FED CUP - CZR vs USA

April 25, 2003

Iveta Benesova

David Smail

IVETA BENESOVA: Yeah.

IVETA BENESOVA: Well, it's a great experience for me. I'm just looking forward. It's a great honor for me to be on this great team. They all are amazing. I'm just happy that I was nominated, and I'll try to do my best.

IVETA BENESOVA: No.

IVETA BENESOVA: No.

IVETA BENESOVA: Yeah (smiling). That's okay.

DAJA BEDANOVA: Yeah, I mean, I played some good matches before, and I beat some good players before. I played Venus and Serena before, so I know how it's gonna feel to be on the court against them. But I'll just try to do my best. As you said, the team hasn't been beaten before. It's very tough to do, it's not so easy. We'll just try to surprise them, just do our best. We'll see how it goes.

DAJA BEDANOVA: I mean, of course it's nice that I'm gonna know what to expect - at least a little bit. If you play against them, those great players, you know how they are. It just feels different. You know what to expect like more.

CAPTAIN PETRA LANGROVA: Well, first of all, I would like to say the U.S. team is very strong. They are the biggest favorite. But I just want to tell the girls that we have nothing to lose, we just can surprise. Nobody expect anything from us. So it's good for us, I think. And the girls, they just can feel free and try to play their best tennis they can and enjoy it.

CAPTAIN PETRA LANGROVA: Well, it's different, as you said, from the tour. It's different to play for Fed Cup because you're just not playing for yourself but representing whole country. But Daja has lots of experience from the tour. Anyway, even if you have very, very young team, Daja is very experienced. And Iveta, for Iveta, it's also not the first time in Fed Cup. So I think they will take it.

DAJA BEDANOVA: I hope so (laughing). It wasn't the best year for me, though, at the beginning. But I'm going to try to do my best here. Maybe it's gonna be a start for a better season, so we'll see.

DAJA BEDANOVA: More the second one I think, yeah, I've struggled with some small problems but nothing was really big so I hope it's gonna turn around. I hope this week maybe.

DAJA BEDANOVA: They use (holding up a mobile phone)...

CAPTAIN PETRA LANGROVA: They call us every day.

CAPTAIN PETRA LANGROVA: Yes, sure. They write about the Fed Cup, of course they did. I think there is one or two guys from newspapers coming tomorrow.

DAJA BEDANOVA: No, they are sending messages and they're phoning a lot of times. So they have some good information from us, I guess.

IVETA BENESOVA: Well, she's World No. 1. I mean, she's the best player. I just want to enjoy every single point (inaudible).

IVETA BENESOVA: It's really fast.

DAJA BEDANOVA: It's getting faster every single day.

DAJA BEDANOVA: Yeah.

IVETA BENESOVA: Not too much.

DAJA BEDANOVA: The first two days was good, now... little bit want to change it to the first days again.