Chanda Rubin Cheering Thread

Rubin: "A little bit of a downer"
Chanda Rubin was defeated in three sets by Jelena Dokic in the opening round of the Swisscom Challenge 2003. Rubin in the interview:

Towards the end of a long season, is it hard to keep going, maybe after the US open?

Well, I had a couple of good weeks after the Open, it was very disappointing, once that?s over and you don?t do well, you know, it was definitely a little bit of a downer. But I just wanted to come into the indoor season, you know I was looking forward after a couple of good weeks in Asia with some good matches, and you know it?s just one of those things where you have to get started really quick, and you have to really at least concentrate better in these indoor tournaments, because everything is pretty quick. You know, I just didn?t do it well enough today.

Was it a little more difficult to concentrate?

Sometimes, you know it will be nice to go be able to go back and work on my fitness a little bit, I really feel like that has suffered a lot, and I don?t feel great about that at the moment. So it helps a lot when you can start off fresh and fit, but everybody is just trying to do the stretch run here, so you know, you take your matches, and you go out and you compete, and hopefully you?re the better person on the given day, and today I wasn?t.

Was it a bit surprising against Jelena because of the patchy season she has had since Wimbledon?

Yea, you know, she hasn?t done much at all, and you know, I beat her earlier in the hard court swing of tournaments, and you know, it?s a bit disappointing, a disappointing loss, mainly because it was a match that was clearly there, and I just didn?t, as I said, in the third set, there?s just no excuse for that, and you know, I kind of set myself back a little bit, you know, with that, getting down four-love after scraping through a second set. You know, what can you do?

She kind of blew hot and cold, didn?t she?

She?s like that. She just hits the ball, hits every ball, and there?s not a lot of rhyme or reason. I mean you just have to stay in there, sometimes it will be on the line, or you know, you?ll get some misses, and I just had to stay in there, stay tough and stay concentrated, and you know, take the opportunities that were there.

Did you have trouble returning? I mean she had a lot of double faults and she was missing a lot?

I mean, there was definitely no flow, no rhythm, to the return, but you know, I had my licks at it for the most part, just a little bit slow on the first step with my returns right now, but you know, it?s not a match where you get a lot of rhythm, but you kind of understand that while it?s going on.