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SONY ERICSSON CHAMPIONSHIPS

November 9, 2006

Amelie Mauresmo

MADRID, SPAIN

Q. Amelie, how do you feel now?
AMELIE MAURESMO: How do I feel?

Q. Now.
AMELIE MAURESMO: I feel better than Tuesday night. [Chuckling]. I feel okay. I mean, as I said, you know, I'm staying alive in that group, and that was obviously the main thing for me today, because losing this match would have been -- I would have been out with no chances to qualify anymore.
So that was the main thing for me today.

Q. You must have practiced pretty well between the other night and tonight. Seemed like day and night. What happened?
AMELIE MAURESMO: Well, I practiced. It's the only thing I could do. And that's what I said I was going to do. Because obviously I felt ready physically but the vision for me was and the rhythm, everything was not really good during the points. It was okay in practice, but during competition was no good.
So I did a couple sets yesterday and obviously seemed to help me a lot on today's match.

Q. Was there any particular aspect that you worked on or was it --
AMELIE MAURESMO: No, I just played points, the games and sets. That's all I had to do.

Q. In view of the history between you two, was there any extra incentive to win this match tonight?
AMELIE MAURESMO: With what?

Q. In view of the history between the two of you in past occasions?
AMELIE MAURESMO: Tonight was history between us. It was just the history of the realistic account that, in the group. Losing would have been out for me. So, no.
It's a long time ago, you know?

Q. Some people don't forget things from a long time ago, Amelie.
AMELIE MAURESMO: You seem to not forget about it.

Q. I was wondering if you had.
AMELIE MAURESMO: I think time makes you forget a lot of things.

Q. Do you have the fitness, you think, now to go to distance if you qualify for the qualifies?
AMELIE MAURESMO: I hope so. I have at least, you know, not to worry about having played too much before coming here, but you never how you're going to react also when you haven't played and you haven't had so many matches under your belt.
So you never really know how physically you're going to react, but I think I'm ready.

Q. At the end of the year, which has clearly been the best ever, was it particularly important for you not to finish on the kind of match that you had against Petrova on Tuesday?
AMELIE MAURESMO: Well, yeah, I mean it's never -- it never feels good to have these kind of matches. When you go out on the court you expect to play better, to be able to defend your chances a little bit better and it was strange for me to feel that I was not ready at the time.
So, yeah, that's why also tomorrow really looking forward, you know, to do even better than I did tonight.

Q. When you came off court, you gave something to Kim when she went on. What was that?
AMELIE MAURESMO: Hair spray.
(Laughter)

Q. You have the same?
AMELIE MAURESMO: She didn't have any. You thought it was going to be something --

Q. I'm just wondering how the shoulder is?
AMELIE MAURESMO: It's pretty good, actually. I'm happy that I didn't have any pain during this kind of match that lasted a little bit long.
And, yes, it's good.

Q. Better than a couple days ago or about the same?
AMELIE MAURESMO: I think it's better, because before my match against Nadia I could feel it. So tonight was good. So I'm pretty happy about that also.

Q. Number one is no longer a possibility for you. Is there any -- do you have any thoughts of that any sense of disappointment?
AMELIE MAURESMO: I knew it was almost impossible coming here I knew it was almost impossible for me to have it actually. When I got injured, when in Zurich my shoulder got worse, I just thought, okay, let's forget about that. Let's just get better and try to get healthy to actually play in Madrid, which was not so sure.

Q. Do you have any sense about regardless of who wins here and who ends up number one, do you feel like you or Justine or Maria has been the number one this year?
AMELIE MAURESMO: I didn't hear what you said.

Q. Do you feel like one of you stood ahead above the others?
AMELIE MAURESMO: Justine and I?

Q. No, you, Justine and Maria, the three of you. Do you feel one of you is deserving of number one regardless of what the computer says?
AMELIE MAURESMO: Well, I guess the consistency this year was more on Justine's side because she played the four finals. So it's obviously number one ranking, is it rewarding the consistency or is it rewarding the titles, I think it's looking at the way ranking is made. It's the consistency that is rewarded.
So she's ahead.

Q. I just wanted to ask about the venue. I can remember going to the Staple Center in LA. It was half empty during the week. Here it seems that all seats are full. It seems the crowd are very into it. Does that translate down into the court as well?
AMELIE MAURESMO: It's definitely much better for us to play in a full stadium, obviously, than what we used to see during the week in Los Angeles. Yes, I think it's better for everybody, actually.

End of FastScripts

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