Florencia held her only press conference of the tournament about 30 minutes after her close loss to Arantxa Sanchez Vicario. I was very nervous and the things I scribbled down while Flo was talking are barely legible. I also missed one answer altogether because I was focused on taking a picture of her. Anyway, here are the four questions I asked. I had the first two -- no other member of the press wanted to break the ice. Direct quotes are included where possible; otherwise I paraphrase what she had to say.
Q) I think you were 1 for 10 on break points tonight. Do you think you could have won the match if a few of those had gone differently?
A) "Yeah, I had the chances in many games." She doesn't know if she would have won the match or not, but said it certainly would have been different if she'd converted more break opportunities.
Q) Do you get nervous playing in a big stadium rather than an outer court?
A) "No, I wasn't nervous...wasn't nervous at all." Playing on Center Court is different from playing on an outer court, though, and you have to be used to it. She's starting to play on big courts more now, so hopefully she will continue to improve on them.
Q) You seem to have a different doubles partner every week. Are you just waiting to find the right combination?
A) Yes, she is looking for a steady partner. She played with Naoko Kijimuta this week and will stay with her through the US Open. They played well here and will remain partners if they find continued success. She admits that it's better to have one doubles partner than to keep changing.
Q) Despite tonight's loss, can you look back at this as one of your best tournaments of the season?
A) "It was one of the best this year." This is the first time she's reached the quarterfinals of a big tournament. "I hope I can keep on playing that level."
There were only a few other questions, two of which were basically repeats of my opening question about the break points. There was also an Arantxa-related question to which Flo responded, "Every time we played they were very close matches...always like that when we play."
Anyway, this was one of the highlights (maybe THE highlight) of that week for me. I actually managed to ask the questions calmly and coherently. Florencia is so nice and polite. She thanked us for the questions and thanked Shaun Stafford (a former Flo doubles partner who has become a communications director for the WTA). She stayed and did a TV interview in Spanish. Sorry, no transcript of that one!
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