Interview with Dominique van Roost AFTER loosing against Mauresmo
(26-Jan-99)
(www.ausopen.org)

Q. What went wrong today?

A. I don't think that anything went wrong with me. I think
that my opponent played an amazing match. She didn't
miss one ball from the base line. Shy just received too
hard. She was very powerful during the whole match. I
expected that she might have some games where she was
starting to make some mistakes because she was nervous,
probably the fact that she had a chance to win; but she
went all the times very good when it was important, and I
had a couple of opportunities also in the second set on
her serve, and every time that I was having a chance to
win her serve, she was serving amazing. I think I had
too much pressure on me during the whole match. I played
a very good second set. The first set I was still a bit
nervous and I was making a couple of unforced errors. In
the second set I think I played perfect and she was just
overpowering.

Q. So you are satisfied with your performance?

A. I'm satisfied. I'm a little bit sad that I lost, of
course, because it's always nice when you win when you
arrive in the semi final, but today I think she played
too good for me and she didn't give me a chance to win
that match.

Q. Dominique, can you discuss the tiebreak. I think you had
six unforced errors?

A. I had unforced errors because she make me the unforced
error. It's not that I was starting to make some. It's
just that when you see her running all around the court
and just playing everything back, it's hard. With my
game it's not easy because I'm taking a lot of risks and
every time that I was taking risks she was every time
there and at the end I was making the mistakes, but she
was just playing unbelievable in the tiebreak.

Q. Dominique, how does her serve compare to others? Is it
as big a serve as - - -?

A. She serve I think - I don't know how fast she can serve,
but it is definitely very fast and very powerful also.

Q. How far do you think she can go? Can she be a top two or
three player, do you think?

A. It's hard to say because it's not only with one match
that makes one year, so I don't think that I can answer
that she is going to arrive in the top 5 in the world,
but I think that the way she played today she is probably
going to be very soon in the top 20, and probably also in
the top 10 because she has the game and she has
everything to achieve to the place of top 10 probably.

Q. How much has she improved since you played her last?

A. A lot, I think. The last time I played her she was
making a lot of unforced errors. It was inside also and
it's faster. With my game it's easier maybe to play
against her because I can use that advantage playing
inside. Today, in the second set I played very good. I
really had to work hard to win my serve, and I was
struggling all the time receiving her serve because she
was serving too fast for me, so she improved a lot
mentally. I saw her playing also in the past match and
every time she was winning, by the end she was starting a
little bit to be scared to win the match, but today she
was not scared at all. I think she played amazing from
the beginning.

Q. Dominique, can you discuss her backhand. Does she
disguise it well, or can you tell when she is going to
hit either slice or topspin?

A. The backhand that she plays, today she was very regular.
Most of the - the two times that I played her she was
more weak in the backhand than in the forehand. The
forehand is her - even if she is far from the ball, she
still reaches it and she plays a very good shot, but from
the backhand she is maybe not that strong. But now I
think she's worked hard on the backhand because every
time I was putting pressure on her she was slicing and it
is not an easy slice because it is a quite low one and
when she had her shorter ball she was hitting hard and it
was with a lot of spin. So she has a very good - I think
she improved on the backhand, so she has a better
backhand than before but it is still, I think, the
weakest point of her game.

Q. Do you think she is ready to beat either Venus or
Lindsay?

A. I think she has a chance, yes, I think so.