Interviews 1998 - part 2
An interview from Wimbledon 1998
An interview from Du Maurier Open 1998 - conducted by Chris Gerby
(CHECK "ON THE LINE TENNIS E-ZINE" FOR OTHER MORE COVERAGE...)
Dominique defeated Jana Nejedly
6-4 6-2
Monday, 17th August 1998
Q: You got a good test out there today, but won pretty
quickly. Is that the kind of first round match you were hoping for?
DOMINIQUE: It was not really quickly in the first set, but the
second was quicker than the first. It's not easy usually when it's your first match.
You need to find your game, I think, and your confidence on the court. I
needed the first set today I think to make my game, to fix my game, and I did it in the
second set. I was more and more confident and I was doing less mistakes than in the
first set.
Q: You've done well in doubles this year, especially with Florencia
Labat. How did that partnership start? Did she ask you or did you ask her?
DOMINIQUE: I think we are very good friends, so it's not that we
asked or one or the other one. I think it's something that we both wanted to do.
We started, I think, after Key Biscayne, and we played very well together. I
think we match good together because we have both different games, and it's not easy for
the opponent to play against this kind of mixture between us. And so I start
to play better and better in doubles, and my ranking has improved also, but it's
still the second row in my career. Singles is still more important for me, of
course.
Q: You played against France in Fed Cup the past two years.
Both times you won both of your singles matches, and the team still lost. Were
those very disappointing experiences for you or were you happy that at least you did your
part?
DOMINIQUE: Well, yes and no. In a certain way it's hard when
you win all the time your singles, the two last times you win your singles and then we
have nearly the victory and we cannot do it. So there is, again, a frustration in
this part, but in another way I've been playing very good match against France twice, so
for my game it was very good. But I think Fed Cup is a team meeting, so it's not
only important that you win at singles. The team is more important.
Q: I guess in the last round you ran into Habsudova and Nagyova,
who have always done pretty well against you.
DOMINIQUE: Yeah. They play very good and it was not easy.
It was on clay, very slow clay. It was after grass, and I had a break, and
after I went, I had to start again on hard courts. So, well, this time I took it easier
than the two last times because if you win all the time and then finally the team lose or
sometimes it's better than you don't put too much pressure for the Fed Cup because at
least it's only two weeks during the year.
Q: In general, do you prepare differently for players who have
beaten you before, even if they're not ranked as high?
DOMINIQUE: No. I don't think that I prepare different.
I think I always prepare the same and my game stays the same. It's just that I have to
make my game a little bit different on every kind of surface that I'm playing, so it takes
me some more time to play on clay than maybe on hard court or on
grass court.
Back to intro
Back to match reports, news and comments
An interview from Wimbledon 1998
Dominique lost to Arantxa Sanchez Vicario
3-6 6-3 6-2
Tuesday, 30th June 1998
Q. What happened out there, because you seemed to be in control of
the match from the very start? What went wrong in the sort of second set?
DOMINIQUE. Well, I think until 5-0 I played the perfect game that I could
have ever played, so I didn't make any mistake at all, and I think she can't expect that I
could play so good from the beginning, but of course, the level that I was playing was
very strong, so I couldn't continue playing, and I start to be a little bit tired as well,
so you don't have the same precision than when you are very fresh, so she start to get
into the match, and finally I won the first set. I made a couple of mistakes at the end,
but I still get it, and in the second set she started to play very good. She didn't miss
one ball, and I start to miss a few, which is normal with my game, but I still continue
playing very well, but she was very confident, and in the third set I was tired and she
was just running and playing incredibly good. So that's the reason she won that match
today.
(Questions and answers French).
Q. Did you feel this was a match that you could have won? You were in a
good position at one point.
DOMINIQUE. It's hard to say, because the first set I played very good,
but afterwards, that was very difficult. I feel -- I never had the feeling that I could
lose the match, but I never had the feeling that I would win the match neither. I was just
trying to be very concentrated and just play each point, but in the third set I was
feeling that she was getting more and more in the match and I was really fighting to get
the games which I didn't have that problem in the first set. So it was pretty strong for
me every time to come back, and then she break me directly in the beginning of the third
set and she was serving very well. So that was very hard mentally for me also to keep
serving good, and every time she was serving she was winning her game.
Q. Was there one point that was the turning point, or one moment?
DOMINIQUE. I don't know exactly. I think it's in the third set, no the
second, because we were one set all, so we were equal, but she played very good in the
beginning of the third set and that made the difference there.
Q. Do you think that Arantxa can go on and win the title?
DOMINIQUE. She is playing Martina Hingis in the next round. It's hard to
say. She can beat a lot of players, especially now that she is in very good shape and she
is very confident with her game so she can go far. Maybe she was win the next round.
Martina is very good as well. It is hard to say what is going to happen. Tennis it not
something like mathematics, so you don't know what can happen.