U.S. OPEN

August 29, 1996

Jana Novotna

JANA NOVOTNA: Hi, by the way. Nice to see you.

JANA NOVOTNA: I started out the first set really well. I was feeling that I was playing much better than I was -- than I was playing in the first match. I think the reason why I started to play so poorly in the second set was because I just suddenly at 2-All felt sick in my stomach. From that point I just was hanging in there. I just couldn't get into the rhythm. My serve was completely off. I was really worried if I would be able to finish the match. I took the bathroom break fortunately, so that eased up a little bit. I just have decided to come in after everything, and I worked. That was the way out of there.

JANA NOVOTNA: I'm not sure if it's totally recovered because this is the kind of injury that takes a long time. I never had this before. It's been already like more than three weeks. After each match, I still feel that. I think this is the type of injury which will take a very long time. It can also easily come back. It's something you really have to work on all the time. It really took me two weeks. I couldn't play for two weeks after the Olympics, so it was a pretty serious injury. I was a bit worried that the preparation before the Open wouldn't be as ideal as I would have liked to. In the end, it turned out to be okay.

JANA NOVOTNA: I don't know. I never eat here because I know there is a lot of food poisoning going on all the time, every year. I don't eat here. It was maybe that I ate too little. I was being just full from drinking so much water, you know. I don't know. It was strange. I only had a banana before the match. I don't know what else it could be, but it happened. I'm glad that it's over. Hopefully it won't happen again.

JANA NOVOTNA: It really depends. Depends what kind of shape you are in and all that. Are you talking about what happened to Monica?

JANA NOVOTNA: Or in general?

JANA NOVOTNA: I think this is pretty much in the very early stages of the tournament. I think that the top player would be happier to have a match instead of a walkover. That's what I would say. You really want to play as much as you can, get your rhythm going and all that. Since she is not playing doubles, I'm sure she wanted to play.

JANA NOVOTNA: That's very nice. I'm glad that everybody considered me that way. Of course, it's a long way to go. If you look at the draw or the part of the draw I am in, it's very tough. Of course, I always say if you want to win a Grand Slam or if you want to win this tournament, you have to beat all the top players. In order to do that, you have to be in good shape and you have to play well.