----------------------------------------------------------------------

Official Site of The Championships, Wimbledon by IBM - News


            Jelena Dokic
            Friday, July 2, 1999


            A. STEVENSON / J. Dokic 6-3, 1-6, 6-3


Q. How much did the break overnight throw you?

JELENA DOKIC: It was different coming and finishing the match off the next day, 
and, I don't know, maybe it was better for me to play the same day, but maybe it 
wasn't. I think the only way to find out was to play that day, but I think it 
was sort of tough a little bit to come back the next day, and it was probably 
better for me to play the same day maybe, because I was on a roll in that second 
set.

Q. Your serve seemed to let you down a little bit in the final set.

JELENA DOKIC: Yes, I think that was the key today, probably. If I won my service 
games, I mean, I broke there as well, and if I was able to keep my serve, I 
probably would have won the match. 

Q. Did the shambles of last night affect you, because you were shaking your head 
out there? Was it because it was so late, or the change of court that you felt 
was perhaps a little unfair?

JELENA DOKIC: I don't know, I guess they were just trying to get matches on and 
finish the matches, but it was a little bit tough to put us on at 8.00 to play 
the match, because it was dark already, plus the rain came down anyway. But it 
was -- I mean, even in the warm-up you couldn't see the ball. So I think it was 
probably a bit harsh to put us on at that time. But that's -- I guess they 
wanted to get through the matches.

Q. Did you say anything to the Umpire at all? It looked like you were 
complaining.

JELENA DOKIC: After sort of we warmed up, I said to her, "You know, it's too 
dark", and I think Alexandra probably felt the same thing, because she said yes, 
I can't see the ball, but the rain came down anyway. I don't think we would have 
played anyway, because neither of us could see the ball.

Q. Jelena, now that it's all over, what's your thoughts now of the whole 
experience? 

JELENA DOKIC: I can't say I had a bad tournament. Qualified, got to the quarters 
and had some good wins. Probably would have liked to get through today, but 
every match you say, "I want to get through this one", so I guess you stop 
somewhere. But it was good for me, and I'm looking forward to the next 
tournaments.

Q. Where do you take this from here? You've gone up a level, so what do you have 
to achieve from here, do you think?

JELENA DOKIC: Well, I mean, I'll just still work on my game and all of my shots 
and try and improve more, I guess. There's still a lot of improvement that can 
be done, and hopefully I'll play even better for the summer.

Q. You're sure to find other people raising their expectations of you. Does this 
change your expectations of yourself?

JELENA DOKIC: Yes, I think it does a little bit, because I'm expecting for 
myself to do quite well, and I'm expecting to sort of play bigger tournaments 
now and win matches, and sort of put myself a level up now.

Q. Do you think other players will have a better idea of what to expect when 
they face you after the last fortnight?

JELENA DOKIC: Hopefully. They'd probably have a different idea of sort of what 
type of player I am, and I guess what they're facing.

Q. Do you feel tired, like you need a break now, or do you feel raring to sort 
of keep going and keep the momentum going?

JELENA DOKIC: I think after every Grand Slam you sort of feel like you've got 
to take a bit of time off, especially -- I mean, losing in quarters and then 
playing three qualifying matches is like going through the whole Grand Slam, 
from main draw, winning, you know, all the way through, for two weeks. That 
sort of hasn't happened that often. This is probably the first time that I've 
done it. I'll probably take a bit of time off now and get ready for the summer. 
I mean, I don't want to play -- like keep on going now, because then when I have 
the tournaments before the US Open, because I'm sort of tying to save myself for 
that.

Q. What will you do over the break? Have you got any schoolwork backed up or 
anything like that?

JELENA DOKIC: Yes, definitely, I've got to catch up now.

Q. Jelena, what did your father say to you after it was finished today?

JELENA DOKIC: I guess we were both a little bit disappointed with the result. 
I mean, you always sort of want to win. But we talked about what I should have 
done differently and approached the match. But I think it was sort of a little 
bit tougher coming back the next day. I mean, I probably would have rather like 
to play that -- like maybe finish it yesterday or play it all at once.

Q. Your thoughts right at the end of the match? You looked pretty keen to get 
off the court. You didn't hang around at all. You didn't wait for Alexandra when 
you finished the match. You just sort of got off yourself pretty quickly.

JELENA DOKIC: Yes, I guess. I mean, after you sort of lose, you don't feel like 
-- I don't know -- -- I didn't take much notice there.

Q. What's the one thing you think you've learned from the last two weeks? What's 
the single thing you'll take away?

JELENA DOKIC: Well, it's definitely helped me match-wise, I had quite a few 
matches and definitely helped me confidence-wise, I've sort of played a few more 
players that I probably haven't played before, definitely players that I haven't 
played before, and sort of helped my game to see where I am, and what I should 
do differently and work on.

Q. Do you think we'll see a fair bit of Dokic versus Stevenson in the future?

JELENA DOKIC: We'll see. Hopefully you'll see a bit more of Dokic in the future, 
but I don't know how far she'll get to. I mean, we'll see. It's tough to say for 
both of us if this is like once in a lifetime tournament, or if from here you're 
actually going to go on, because it's a big step to take to get into top level, 
and I'm not sort of worrying right now who's going to be there. I'm sort of 
waiting for myself to get there.

Q. Do you think you're ready to take that step into the top 20, the top 10?

JELENA DOKIC: I think confidence-wise I feel like I am, and especially winning 
these few matches -- and I definitely feel like I'm playing much better tennis 
than I was probably a couple of months ago, or a few weeks ago even, because 
I've played more matches, got more confidence and feel better.

Q. Where do you think your ranking will be now?

JELENA DOKIC: I don't know where it is. Top 50, top 40, I don't know. I don't 
know what it is, but it will certainly get me into some bigger tournaments.

Q. I think you might have been asked this earlier in the week, but is it a 
little frustrating now that you'll have sort of a limited schedule because of 
the rules with age eligibility?

JELENA DOKIC: Yes, I think anyone that's limited sort of feels that way, because 
not just only that you're limited, it's also -- I'm competing -- I can play 13, 
14 tournaments a year, whereas other players can play 30, 35, and I'm competing 
with players that can play double the amount that I can, and not just that, but 
it also sort of -- you feel like you've got to do well at every tournament 
because if you don't you don't have another one where you can sort of fix it up. 
I mean, you do, but you've got to take every tournament really seriously.

Q. I guess those rules came in to sort of protect people against burnout and 
physical duress. Do you feel like that could possibly be a danger with you?

JELENA DOKIC: No, I don't think so, because I've always -- I mean, even in the 
juniors last year, I mean I played so many tournaments, always went like to the 
end in the tournament, singles and doubles, and I think for me like the more 
tournaments I play and matches the better I feel. I mean, at the beginning of 
the year I played Hopman Cup, Aussie Open, and after that I had a few 
tournaments and I sort of didn't feel good because I didn't have a lot of 
tournaments to play and I was limited. You know, you've got to practise a bit 
more, which I don't mind, but I'd rather have a lot of tournaments to play.

Q. Which is your favourite surface? Would you do better, say in the US Open, for 
instance? Would that suit you better?

JELENA DOKIC: Definitely, I think so. I think I've always sort of liked that 
surface. I won the US Open juniors, and I feel really comfortable now. I 
practise on that a lot and I think my game suits that as well.

Q. Do you think you would do better there?

JELENA DOKIC: Hopefully. We'll see. I mean you've got tough players there. 
You've got players that like hard court. I mean, you've got Seles, Davenport, 
Williams, Graf. I mean, everyone is there. But if I can get a few more good 
wins, we'll see what happens. But now that I'm in main draw I sort of expect 
quite a bit from myself. I'm not worrying about what others expect, but I sort 
of feel like I could win quite a few rounds.

Q. You've had a lot publicity over the past couple of weeks ever since you beat 
Martina. Has there been anything that really surprised you about what comes 
along with, well, fame and public notice?

JELENA DOKIC: Well, I've always said this, but that's I guess what a tennis 
player has to cope with, and I know from before how much coverage, you know, 
Hingis got or Kournikova or anyone else, and you've got to deal with that, and 
it doesn't bother me.

----------------------------------------------------------------------