Martina Hingis Australian Open Q & A

Q.  What's it like to be back?  You had so much success here.

MARTINA HINGIS:  Oh, it's great to be back.  I mean, the city where you had success, it's always nice to be back.  You know, it's been five years, so it's nice to have played on these courts where I used to.

It's nice to watch tennis, the last couple night sessions as well, and to watch great tennis.  Djokovic and Nadal yesterday was pretty fun.

Q.  Looking back, it still amazes me that you were No. 1 in the world a little 16.  Does it amaze you?

  
MARTINA HINGIS:  Well, actually, yes.  Yesterday I got to like 15 years ago a lady who was like my fan, and she gave me an envelope of all the clippings from the whole year '97, so you see the victory here like Sydney and the whole '97 year.  It was like amazing.

You look at the photos.  How young today at 16, you see the juniors playing, and it's just everything has been pushed back for like about two, three years.

 Yeah, baby face when I look at the photos.  I'm like, Oh.  I was able to make great things, making these victories, it was amazing, yeah.

 Q.  How did you do it?  You didn't have great power.  The Williams sisters were just coming on then.  How did you do it?

  
MARTINA HINGIS:  I think they didn't control their power yet at that time, because we had great matches.  At that time I still had the strategy and everything was just, it was different.

Now it's the power and the control and the racquets speed, the balls, the court.  Everything has made progress.  It's normal.  The sport evolves, and so did tennis, women's tennis.

At that time I still was able to sneak in few dropshots and angles.  It's still nice to see when girls do it today, but you just have less time.  Then it was still probably the right point and the right time to do it.

Q.  What would your advice be to Caroline who plays a similar not power strategic game?

            
MARTINA HINGIS:  Similar.  I didn't step back.  I tried not to let them push me.  Eventually you play one Williams, you play the second, you play Davenport, you play Capriati, who were all pushing forward.  They were stronger than me.  It's hard to play three, four players like that in a row.  It's three setter after three setter after three setter.

I couldn't come out on top all the time.  In the beginning I did most of the time.  Today you just can't let yourself get pushed back.  That's what she has to do.  She has to try to move in, step forward, otherwise there is always going to be somebody coming on top of her at a Grand Slam.
          
She's a great player.  I wish I would see her come in a little bit more.  Not at the net.  Yeah, eventually if you come in you end up with a volley.  But you just can't let yourself push back today, not against Sharapova, Clijsters, Serena, not somebody like that.

Q.  Not every player had great hands and touch like you did where they could go inside the court and play mid‑court.

  
MARTINA HINGIS:  Yeah, but every time she tried to do it, I mean, I watched match against Kim yesterday, so I mean, every time she tried to do it, just you have to have the mentality to try to keep doing it in practice so it becomes automatic.  You can't just do to two, three points in a match.
          
Maybe even if you lose a match or two sometimes, even against other players, you just have to try to keep doing it against lower‑ranked players to be able to eventually do it against the top players.

Q.  Do you think it would still be possible to win Grand Slam tournaments with your style of play today?

  
MARTINA HINGIS:  Of course.  Of course you're going to believe that.  There are players even now that I'm playing at the academy, junior girls, and you see Putintseva, Gavrilova who was No. 1 in juniors in 2010.  I'm hitting with these girls when I'm around, and you got to believe that.  I mean, I can't go and practice with someone I don't believe in.  (Smiling.)

  

Q.  You were able to make a major impact at a very young age as a very young teenager.  

Pretty much you, Serena, to a degree, are pretty much the last two that's been able to do that.  Now like Kvitova had...

         
MARTINA HINGIS:  Venus was my age.

Q.  Kvitova was 20, 21.  It's a little unusual now, don't you think, to see the really young teenagers come up and be really big players?

  
MARTINA HINGIS:  I think basically it's also because the rules changed.  It's been pushed back for like two, three years.  As I said, at 16 we were open and free to play.  Now it's only 18.
          
I think the junior girls, they lose a year or two of playing each other and not having the possibility to play you know, 15 or 20 events a year at least.

I think it's a shame, but I always said that.  I think, okay, we all started very young, at 14, 15 years of age, but that's the time when you learn most.  Capriati was young, Steffi was young, Arantxa, we all were 14, 15 when we got on tour, Seles.

We all became No. 1 in the world, so it's not a matter of where your point is.  Okay it's gotten more physical, so probably it'll be pushed back for two years.

I think from 16, 17 on, definitely you should be open to play whatever you want.

It's always been my belief.  I think 18, it's later.  You still have the opportunity, the possibility do it.
But to learn at that age for a girl, it's a little harder than whether or not your 16.

Q.  The other day Martina Navratilova was talking about possibly changing the women's ranking to be more weighted to reflect who you've actually beaten.  What do you feel about that?

MARTINA HINGIS:  This is not my job to decide.  (Smiling.)

 Q.  There is some controversy about Wozniacki being No. 1 and not having won a Grand Slam.

MARTINA HINGIS:  She's the most consistent.  She can't change that the other girls are injured and she's there and plays and fights.  That's her right to do.

Q.  Where do you stand on the grunting issue?  The WTA issued a statement.

 MARTINA HINGIS:  I don't know.  It wasn't really my issue, so when I played the players like Sharapova or Seles, I don't know, if you keep winning you don't think about it.  The moment you're losing it's probably more distracting.  I don't know.

  

Q.  Did it ever put you off?

MARTINA HINGIS:  No, not really.  No.  It's just sometimes when they were stretching a little bit more, you're like, What are you doing?  The more they had to stretch the louder it got.
          
Or sometimes it's like a heavy grunt and it's on the service line and the ball doesn't have any weight on it.  You're like, Okay.

But, no, I mean, basically you just got to focus on what you're doing and focus on yourself and try to do your job.

But I think it's more of the spectators.  I think it's like they're watching, and I think it's more of an issue with the spectators.

Q.  So of the juniors who you're working with, who is the really good one that you think can get to, like you were saying before, maybe top 5, No. 1?

MARTINA HINGIS:  Well, there is five girls that right now I work with when I'm around or when they're around.  But it's more of a beginning.  It's a global consulting thing, so we'll see how it's going to evolve in the future.

But there is definitely the junior girl who is playing here also, Yulia Putintseva.  Hopefully she can go all the way.

 Then there is Daria Gavrilova, Naomi Broady, English girl.  Sasha Vickery who played here as well.  Unfortunately, not very successful.  Naomi Broady.  I said Naomi.  Alize Lim will be a French girl.

  

Q.  Do they listen as well as you listened to your mother?

MARTINA HINGIS:  Well, it's only the beginning, so you got to trust each other.  Yeah, definitely.  But in the beginning you got to find your way.  It's new to me; it's new to them.
          
But I love the work.  I love it.  I don't know.  I wasn't always best listener.  I had have to a hard hand.  I needed that.  So my mom was perfect for me.

 Q.  There was a lot of talk in the first few rounds about the matches in the women's draw not being very close.  Do you think there is a problem of depth in women's tennis at the moment?

          
MARTINA HINGIS:  Are you serious?  Are you kidding?  I mean, now with the great matches we see, Lisicki played already against Kuznetsova.  That was a great match.  Now she plays Sharapova and it was a great match.  I don't know.

First rounds, come on.  How about Djokovic killing everyone in the first three rounds or Federer not losing a set, more than three games in a set.

I mean, it's just sometimes that's the way it is.  If champions are champions, they're well‑prepared and they're going to play well from the beginning.

Q.  So putting you on the spot here, assuming Kvitova and Sharapova win today and you have Clijsters and Azarenka on the other side.  Obviously very close.  Who do you see coming through, or at least the two players to the finals maybe?

MARTINA HINGIS:  If I had to put money on the beginning when I was asked, I put my money on Kvitova because I really love game they plays, the fluency she has on her strokes and the serve, and also now more confidence when I saw the finals at Wimbledon.

But I was very impressed by Sharapova's match against Lisicki the other night.
          
And Kim, defending champion, it's hard to choose.  I wonder how Kvitova is going to play, you know, someone like ‑‑ well, I don't know now they're playing, so probably you don't want to put like somebody up front.

But I would like to see how she's going to play someone like Sharapova or Clijsters in a Grand Slam.

 Q.  So you've met Kvitova.  You know her.  Mentally is she where you think she should be?  She won Wimbledon.  Do you think she has to mature a little bit?  Sometimes in the matches she's up and down, as good as she is.

MARTINA HINGIS:  Yeah, but the one in Wimbledon against Sharapova is just like, you can't play any better.  I mean, you felt like she could step it up when she needed to; she served great; she showed no nerves.

I already saw one of her matches against Kim, in Coubertin, that final.  She's a true champion.  Sooner or later I think we'll see her at the top spot probably.  If it's not going to happen here, I think it's a question of time.

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