CHASE CHAMPIONSHIPS OF THE COREL WTA TOUR

November 17, 1997

Irina Sprilea

Q. How would you describe the game, the match?

IRINA SPIRLEA: What?

IRINA SPIRLEA: I think it's tough. But I know her pretty well and we know each other a lot, so it's tough to play each other because you know already what she's going to do. So, it was also tough to concentrate, you know, I think of her and everything. I'm happy that I won at the end so that I could make it up. I think she served pretty well the second and third set, so, I had no chance to break her in the third set and maybe one in the second. You cannot expect too much. You know, like this round you're running a little bit tight, so, I'm okay about the way I play.

IRINA SPIRLEA: I didn't lose a point? I had no idea. I was so -- you know, trying to concentrate just, you know, because I was pretty -- I lost a game 6-5 to her at Love with no balls, so I was completely out of the game a little bit. Next game I had 40-Love, so I was trying to get back into the match, so that's good news.

IRINA SPIRLEA: She was expecting me to hit the forehand pretty hard, so I was trying to mix it up. I know that she's playing sometimes on the back, you know, so if I hit hard, she's going to stay back. So, like I said, we know each other very well, so you just try to mix it up and hope that she's not going to be there.