YOU have achieved everything there is in the game. Is your return to the tour as a doubles player purely about the enjoyment of the game?
“I have money problems (laughs). No when I was coaching at the academy just outside Paris, I was hitting a lot against the girls and I felt like I still had game. When I was practising with Sabine (Lisicki) and she asked me if I would play a game with her before her singles.
“I was like, well ok we’ll try and see how it goes and then we won a tournament in Miami and that felt really good. And I played some practise sets and won and I know everyone can be practise champions but I felt like I could still play tennis competitively, so I thought I would give it a go.
“I play team tennis in the US and I thought I’d just play a few more tournaments. I just thought why not, instead of coaching I want to do it myself.”
SO the coaching it never replaced the buzz of playing does it?
“No it doesn’t, and I can always do that later when I really feel I can’t handle the pace anymore against the girls. I enjoyed helping Sabine (Lisicki) and she is playing well and has a chance to win titles and a Grand Slam.”
WHAT has been the most significant change you’ve noticed in the game over the course of your career?
“Ten years ago when I played the Williams sisters were there and there was some other heavy hitters like Mary Pierce. But I think the materials, the game is fast and everyone makes bigger shots because of the change in the racquets. That to me has been the biggest change. I can’t really say when I played that it was slower, I mean the players were pretty fit. When I played against the best players, the big hitters, I just had to say in the game, the longer it went the better for me. These days the girls can all hit winners. I wish we had those racquets before, so I could hit winners.”
YOU were the youngest ever Grand Slam champion and new technology should make girls more competitive at a younger age. But your record is safe because they changed the rules around eligibility for WTA tournaments. Is it a good rule?
“I was never really sure about the new rule because the girls are taking longer to get there, but on the other hand the careers are longer. But I feel it takes them longer to excel, to gain the consistency needed..
WHAT about the pressure. You were a superstar from your early teens and you grew up in the public eye. Did it ever test your love of the game and do you think the fact the girls are starting later can save them from burn-out?
“I can’t really speak for the pressures players face. But I know it’s different if you have success, I guess you love the game when you are winning. I mean I wouldn’t be playing doubles if I was losing either. There are a lot of girls playing and if you are losing in the second round at an event, to keep going, to stay motivated must be a lot harder than if you are almost every week making finals or at least semi-finals and putting yourself in contention for a title every second weekend. I really can’t talk for the players who are between say ten and thirty, who are having up and downs, who can have a big week then some off weeks. I always felt like I had a chance to win a tournament every week.”
WAS there ever an opponent that was always ranked lower than you that you dreaded playing? Was there a bogy opponent?
Yeah I never liked playing Daniella (Hantchukova). She was at that time always the underdog against me and I found her very difficult. I never really liked playing against her and then she moved up to four or five in the world and the other one was Serena, she was a great player. I mean I had to pay attention against everyone but at the end of the day I thought I had the game.
WHAT about the 99 French Open final. It has gone down in history as the greatest women’s match ever. It was full of drama and controversy and you lost to Steffi Graf 6-4, 5-7, 2-6. Now that time has passed are you happy to have been a part of it or does that loss still burn?
“That is the match I wish I could replay. To make the most of it. There was so much emotion in it. Obviously if it had gone 6-4, 6-4 nobody would talk about it. I was able to watch it on You Tube a few years ago and I was like, hey that is pretty good tennis. I felt proud about how well we’d both played.”
IF you were coaching Sam Stosur what would be your advice?
“I think she has done well, I think she has probably made the most of her game. She has won a Grand Slam. I think sometimes things get to her a bit that can put her off her game. I played her
on my comeback, the second set was a tiebreak. If I had lost the tiebreak she would probably have beaten me. I think once you get into rallies you have just got to keep it away from her forehand. Technically I think she could focus on making her backhand better. She seems to be so focussed on her serve and her forehand. But we all have our weapons right?”
YOU were world number one for 209 weeks. What is it like knowing each week that everyone wants to take you down?
“I felt like they all had a similar plan against me. There was (Monica) Seles and (Jennifer) Capriati, the Williams sisters, Mary Pierce, Lindsay Davenport, they all tried to blow me off the court. They would try to make the points as quick as possible. And I just had to try to keep them out there. They were great rivalries, it was good times.”
HERE’S a fantasy question, what would be the one match across any era you’d like to watch or be a part of?
“In my day I played a lot of great players. But I really like watching Rafa (Nadal) and Federer. The rivalry has been great and some of their games have been the highlights of our sport. I can’t recall too much McEnroe and Connors but I have always imagined the past was so exciting. The few points that you see show that that they were fierce battles. The matches looked so exciting because of the volatility of those guys. They would lose it. They would be talking to the ref for five minutes and just get a warning. It was unbelievable.
DOES tennis miss that bit of colour. The rogue characters?
“You just can’t do it anymore. The players just don’t talk that much anymore. These days you say one word and you will get a warning.”
DOES one of the victories or tournaments stand above the rest as your favourite?
“It wasn’t the victory so much but I really enjoyed the Australian Open when I beat Serena and Venus in the same week because they were such tough opponents.”
THAT was 2001 wasn’t it, and you lost the final that year didn’t you?
“Yeah I shouldn’t have, I lost to Jennifer (Capriati) when I was up, I think 4-0, it is probably the other match of my career I wish I could change. It gives me goose bumps again. But beating the two sisters in the same tournament was special It didn’t happen too often. I could usually beat one of them which took a lot and then the other one would be waiting for me.”
YOU have been involved with a couple of athletes, tennis players Magnus Norman and Radek Stepanek and golfer Sergio Garcia and it hasn’t worked. Why is it so hard for two athletes to have successful relationships?
“As athletes we have egos. It is hard to balance your careers and relationship at the same time. You have to make compromises, both of you, and it is hard when to find time when you are in the middle of your career to do that. But there is always time.”
YOU fought hard against your two-year doping suspension in 2007 arguing the miniscule level was likely to have been caused by contamination and not deliberate ingestion. (The 42 nanograms per millilitre of benzoylecgonine would go undetected in many drug testing programs). Do you have any anger still over the way it panned out or are you settled with it?
“Well they changed the rules after that. The upsetting thing for me from the whole thing was that I never took anything. I’ve said that all along. With the whole doping, the changes now somebody else gets three months and I got two years. That is still definitely upsetting. I still feel the whole doping thing, it was too harsh. And there are a lot of people who feel the same. You were treated like criminal.’’
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