(Translation from Diario La Provincia (07/06/2003))

Question: This season the smile in your face is back.

Magüi: That's true, because things are going very well in all aspects. I think it has been very important for me to be back at home, because my family gives me calmness. It has also influenced a lot to have a coach like Fernando García Lleó and a physical coach of the category of Joaquín Sanchís, you know them and they are one  the best ones you can have.

Q: How do you summarise the first five months of the current season?

 M: Really positive. I think next Monday in the WTA ranking I'll be the number 28 or 29, when there are a lot of tournaments yet to be played. I feel really good, hitting good again and enjoying myself on court.

 Q: Did you play your best tennis in Estoril and Budapest?

 M: No, I already said I didn't play my best tennis in those tournaments. In the Fed Cup, Berlin, Rome and Paris I have played very well. You feel impotence when you can't show the tennis you have inside you and the results don't help, you suffer on court, you feel terrible and everything looks terrible for you. You have to fight a lot to exit from this situation. Fortunately I could exit and I enjoy myself again on court.

 Q: What has improved more this year?. Your game or your head?

 M: Specially my head. Also the game, but I think that when you reach a level you can improve some things, but maybe they aren't too important. I can speak myself of the importance of the psychological component in the high competition sports, because the change that my game has experienced these months is a consequence of the mental calmness with which I face the matches now. I could tell you more, I can accept my mistakes now, and earlier it affected me a lot.

 Q: Was it a pressure for you to 'stand out' in tennis when you were very young?

 M:Yes, a little bit, because I have always been the point of reference in the relay of Arantxa and Conchita. However, the maturity has helped me to take that pressure as an honour for me, to feel pleased with the fact that they try to compare me to such important players.

 Q: Some days ago you lost to Mauresmo in Paris, as it happened in the junior final in Wimbledon 97. When you play the French, do you feel you're playing a match of the men's circuit?

 M: Let's see. In the match I played her at RG I could do nothing because I left too nervous. I had thought it was a match to enjoy, because I had no pressure, all the pressure was for her, because she was playing with her crowd, but when the match started things changed, I was too nervous and I could do nothing on court. But it's true that when you play her you notice a difference, because she is not like the other girls.

 Q: I mentioned the men's circuit because of the strength and muscles of the French player.

 M: Yes, sure, I also refer to that when I say she is different.

 Q: What has changed in the tennis circuit since you arrived at it?

 M: It has changed a lot in competitiviness and is closer to the men's tennis in that. Before, it was almost impossible that a top ten lost to the number 50 or 60 of the world and, however, today she can lose to the number 100 of the ranking. Today you have to play all the matches at your best level because everyone is playing very well. The level is much higher that when I started.

 Q: Will the Spanish tennis notice the absence of Arantxa?

 M: It will always notice it, as it will notice when Conchita retires, but the others are working hard, so that it doesn't notice their absences so much.

 Q: Do you think that the comment -if you are injured, let the Canarian play-, that a spectator did in Maspalomas when you were playing the Fed Cup final, influenced in Arantxa's retirement?

 M: I talked to her when it happened and I don't think it was the reason, although maybe it did that the decision was faster. She had been thinking about that the whole season.

 Q: Anyway, that comment reflected what many people were thinking.

 M: I can only tell you that the situation and the moment weren't the most suitable.

 Q: Any special feeling for Wimbledon?

 M: You know that Wimbledon is my passion, my dream...If I could win it one day, I would feel accomplished as a player. This will be my fifth consecutive performance in the main draw, after I played the junior final in 1997 and later I reached the quarters. I will try to go step by step and if I have my big chance, I will try to take it. However, you don't have to forget that this tournament is on a very special surface and winning a match is a great triumph.