ARTICLES

	Interview
	E. BOVINA v. J Dokic, US Open 2002 Q. That looked like a very comfortable match for you. ELENA BOVINA: Yes. I just found my rhythm from the beginning and I knew it was going to be a little bit windy outside. I just tried to make a lot of balls, especially at the beginning of the match, you know, make her play. I guess she just couldn't quite find her game today. You know, I made her move, I made her hit, you know, a lot of balls. I think I felt pretty comfortable out there. Q. Did she seem a little listless to you when she was out there? ELENA BOVINA: A little? Q. Not quite her normal self. ELENA BOVINA: Yeah, I mean, she made a lot of errors today. But, as I said, you know, it was quite windy out there. I don't know what's the reason of her playing that way. I mean, obviously it's not my problem. I just try to play my game. I just tried to do what I had to do. You know, I won. Q. The new Bovina up around the net, spending time at the net. ELENA BOVINA: Yeah, I'm trying toward the direction, trying to move forward as much as I can. I did it a few times today. I did a few approaches today. I won a couple of good points at the net today. But I still think I can do it more often. It's just something that I'm not quite used to yet. But I think I should do it a little bit more. Q. Have you come to the conclusion that this is how you have to play, more aggressively, come forward, more physical? ELENA BOVINA: Yeah. I mean, that's what I have in mind right now. That's what I'm working on. For sure, I mean, women's tennis is progressing, it's moving forward. You know, it's more physical, it's power, so you have to follow it, you have to make adjustments to your game and improve it. Q. Can you tell me where you learned most of your tennis? You attended Bollettieri. You learned also in Russia? ELENA BOVINA: Yes, both. I've been practicing in Moscow basically all the junior years that I've been playing. I went for a couple years to Nick's. I went back home again. Now I'm kind of, you know, wherever. It's all over the place. Sometimes if I play in the States, I practice in the States. If it's in Europe, then I'm back home. Q. Was two years enough at Bollettieri's? ELENA BOVINA: Basically it was a great experience at Nick's. He's a really great coach, I think. He's great technician. You know, he sees technically like mistakes unbelievably well. You know, probably there's not like particular reasons. Was just for me time, you know, to move on, to play tournaments. Basically he had a lot of children, too, that he was coaching. Like he couldn't concentrate only on you because he had PaulHenry, Xavier Malisse. I kept counting, counting. He had a bunch of kids. It was hard this way. He's definitely one of the great coaches I ever met. Q. You had a few moments with John McEnroe at Wimbledon. What did you get out of that? Did he give you some advice? ELENA BOVINA: Yes. I really admire, you know, John. I met him. I was so happy and excited. We even hit at Roland Garros a few times, Wimbledon. He's really clever. He's really smart. I mean, he's been the best player, you know, in the world. I had a lot of great experience just by talking to him. He told me a few things here and there. I mean, I'm thankful for this. And also BradGilbert has been helping me a little bit also. I've been practicing at his house in California for a few weeks before Los Angeles. You know, he helped me unbelievably also. I mean, he's unbelievable guy. He knows so much that it's just scary. I mean, yeah, also he helped me a lot. Q. What's the most important thing John McEnroe told you? ELENA BOVINA: The most important thing? You know, there was not such thing as the most important thing. Everything that he says is important because you know he's just a legend, you know, of tennis. It was a lot of stuff. It was not like one thing that he said, "This is the most important." Q. How did you get together with Brad? ELENA BOVINA: He's a really good friend of my coach. They're like unbelievably good friends. You know, Brad invited us for a couple of weeks before, to prepare for the series of tournaments in the States. He has his court at his house. It was just great. Unbelievable experience for me. I think from that point on I improved with my game unbelievably. Q. Is it important for you to kind of be able to get to the second round when you saw you were playing Dokic in the first round? ELENA BOVINA: I didn't even see the draw. Every time I play, I try to play like one match at a time. All I knew at the beginning of the tournament is that I play ClarissaFernandez the first round. Then the next day, you know, my coach told me who I played next. I didn't even see the draw, so I didn't know I was going to play Dokic. It really didn't matter to me. I just wanted to work on my game and try to improve my game. For me right now winning is not that important. It's more important, you know, to try new things that I've been working on, see how they go. Whatever feels comfortable for me, just keep doing them in matches.