THE LIPTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 19, 1995

Gabriela Sabatini

Q. I didn't see it -- I am not going to pretend I saw it but I heard you hit a winner between your legs.

G. SABATINI: It wasn't a winner. She missed the ball. She -- yeah, she went to net and she missed the ball. I do it sometimes; I like to do it. I think it surprised the opponent a little bit because they don't know how I am going to hit it, so, you know, they are surprised that I hit that shot.

Q. How much time do you get to spend here during the year?

G. SABATINI: I don't know. A month or a month and a half; something like that.

Q. Out of the whole year?

G. SABATINI: Yeah.

Q. Is it worth having a house for that?

G. SABATINI: Sure.

Q. Your serve -- I know we always ask you if you are working on it, but it seems to be really working for you. Is there anything that you are doing, at all?

G. SABATINI: Yeah, today I served well. Some moments -- all the time -- at the end, I didn't feel I served very well. It didn't help me much. I wasn't putting too many first serves in, and sometimes it makes a big difference because, you know, I can start the point on offensive way and I was missing a lot of first serves at the end of the match, more.

Q. When it is working, though, when it is on -- like people, we were sort of watching a few matches at a time, but people were commenting about the speed or how well you were doing early. When it is on, is it the result of something you have been doing? I mean, have you been working on any --

G. SABATINI: Well, definitely. We have been working on it and that is never solved. That is the only reason it is not going to work well just from nothing. We are working on the serve a lot. My first serve has been very good. I have been winning a lot of points, a lot of free points; made a few aces and, you know, it is easier to win, you know, my game when I serve.

Q. Has that been one of the benefits of having him as a coach? Like every coach you had somebody said we are going to work on her serve, but you are actually seeing results now. Has that been --

G. SABATINI: I mean, we are working on the serve, but we are also working on other things; not just the serve.

Q. I am saying is it anything he is doing or just you and the stage of life and game?

G. SABATINI: I think he saw some small things on my techniques; that is what helped a lot to realize; to find out, you know, like details, small things that I start doing sometimes that I don't realize and he could see those things, you know, I am aware of it and during the match if I start missing, you know, okay, I start thinking and I say okay, maybe I am doing this wrong, because there are two or three things that I do wrong sometimes when I am missing the serve.

Q. Gaby, is your right shoulder injured or is it just iced up for --

G. SABATINI: No, I am just preventing. It has been very well. I just had a problem with my clavicle in the last few weeks, but it has been much better. Today I didn't feel anything and I just have to protect it everyday.

Q. It is nothing to be too worried about?

G. SABATINI: No, not really. I have to take care of it, but it has been very good.

Q. When you won the Slims, I mean, I know you have played since then, but I haven't seen you and everybody was asking you what it would do for you. Now that you have had a few months and you have been playing well, in retrospect, did it mean more to you than you thought like winning ; has anything changed because you won and it seems like you won another one really soon after that?

G. SABATINI: Sure. It gave me a lot of things winning that tournament. I guess it was like breaking that wall, you know, for not winning a tournament and mentally it helped me a lot. It gave me a lot of happiness and I guess a relief too. I just feel much better with my game and even before that, my game was doing a lot better. I felt that things were moving; were improving, you know, and suddenly they came up.

Q. All those times you were coming close, did you feel like if I'd just win one I'd get back and win a few of them?

G. SABATINI: Sure. I said before, it is breaking that, you know, that moment of not winning tournaments. That is what it was, yeah.

Q. If you had to play a third set today, do you think you would have had the energy of being successful?

G. SABATINI: Yeah, if there is or if I have to think, you know, physically I will say that I was going to be probably better. Physically I just feel very good. I felt today that I am better physically than other players and, you know, I wasn't tired, you know, after the second set, so I wasn't concerned about that.

Q. The fact that you don't spend a lot of time here -- you might have answered sort of -- I was thinking because you have a place here and I assume you get to play here, are you less upset by the wind, do you think? Like every player that has been coming off the court has been complaining and complaining about the wind. Is it something that you are able to deal with better or the fact that you are not here anymore than a month and a half doesn't --

G. SABATINI: Yeah, fortunately when this tournament comes, there is a lot of wind. Usually there is not much wind, but I guess it is for all the players, the same. It is not because I am from here, but, you know, you have to deal with the wind and you have to be patient and you go to the court knowing that there is going to be wind, so you can't be negative about it and it is for everybody the same.

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