4/17- Patty Schnyder comments on her Semifinal loss to Conchita Martinez
Date: 4/17/2004
a POST-MATCH interview with: Patty Schnyder
Conchita Martinez defeated Patty Schnyder
6-4, 6-3
Saturday, April 17, 2004
AMY BINDER: Questions for Patty, please.
Q. Are you ready for your doubles match mentally now?
PATTY SCHNYDER: Yes. No problem. I've got some time. I had good food and talked with my partner.
Q. When two players get into a match and they're really passionate about their tennis, sometimes, you know, you can get into incidents out there where it spills over into psychological antics. Can you talk about some of that going on out there today?
PATTY SCHNYDER: Yeah. I mean she does it to everybody, and I don't think she needs it because she has a great game. She's a great player, and I don't understand why she's doing this. I mean I love competing and I love playing good rallies, giving a good show to the people, and just yeah, having fun. Like with all other players you can have really good tennis and sportsmanship, and with her it's nasty play, and I don't think it should be on the court.
Q. Do you think she went over the 25-second limit?
PATTY SCHNYDER: I don't like -- I mean she's showing no respect to the ball person. She's like walking around between first and second serve, letting everybody wait. I don't think it's the way you should behave, and especially she has such a great career. Why does she need it? And such a good game this week, and I don't understand why she's doing it.
Q. Patty, you've really played well here before and you've been popular before, but the fans reacted there at the end, and I wondered have you ever been booed before like that?
PATTY SCHNYDER: Yes. Of course. I mean I live my emotions, and if they don't like it, that's okay with me. I mean I like their support, but I don't understand why they support a face like Martinez who is showing no respect to umpires, to ball kids. I don't understand the crowd up there, I mean if they are doing that, but it's their decision, and I know what I'm doing on the court and it's my decision.
Q. Patty, when you approached at the net, it looked like you were about to shake hands and then you pulled away. Did you decide at the last minute?
PATTY SCHNYDER: No. I just wanted to look at her. I just wanted to stare into her eyes what I wanted to say to her and so I have to have the hand before and then I took it away.
Q. And what was said? Was there anything said, any words exchanged at that point between you two?
PATTY SCHNYDER: Yeah. Of course. But that's between me and her and it's not for you guys.
Q. We probably wouldn't understand it anyways.
PATTY SCHNYDER: Why? It was not Spanish. It was English.
Q. Patty, have you ever not shaken somebody's hand after a match before?
PATTY SCHNYDER: I don't think so, no. You know, I can lose, but I like to lose in a fight and in a good spirit and that's all right.
Q. Patty, did all of that affect your play did you think?
PATTY SCHNYDER: I mean it was hard for me to like focus on the game, and I think I mean we are some great players and we play differently, and I think we could have had a better match and better rallies, but it was not the case, and at the end she won.
Q. Last night against Lindsay Davenport where she was pounding -- you guys were pounding away at each other and you would wear her down, and today it seemed the other way. You were generating all the force on the ball when it was and she was coming back with all her variety.
PATTY SCHNYDER: I mean I had some variety shots as well, but I mean she's in good shape, and it's very hard to beat her, so I tried my best, and it did not work out.
Q. So you believe she's doing that to get on your nerves?
PATTY SCHNYDER: She does it to everybody. If you talk to Petrova yesterday. I'm going to talk to her, but I'm sure she's not too pleased how she behaved in that match as well.
Q. The reason I asked and I don't mean to split hairs, but the reason I asked is when we asked her the same sort of
question --
PATTY SCHNYDER: I did not understand.
Q. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to split hairs, but I'm saying when we asked her the same question, her reaction is I'm not trying to disrupt anybody else. That's my pattern.
PATTY SCHNYDER: Yeah. What would you say in her place? Would you say I do it on purpose and I like to do it?
Q. You don't believe her; right? Bottom line is you don't believe her that she just does that because that's her rhythm.
PATTY SCHNYDER: No. I don't.
Q. Patty, you've got an obviously very strong year here and played well in Australia and good tournament here. Next week, of course, is Fed Cup, and my guess is you'll probably play this woman again.
PATTY SCHNYDER: That's true. Yeah.
Q. Does it provide any sort of extra motivation? Do you think it'll be more interesting?
PATTY SCHNYDER: Extra challenge I would say. Extra challenge, of course, and I mean some days I know that I'm playing good. I know that I can beat her. So we'll see what happens.
Q. Is there anything you can do to prepare yourself to play a game where it's slower and more articulate?
PATTY SCHNYDER: It looks slower, but it's really fast. The spin she gets on that ball is very hard to handle, so it's a different kind of game. I mean it's not really slow.
Q. I guess I'm talking about slow because of the dead time.
PATTY SCHNYDER: Okay.
Q. There's additional dead time in there.
PATTY SCHNYDER: Yeah. I hope I have -- like probably I'll have a better umpire who will tell her something or I don't know, I mean with the crowd in Fed Cup, probably it's easier for me because everybody's cheering and you have to wait more anyways than in a normal tournament, so I don't know. I can tell you after the match.
Q. Do you feel like the umpire lost control of things, that he should have interceded?
PATTY SCHNYDER: He should be more -- I mean, how do you say that, dominant. I mean really -- yeah. I think he should like say something a little bit.
Q. There was a point in the second set when the match was close and it was getting out of your reach where you were forcing every point. It was either a winner or an unforced error. There was a string of six or seven points like that, most of which you were losing. Did you feel at that point that you were hitting hard or hitting drop shots all out of emotion or were you just so fired up at that point that that was the only thing you could do?
PATTY SCHNYDER: Yeah. I mean I was losing, so I tried something, and it's really hard to -- yeah, with her balls to hit good winners, and sometimes you just look stupid, I mean with her game. It's really hard. She makes you look stupid sometimes, so I really tried, and tried to change something, and yeah, it didn't work out.
Q. Did you try too many drop shots?
PATTY SCHNYDER: No. She's so far behind the back, so I think it's a good shot with her.
Q. She did say to us that she was open to talking to you. Do you feel the same --
PATTY SCHNYDER: No. I don't want to talk -- I mean I don't need to talk to her. I don't need to get along or speak what happened. I mean I don't need that. She can do whatever she wants. I don't need her.
END OF INTERVIEW