that she is playing exactly the way she did as if she just stopped playing yesterday. And she is playing very well, and she is playing in a Grand Slam and that, that is really impressive. She said that, well, Martina Navratilova is 38, so that -- and now she is playing doubles. She had to quit two years ago. Maybe that -- everybody has to decide for themselves when they have to stop, and she hopes that she can play as long as possible. But there is not -- she is not giving an age saying that is too old.

Q. Is it true that your mother limits the amount of time you can spend working on your serve and since it is not the strongest part of your game, do you have --

MARTINA HINGIS:: She said first, she said, oh, it is always the serve. It really depends on how she is feeling mentally for the game. There is, of course, a difference between playing No. 8 and No. 9. Of course, everybody doesn't want to make mistakes, but it happens, and she feels like it has gotten better and, she felt like yesterday her serve was good.

Q. Is it true that her mother limits the amount of time spending on on the serve and wouldn't she like to practice it more?

MARTINA HINGIS:: She said that they work through all of the forehand, backhand serve. They work them all through, and she works the serve at the end. And that the other reality is that she doesn't have a body like Steffi Graf or Monica Seles. And that she can't hit a 200 kilometer per hour serve.

Q. If Heinz Gunthardt were available as a coach; wasn't coaching Steffi for whatever reason, would you and your mother be interested in having him work with you?

MARTINA HINGIS:: She said no, not really, because Steffi has been playing the same and hasn't really changed her game and yeah, she is No. 1, but she is not -- there isn't a development, there isn't a change that she has seen, and she is No. 18 and Steffi is No. 1, but that doesn't mean that Steffi -- Steffi's game is staying stagnant and she is moving up and she is 18 versus No. 1 means that she shouldn't be changing coaches.

Q. Are going to play doubles with Steffi; is it true you'd like to?

MARTINA HINGIS:: Steffi never asked her, so she -- she played Majoli last week and that was fine, but, no.

Q. How do you feel being 14, being the youngest person on the circuit? Is that overwhelming? Is it scary? Do you think about it much.

MARTINA HINGIS:: She is not the only one. There are other people that started when they were 13 or 14.

Q. Yeah, but she is the youngest here.

MARTINA HINGIS:: She feels that she is nothing special, nothing different; that she is just doing what a lot of other people have done before her and that is a normal ---

Q. You talked about the noisy Americans, can you cope with them better now after winning on the main stadium today, grandstand?

MARTINA HINGIS:: She said it doesn't really bother -- that is one of the things that you have to train to be able to do this to be able to concentrate and to not pay attention to what is going on around you, to be able to play your game.

Q. Do you or your coaches or your mother do anything with you to maybe talk with you about maybe avoiding burnouts so the same thing doesn't happen to you that has happened to Jennifer Capriati?

MARTINA HINGIS:: She said, first of all, she is Martina Hingis and Jennifer Capriati is Jennifer Capriati. She lives in Europe. Jennifer Capriati lives in America. It is another family. She doesn't know Capriati and there just hasn't been the same kind of theater, as she says, around her as there has been Capriati.