THE LIPTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 20, 1995

Lisa Raymond

Q. Just how annoying was that alarm?

LISA RAYMOND: Well, you know, it was annoying for both of us, so we were both in the same boat. But I think what was more annoying was once we got back out there, you kind of kept hearing it almost come on. So it was like you'd be about to serve; it would almost come on; you would stop, then, okay, you'd say, is it going to come on again. It was definitely a little bit of a nuisance out there.

Q. Lisa, do you think you ought to put a little mark on that racket that you used in the third set, "This is the one to use"?

LISA RAYMOND: Well, you know, I played a great first set and a great third set today and, you know, yesterday I think it was kind of pretty even, the whole match. I don't think either one of us really played an outstanding set. Whereas, today, I think my first and third sets were definitely better than the second, and I think Zina had picked up her game in the second and was starting to really kind of get on a roll and then, you know, I think that second game of the third set was a huge game for me.

Q. Were you losing tension in the racket; is that why you changed rackets?

LISA RAYMOND: No. What happened I hit the ball and then -- not while I was hitting it, but two seconds after I had hit the ball, the string popped, so I had to change the rackets. It was weird because I had hit the ball and all of a sudden, instead of hearing the ping pop as I hit it, I heard it as I was like getting back to the center of the court so...

Q. It happened right after the alarm went off. We thought for a minute it looked like you were so P.O.'d you were going to leave the court?

LISA RAYMOND: No. I wasn't quite at that stage yet.

Q. This is a big tournament. You have only gone to the fourth round at Wimbledon; you haven't gone this far, I think?

LISA RAYMOND: Well, you know, I haven't made it to round of 16 in this level of a tournament in a long time since Wimbledon, but I made it to the third round of the Australian this year, even though that wasn't round of 16. I had won two previous matches as I have here, so, you know, I am feeling really good, and I think I play the winner of Anke's match. I have played her once before and lost to her in a real tough third setter, five in the third, so I am looking forward to going out there and playing, so...

Q. Patty Fendick said about a year ago, she'd been through a lot of the same experiences you went through; she was All-American at Stanford; came on the pro Tour and she said it was going to take you about a year and a half, despite what you thought, when you came on Tour to really figure out that this isn't college tennis, but that you will be there some day?

LISA RAYMOND: Well, I definitely agree, and I think I kind of came into this pro tennis with blinders on, and I thought that I was definitely going to make more of an impact than I did. And, you know, I took my lumps, for sure, but and I agree, it has taken me a good year and a half to get the experience under my belt, and, you know, slowly, but surely, I am working my way up, so, you know, hopefully I will just keep slowly getting up there.

Q. Was that good for you to learn that; take those lumps?

LISA RAYMOND: I think now that I have taken the lumps, I think it was good for me. You know, I am kind of glad in a way that I didn't come out, have some real big wins, you know, shoot up there in the rankings; then all of a sudden kind of be like, okay, what am I doing out here, this is weird, you know, this isn't what I expected, but, you know, it has been -- I have definitely had my ups-and-downs in the past year and a half. But right now, I am starting my game -- my game is starting to come together. I am playing with a lot more confidence and I am believing in myself now a lot more man I used to, so I think that is a big difference as well.

Q. How are you wiser now than you were a year and a half ago?

LISA RAYMOND: Well, I think that what a lot of people don't realize is the mental aspect of the game, is just -- it probably is more important than even the physical or even just the talent part. I think that that was something that I needed to really realize and I think experience just being out there and just even like a match today, you know, I think maybe a year ago I may have lost that match, you know, because I wouldn't have believed in myself, and I have already beaten -- I have beaten Zina in the past two tournaments -- actually this is the third tournament in a row we have played, and, you know, now that I am starting to build wins like that and realizing that I can beat some of the top players, so...

Q. What is your timetable? Where do you see yourself six months from now, a year from now?

LISA RAYMOND: Well, I have kind of stopped looking at a timetable. I just take one match at a time and I think if I just keep playing the way I have been playing, I think the rankings are just going to kind of take care of themselves and I don't want to say in a year, "I want to be this" or in six months "I want to be this high." Obviously, I want to move up, but if it takes six months, if it takes two years, then I am willing to do that, so...

Q. Talked yesterday about big points. Was there a point in this match that you played that you are particularly pleased with?

LISA RAYMOND: I don't know about a specific point, but I think that, like I said, that second game in the third set was huge. And I think that if I would have gotten down 2-Love or 3-Love in that third set I think it may have been a different story out there, so, I think that was probably the turning point of the match for me.

Q. Go back to the first set, you drove Garrison-Jackson into the right corner; she threw up a lob against the wind; you could have just reared back and hit that overhead as hard as you could; but you didn't. You placed it down the left sideline making her play one more shot. And then you put it away for the point. Would you a year and a half ago maybe have reared back and just tried to cream that ball and maybe hit it out?

LISA RAYMOND: Well, you know, I think the conditions out there had a lot to do with that. It wasn't really so much experience or anything. It was she hit a very high lob and there wasn't a cloud in the sky and those are the toughest shots to hit, you know, when it is that high and the sky is so blue that you kind of -- I kind of just wanted to play it safe rather than just go out and just -- because it was a big point and I wanted to win that point. I knew that if I kind of swung at it, haphazardly, there was a good chance that I'd may have misjudged it.

Q. Wasn't that a mature thing to do as opposed to the macho thing to do?

LISA RAYMOND: Probably. I have to agree with you there, but I don't know, I guess I was -- yeah.

Q. Have you played Huber before?

LISA RAYMOND: Yeah, I just told you that I played her in Philadelphia this past year and I lost in a close three-setter.

Q. What did you learn about her?

LISA RAYMOND: Well, she is tough. She has got great groundies and if we both play well, it is going to be a great match again, so, you know, -- well I mean, she has to win first, so -- but if I play her, it is going to be a good match.

Q. Lisa, does it ever enter into your mind that this is Zina's last year -- I mean, does that ever enter your mind when you are playing her at all when you see her walk off the court at the end of a match having beaten her three times?

LISA RAYMOND: You know, the first time I played her I was kind of excited because I was like, oh, great, I want to play her; get a chance to play her again because I had lost to her about three years ago and I kind of wanted another shot at her before she retired, but I had definitely did not want to play her three tournaments in a row, so....

DEBBI EDWARDS: It is not three in a row for Lisa. Three tournaments she played Oklahoma after Chicago.

Q. So she hasn't played?

DEBBI EDWARDS: Three times in the last six weeks, but not three in a row......

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