US OPEN

August 29, 1997

Lilia Osterloh

LILIA OSTERLOH: I played a warm-up in Atlanta. This is my first pro event here.

LILIA OSTERLOH: Oh, definitely. I think that even though the Americans were really competitive and it is always "me, me, me," I think that the younger girls, I mean, we are starting to help each other out a lot. We like to practice together and, you know, support each other during our matches or whatever. And, I think that definitely that can only help us. I think we are going to continue to be really competitive out there.

LILIA OSTERLOH: Well, I think with the Americans, we emphasize education more and tennis isn't really a popular sport over there. And I just think that maybe not enough kids play tennis. I mean, they pick up a basketball or baseball or something, whatever is available to them. But, I think we do emphasize education more, at least my parents did, and, so that is why I chose to go to school. And they were around tennis their whole life.

LILIA OSTERLOH: I am going to go home and train some more and then play some Challengers out west and California and Arizona to get my ranking up.

LILIA OSTERLOH: No. She is going back to Stanford.

LILIA OSTERLOH: I think she can do both, really. I think she can balance both, her studies and tennis. I think Coach Brennan will let her play some more pro events hopefully. I hope so because we travel together a little bit, and last year just in Challengers, we did pretty well. So, she's little bit older. She is I think around 21, so, I am not quite sure what she wants to do.

LILIA OSTERLOH: Well, I mean, I had a good run. And for not competing again for eight weeks, I am really happy and I learned a lot from this match against Spirlea. I respect her a lot and I can only grow from this match.

LILIA OSTERLOH: I'd like to think that. Right now, I need to build more confidence and get really, you know, more fit and, I mean, we will just see.