MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- The Mary Pierce tennis show has moved from soap opera to quality drama at this year's Australian Open. Pierce, who treats the tennis court as her stage, has produced an all-star performance reminiscent of her 1995 triumph here.
Pierce wavered between brilliant and brittle against the fiesty Coetzer, who upset top seed Steffi Graf on the way to her second straight Australian Open semifinal. Having ridden a spitfire forehand to a 5-1 first-set lead, peppering the lines with a consistency that left the defensive Coetzer out-gunned, Pierce suddenly became vulnerable. Her forehand began to miss its target, she dumped an easy overhead into the net to drop serve for 2-5, hit a forehand wide to surrender her next serve for 4-5 and repeated the error on Coetzer's serve for 5-5. Then her range and accuracy returned. She held serve with an ace, then broke for the set with a typically flashy forehand pass and raced away with the match. ``I started off perfectly,'' Pierce said. ``But then I felt a little strange, a little weak all of a sudden. Amanda noticed, I think, and took advantage, but I pushed myself through it and started to feel better.''
Q. Amanda, recovering from 5/1 down, to get to 5/5, what were your thoughts at that point?
A. At 5/5 or at 5/1?
Q. Getting back up?
A. I felt, coming out, Mary started - she started off really well, she played extremely well. And I felt if I can just somehow hang in there, with the way the sides were going, felt that I could - there was one crucial game. I felt if I could win that and I had the next two games on the other side, I could still be close. Of course, she gave me a few points then, I was able to get back. But then she just didn't give me enough to take the set. She played a really good game at 5/5, served a really good game and just didn't give me an opportunity to get in there.
Q. Is that the best you've seen her play, Amanda, the strongest?
A. I think, yeah, compared to - I think she's definitely getting back to the form that she was when she did well a few years ago, in '95 and '94 when she got to the finals of the French. I think she's getting back to that form. Obviously she did let off a little bit today and gave me a chance to get back, but I think she's gaining confidence as she's going on and she'll probably be back to her old form soon.
Q. You know her quite well because you've played doubles together. How low did she get last year when she was off the tour?
A. I actually didn't - we started playing doubles in Tokyo, and I didn't really see much of her during the year. She didn't play a lot of tournaments, so I can't really tell you. I know she's just struggled physically with her shoulder. But she seems in good spirits and I think she's doing quite well.
Q. Is she the sort of player who needs to be in good spirits to play at her best, from your knowledge of her now, playing doubles with her?
A. I think she's a type of player that really thrives on confidence. I think she's - once she gets confident, she's very hard to stop.
Q. What aspect of her game troubled you most today?
A. I think she hit her backhand really well and I struggled to read it, right from the start, and she just really hit the ball well off the ground. And, you know, I just felt like I got a little flat-footed every once in a while, I didn't know where she was hitting the ball, I just couldn't read it very well.
Q. What do you think about her position on the court? She's standing right on the baseline and you are usually quite a bit behind the baseline. Do you think it's crucial to the match? Because you will always have to do more than she has to do?
A. Um-hm. I felt that right from the start, in the first few games, especially like you said, one side you could feel a little bit of a breeze behind you and she was just taking advantage of it, and it took me a little while to try to do the same from that particular side, to just really get on top of the ball. And I'm sure that's what her game plan was and she did it really well today, just stepped into the court, and I didn't feel like I could get enough pressure on her to back off a little bit.
Q. Amanda, the last couple of days it seems to have been pretty hard to serve into the wind from that end. So do you think maybe she was just a bit strong for you today?
A. I think she probably just used it pretty well right from the start, where it took me a few games to get the hang of it. I feel if you're not one side and you are able to step up and take the ball early, that you are in a pretty good position and, you know, just coming in on that side, it was hard to pass somebody, and you had a lot of pressure. The wind wasn't very - I mean, it wasn't much going, but I just felt like - she just played really well.
Q. You trained for really hot weather and then you get a cool day like this; does this tournament drive you up the wall, or what?
A. No, I think today was just a perfect day to play. It was nice and mild, you know, just a really nice day. I was ready to go out there and enjoy it, but I just ran into a very tough opponent.
Q. At this stage of your career is the semifinals satisfactory or do you now expect to go further and look to go further?
A. I knew, going into a match like this, that Mary is playing really well, it would probably be hard for me to beat her. But I have beaten her before and I felt like if she gave me a bit of a chance, you know, who knows? And then looking forward, obviously Hingis is playing really well, but I felt like I played her here last year and won that match; even though she's improved quite a bit, I hoped that that would still be in the back of my mind. So, you know, I felt really good going into this match, but I knew that it might be hard if she's playing well.
Q. How would you sum up your tournament from your point of view?
A. I think, once I get a little chance to really look back on it, I think I will feel very good about it and hopefully I can take that into this coming year. You know, it could have been - it easily could have been a complete turnaround. I came in and I looked at my draw, I felt like I had a tough draw, with Kournikova first round, I lost to her last time I played her; I lost to Kandarr the last time I played her; so I felt like I overcame some obstacles, and also I didn't - even though I felt really good about my game, I hadn't had many wins coming into the Australian Open, I lost the first round in Sydney. So I think, you know, just looking back on it, I think it will really give me a lot of confidence and you know just really, I can go into the year feeling pretty good about this tournament.
Q. Amanda, the length of time that Mary takes on serve, is that off-putting?
A. I think it's definitely a little bit difficult to keep your focus but it's just a matter of getting used to it. I probably should have just been more prepared for it. But it takes a while for you to get used to it and not get yourself too ready at the wrong time.
Q. Amanda, given that that's part of the pattern of her game, to slow things up like that, I'm surprised that you wouldn't - or if you'd known about it, that you wouldn't have been ready for it, because that seems to be what everybody talks about; it's part of her game, basically.
A. Yeah. It's just something - I haven't played her for a long time and it's something that you can hear from other people, but, you know, it's just something that you have to be prepared for, and I guess I just wasn't - I didn't feel like it really affected me that much. So it's just, you know, I don't think it really had any change - it would have made any change to the outcome. I don't really think it affected me that much but, you know, you just have to be prepared for it.
Q. Given that you've played doubles together for a while and I guess you know her game reasonably well, was there anything that happened today that she did that surprised you?
A. Not really. I think just the one thing. She moved pretty well, I thought, and she picked up quite a few balls and I just, you know, a couple of times I felt like I was in a winning position and just got a little bit flat-footed and I wasn't quite prepared when she picked up a ball here and there, so I felt like she moved quite well.
Q. Does that come from what you talked about earlier; her being confident and therefore just moving better and reacting and anticipating better?
A. Maybe - I can't really say, maybe she just had good anticipation and knew what I was doing, knew what to expect. But I felt like she got to quite a few balls, but I was just somewhat surprised.
Q. With that fast start she got, do you put that solely down to how well she played or were you feeling a little more nervous than you thought you might have been or you felt a little bit flat?
A. I won't say real nervous, probably just not quite as ready as she was. And, you know, I felt that I wanted to go out there and maybe just feel my way into it, and I couldn't because she was hitting winners pretty much right off the start, and you know, I just couldn't quite play myself into it.
Q. Amanda, it looks like Hingis will be playing her. In these kind of conditions, what would Hingis have to do to be able to beat her?
A. I played Hingis at the Hopman Cup and I think she's playing extremely well. She's taking the ball early and she's coming into the net a lot and she will definitely rush Mary a lot more than what I did today. I think her game is really good at the moment, so I think it will be a very interesting match. I definitely will be very interested to see what the outcome will be.
Q. Can I ask you about your doubles arrangement. You didn't play here together; you played in Sydney?
A. Yeah, we played here. We unfortunately drew the top seeds first round and didn't quite get through that.
Q. How did that come about, Amanda, the doubles partnership?
A. Just by chance. In Tokyo, Gavin suggested that we play together because he feels that we could probably - he felt that we could do well, and we ended up winning the tournament and just thought that we should try it again some time.
Q. There is a report that your coach has been offered a job with Mark Philippoussis. How do you feel about that? Do you think you would be able to keep him, or what?
A. I think it will probably all depend on, you know, what demands they make on him. He's never coached just me, only me, he's always been coaching on the men's tour and he's always been pretty good at combining the two. So I have faith in him, that he will be able to continue the system that we've had, the way he's done it, and I think it will just depend on how much they will expect of him. I don't really know too much about that at the moment.
Q. How many weeks a year were you working with Gavin?
A. The last few years, probably close to 30 weeks. A lot of the tournaments are combined, men's and women's, a lot of the weeks, so there were quite a few weeks that we got.
Q. But having got to this stage, two Grand Slam semifinals, do you think you need a full-time coach with you?
A. I think - I mean, the time that Gavin has put in, it's pretty much been like a full-time coach. I'm not sure if I could - you know, I think the work that we've done, the weeks that we've done it, it's been quite intense and I'm not sure if that's something I would want to do every single week of the year. So it's just - it's worked really well and I just don't want to change too much about it if I don't have to, you know; I would like to continue the way it's been.
Q. What aspect of your game would you change now? You have rebuilt your serve, you have developed your forehand; now what?
A. I think my serve still has a long way to go, and obviously just getting to know what I can do with my game. I think I still - I'm surprised and I'm still not at the point where I feel exactly where my game can go. I feel like I'm slowly getting an idea, but I think if I can play a few good matches, like I did this week in this tournament, I think I could gradually build up the confidence and really get a good idea of where my game can go.
Q. Has it taken you until last year here and this year here to believe that that's what you can do; that you would be a player capable of reaching at least the semifinal level in Grand Slams, whereas before last year did you believe you could do that?
A. Yes, I think the combination of a few things. I think - it started out just seeing it in practice. I know I've gradually built a lot of confidence in just the work that we've put in and I've felt that my game has just improved tremendously. But then you do need the results to back that before you can actually believe it, and every time I've had a good result it has really pushed me up and pushed up my confidence levels, to just match it with the expectations that I get out of my practice sessions.
Q. You said Hingis may come to the net against Mary. You didn't come to the net. Are you working on the net game at all?
A. I think so. It's something I would love to be able to do a little bit more. I think finally I have the game that gives me a lot more opportunity to come in, and that's something that I would like to test out a little bit and get a feel of what people do off specific shots that I hit, what they're able to do. And that's something that's going to vary from player to player, so I think it's a long process. But it's definitely something I would like to try out a little bit.
MELBOURNE, Australia -- South African Amanda Coetzer -- the 12th seed who registered the biggest shock of the tournament with her upset of top-seed Steffi Graf of Germany, advanced to the semifinals in the Australian Open Tennis Championships on Tuesday (Monday in the U.S.) with a 6-4, 6-1 win over unseeded American Kimberly Po.
Po was her own worst enemy in the 67-minute match, striking 46 unforced errors and winning just 11 points on her first serve. Coetzer was not spectacular, hitting just nine winners, but she did break her opponent six times.
Their center-court match was played with the roof closed due to the oppressive heat of the Australian summer, which has seen courtside temperatures reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Forecasts on Tuesday called for temperatures in the low 100s, and the decision was made prior to play by tournament referee Peter Bellenger to close the roof.
Despite the hot conditions, Coetzer would have rather played with the roof open. "I think I would have preferred to play outside. I love playing out in the sunshine, but it was probably a bit of a break for both of us playing out of the heat and the wind," said Coetzer, who will face unseeded Mary Pierce of France in the semifinals.
Q. You didn't seem quite as decisive today as you were the other day?
A. Decisive?
Q. In your play?
A. I feel pretty happy with the way I played. Definitely it was a little bit difficult going out there, not knowing too much about Kimberly. I haven't played her, actually. I know how she plays but I haven't played her, so it's always a little bit difficult to know what to expect.
Q. Have you thought about, if you win a couple more matches you'll be champion?
A. It's such a long way and I know how hard it is to just really keep your focus on one match. To keep it on each point, it's pretty hard, so it's really a long way for me to think about that.
Q. Do you think the fact that you have been at this stage last year will help you in the next match?
A. I think so. Last year I felt like I had somewhat of an opportunity, I won the first set and I just got a little bit anxious. But I feel like it definitely makes a big difference being there before and I feel comfortable on centre court, so who knows. I feel like if I do get an opportunity, I'm a little bit more mature than what I was last year in some ways.
Q. Amanda, what was your reaction when you were told about the roof being closed?
A. I think I definitely probably would have preferred to play outside, that's my main, probably my best surface outside, I love playing out in the sunshine. But it was probably a bit of a break for both of us not to be in the heat and the wind.
Q. Do you think it is unfair that the roof should be closed for some players and not others?
A. Well, I guess from now on the rule is, once all the matches are being played on centre court, it's fair to do, so I guess I'll just go with the rules.
Q. Your coach has said on television that you had trained for these very circumstances and weather.
A. Yeah, definitely, you know, I was prepared. I feel like I got out of that match with Steffi and that was very crucial for me. So I guess all my training and hot work was not quite in vain, so I did get something out of it and, you know, I think I just took it as it came. It's not much use in getting worked up for me and getting negative about playing inside. Plus the conditions outside today were pretty difficult with the wind, so who knows what could have happened.
Q. Amanda, from what I can work out, there aren't any South African media representatives here. Have you got any reaction to that?
A. No. I've been doing a couple of radio interviews that went back. Hopefully I think it will create some interest. I think probably it will take a little bit more than just myself. I think Wayne has always done really well, he can generate a lot of interest and hopefully in the future we will get a little bit more.
Q. How is it at grassroots level there? Can you speak on behalf of South African tennis?
A. I can't really. I haven't been there a lot lately, in the country itself, I only go back about once a year. But I can say a huge effort is going on to promote the sport. A lot of the players have helped just to give some younger players the opportunity, because the economy is not great and we are struggling to get sponsorships. So we've tried to, a lot of us have tried to put back a little bit into the sport, so hopefully it will help eventually.
Q. Amanda, you were able to play a couple of the rising stars in the first couple of rounds, Kournikova and Kandarr, and you yourself are making a move in Grand Slam tennis. Can you talk a little bit about the depth of women's tennis and how it is coming up and what are your thoughts on it?
A. I think we are at a very exciting time. You see some players getting towards the end of their career but luckily there are a lot of them coming up that can fill those gaps. A lot of interesting players, a lot of different type of players, so I think we are at a very, very exciting time. I hope to be a part of it for quite a few more years. I still feel, even though I'm 25 years old, I feel like I can relate quite well to the younger players because I've felt like in the last couple of years I've made a lot of changes to my game. So I feel in a way, I still feel quite young, so I think it will be very exciting.
Q. Does it surprise you to see so many foreign names in the quarter finals of the women's - not foreigners in countries, ones you are aren't used to being in quarter finals, van Roost and Appelmans, a couple of times now?
A. I don't think I have seen a Grand Slam like this. Here it's very strange to see. But I think in a way it's exciting, too, a few new faces. And we're heading into a year where nobody really knows what's going to happen with the new ranking system, so I think it's just going to be an exciting year and it will probably work itself out towards the end of the year. But it's very exciting. The first Grand Slam of the year you always see a few surprises, I think.
Q. In years gone by, do you think there was, among the players perhaps ranked 5 to 30, a greater respect, sort of verging on awe, with regard to Monica and Steffi?
A. I think so, but more and more you see, not just down to 30 but all the way down to players ranked 100, you see - I think people are becoming more athletic, you see a lot more stronger, physically stronger, girls coming up and, you know, I just think it's great for the sport, I think it should be competitive.
Q. Obviously when you first picked up a racquet, Amanda, and decided to go serious with your career, you would have dreamed of one day being a Grand Slam winner. How fierce does that dream burn inside you? You are not too far away from it now.
A. I can't say I had that when I was young. My career just kind of progressed. And it is definitely something that would be great. You know, I can't say that the dream has been burning for years and years, I have to admit.
Q. How does it progress from Hoopstad, a little town in the Karoo? How did you get the coaching, first up, to even be a top junior; was that difficult?
A. I think I had great opportunities. My parents really made it easy for me. My dad started - I have three sisters and he started all of us out and gave us whatever we needed. My mum took us to tournaments. So I had a lot of competition when I was growing up and just so many opportunities. We had a tennis court at home and it was really the easiest thing for me to do was to play tennis. So I owe a lot to my parents for the beginning.
Q. There must have been a lot of travel, because Hoopstad is not very close to major centres.
A. It's not very close, but it's still fairly centrally located. We drove around. Johannesburg is about three hours north of us and my mum drove many kilometres to take us to tournaments. But there were three of us playing these tournaments so I guess it made it worthwhile.
Q. You grew up playing in a sort of dry heat similar to Melbourne?
A. Yes, very similar to this. Also where I grew up it is high altitude and most of our tournaments were played at high altitude and the heat is a little bit different than the heat you see in the States, with all the humidity. Yeah, this is something I'm somewhat used to.
Q. Amanda, you said you made some changes in your game in the last couple of years. Would one of those changes be your forehand? It looks to be as big as anybody. You took Steffi on.
A. Yeah, that's the main change we've brought about. It's just a gift I got from my coach back there, he gave me a new forehand, plus a few others. We've worked very hard and I owe it all to him - thanks.
Q. Have you always twisted the racquet between every shot? You twist the racquet 100 per cent between every shot.
A. I think I've done it for a long time. I don't know why I do it but I tend to change my grips a lot, so I think it's just easiest to change it.
MELBOURNE, Australia -- Twelfth-seed Amanda Coetzer of South Africa recorded the biggest victory of her career Sunday (Saturday night in the U.S.), knocking off world No. 1 and top-seed Steffi Graf of Germany, 6-2, 7-5, at the Australian Open Tennis Championships at Flinders Park. Coetzer, a semifinalist here last year, rallied from 0-4 and 2-5 deficits in the second set to reach the quarterfinals and hand Graf, a four-time Australian Open champion, only her fifth loss in two years.
Graf committed 53 unforced errors and was broken five times in the one-hour, 28-minute match. She was successful on just 58 percent of her first serves, and won 51 percent of her first service points. Coetzer, who lost her serve twice, committed just 23 unforced errors and made 76 percent of her first serves. Coetzer recorded only her second win in 11 career meetings against Graf, prevailing at the Canadian Open in 1995. Graf, who had missed the last two Australian Opens due to injuries, suffered her earliest defeat at the tournament since 1984, a third-round loss.
Q. That must be even better than Toronto, mustn't it, last time?
A. It was a little bit quicker this time. So yeah, it was better.
Q. Just take us through, as far as you were concerned, the various parts of the match, particularly when you were down in that second set and had to claw back?
A. I think definitely the first set coming out, 4/0, I think Steffi made a lot of errors and she really gave it to me in the beginning, and lifted her game immediately after the first set. I was 4/0 down and I think just the crucial game was one at 4/2, it was a long game and I felt at that point that if I won that game, that I had a chance to get back in the match. Luckily she played not a great game again at 5/2, and that really gave me a chance to get back again in that second set.
Q. She seemed to be struggling a lot with the heat, going into the shadow. Did you feel it very badly?
A. I definitely felt it. It was very hot and you really feel it on the court, but I felt pretty good. I tried to ice down a little bit on the changeovers, just get a bit of ice on my neck and face, but I felt good.
Q. Did you sense Steffi was in trouble before she requested treatment?
A. No, I didn't really. I mean, it was very hot. I felt that both of us would probably be struggling a little bit, but I tried not to think about it too much. She was playing fairly well at that stage, and I tried not to get distracted too much by it.
Q. Have you played in heat like that before, or much like that?
A. I think probably the last time we played was a very hot day, and I've done a lot of training in very hot weather, so I felt fairly prepared for it.
Q. Where was that training, Amanda?
A. We've done a lot of training in Florida, this type of heat, and probably a little bit worse humidity than this.
Q. With Melbourne specifically in mind, with a day like this specifically in mind?
A. Any type of day. I mean, probably in the summer in the States, you can get yourself in quite a lot of trouble. I think Melbourne is a little bit different because you get these hot afternoons, the courts get really hot in the late afternoons, where other places it's probably a little bit worse just around midday for a couple of hours.
Q. Do you feel it coming through your feet?
A. Yeah, you feel it quite a lot on your feet. But I trust my shoes; I'm wearing a great pair of new shoes, so they were really good.
Q. You seemed to play a lot to Steffi's forehand, making errors on that side. Was that a conscious effort to do that?
A. Yeah. I felt comfortable playing forehand to forehand with her, and she definitely was making quite a few errors off that side and her backhand has probably been vulnerable in the past, but she slices it really well, keeps it really low, and she doesn't make that many errors. I was just reacting to what she was playing and I wasn't really playing to one specific side.
Q. Was there any point in the match where you sensed that you had her, that you were going to win?
A. I think the last shot that she hit and I saw it coming through the air, it looked like it could go long, and that was probably the last one. She played a great point on my first match point, 40/15, she hit a great forehand down the line. You never know with her. It was so close in the second, that you never can really tell.
Q. What was it like watching it going long at that moment?
A. It was just a great feeling, probably a little bit of relief, but just a really good feeling.
Q. You said that game at 4/2 in the second was very important. What was going through your head once you lost that game? How difficult was it to get back up and keep that effort going?
A. I was prepared to play a third set from there on. I knew that if I can get to 4/3, I'd probably feel pretty good. But I was prepared at that stage to go into a third set.
Q. Do you think the game before that was pretty important, too, you served three double faults and still won that game. That must have hurt Steffi?
A. Definitely. My service was very shaky at that stage and, coming out of a game like that it really lifted me up and probably it really - she had a lot of opportunities and I just felt really good coming out of that game.
Q. Were you feeling nervous at that point or cool or both?
A. As an excuse to why I served that many double faults? No, I think just we have done a lot of work on my serve and I think it's come a long way, and I feel really good on it, but it's still not 100 per cent. You never really know. I just lost a bit of feeling on it, and you never know.
Q. Before this match you were at 40/1 to win the championship. Do you think they're fairly good odds?
A. Yeah, obviously a good bet. You know, I wouldn't have put - well --
Q. Is this the biggest win of your career?
A. Yeah, it's always great to beat somebody like that for the first time. But to do it twice, really makes me feel good, it gives me a lot of confidence. Because a lot of times it looks like a bit of a fluke, but it feels great to do it twice.
Q. Would you say this is the best win of your career?
A. I think so, and especially at a Grand Slam. You often tend to see the top players come out of tight situations at Grand Slams, so this is very important for me.
Q. Does this give you the confidence to say take that next step and win the title?
A. I think it's a long way from here, but I'm going to take it match by match from here. You really never can tell what you do after a win like this. But it gives me a lot of confidence to go ahead.
Q. You must be feeling pretty confident in regard to your next opponent?
A. She's done really well lately. It's a little bit difficult. I haven't played her, we haven't played each other for a while, and it's always hard, you don't know exactly what to expect. I know somewhat what type of game she has, but just match by match, it's another match and I have to go out and concentrate hard.
Q. In a previous round, we spoke to you about Steffi's record at this tournament, that she has gone behind in the first set and it happened again today, and we asked what you thought, how you could possibly exploit that.
A. Yes. Definitely she came out and she gave me quite a few points in the beginning, but I think it was really important for me to win it at 5/2, to win that set, because right after that she went on a bit of a roll to go up 4/0. So if I'd lost that game right there, I would have been in big trouble.
Q. Do you plan a match strategy with Gavin, or does he just look after your fitness?
A. No. He's been my coach for the last two years and we have done a lot of work physically, but he's probably been one of the best - probably the best coach that I have ever worked with. Technically, tactically, he's been really good and I have a lot of faith in him.
Q. Is there something about this tournament for you, because semifinals last year and now you have beaten Steffi. Is it the surface?
A. Yeah, I really like the conditions, I like the surface, and I think it really suits my game. I like coming down here this time of year. I always go back to South Africa for the month of December and the conditions are fairly similar, so it's also a very relaxing time for me, I enjoy all the tournaments I played before. So I really enjoy coming here.
Q. You have been a very consistent performer in the last four or five years, your ranking has finished around 15, 16 or 17. What has stopped you from going on to finish in the top 10 and taking that next step?
A. I think matches like these and just consistently being able to beat the top players, setting yourself up against them. I've put myself in a good position to play Steffi because I've had some not easy matches before, but they have been all two sets, so I think I have given myself a good opportunity to play her and I think that's really important for me right through this coming year, to be able to put myself in a good position to beat the top players.
Q. Has the time finally come for you to break into the top 10 this year?
A. I hope so. I'm really not going to get too caught up in the rankings and all that. We have a different ranking system, and I don't know what is going to come of it, but I know I have to perform consistently every tournament. So that's what I'm going to be focusing on.
Q. Does playing in the Hopman Cup, where you get an opportunity to play with some men there, would that have helped you in today's match to combat the power?
A. Yeah, that and a few other secrets up our sleeve. I think that's a great opportunity for the women, to get to play with the men. I think it's a great tournament and it's really great for women's tennis. I think the men enjoy it, too, to some extent; but it is definitely great for us.
Q. What did you discuss with Gavin? Can you be more specific? What did you work on?
A. Just basically my game plan was to go out there and to work really hard, not to try and go out and hit too much with her, but to work hard on every point, and a few tactical things that I felt I could exploit. I felt like I could go out and see how good she's hitting her forehand and see if she might make a few errors, and then just to use my topspin and that type of thing, and a few things on the serves and returns as well.
Q. There has been some criticism of women's tennis. Now we have three of the top four seeds out of the quarterfinals, what do you think that says about the game?
A. I think it says that the depth is really grown quite a bit in women's tennis and I think it's good that some of the top players - some of the other players can come up and beat some of the top players. I think it will make it a little bit more exciting in the long run, to see a bit more competitiveness out there.
Q. You played great tennis today. Do you think this is one of your memorable matches?
A. Definitely.