Partners for Success Award Presentation

    During the Partners for Success Award Presentation to Mercedes Paz, Magüi's mentor, during the tournament Miami 2002. Some words of Magüi and Mercedes.

(Part of the article on http://www.nasdaq-100open.com/news/intrvws/2002/0322f.html)

   Presented by Billie Jean King

    BILLIE JEAN KING: Today we're doing a Mentor Appreciation Award for Mercedes Paz. She's been a great mentor to Magüi Serna, and now she's also helping María Emilia Salerni of Argentina as well.

    Mercedes, I've known her for a few thousand years now (laughing).

    MERCEDES PAZ: Wow.

    Of course her mentee, Magüi Serna of Spain, has been a great player as well.

    I'll turn it over to Magüi to talk to you about Mercedes Paz, her mentor.
 

    MAGÜI SERNA: Well, I just wanted to say a few words. I actually have written them down.
I would like to thank you for all your support these last four years. As you remember, when the Sanex WTA Tour told me I would be receiving a mentor, I was very excited but also nervous. Once I began working with you, my worries vanished. You helped me so much by talking and E-mailing with me, and sharing your many years of knowledge.

    I will never forget that time I was in Australia and experienced a very tough loss. I was very upset and a bit confused. But then I received a message from you. You told me not to worry, that it was the beginning of the year, that it was one match, but I had many ahead of me. I wanted you to know that this moment was very important to me and showed me how much you were there to support me.

    Congratulations on this award. You deserve it.

    Thank you also, Partners for Success, for giving me this great mentor.

    Thank you, Billie Jean, for spending time with each of us and a mentor, our mentor.

    Finally, thank you, Mercedes, for being my mentor and friend. I look forward to keeping in touch with you for many years.

    MERCEDES PAZ: Thank you.

    Well, this is very beautiful. Very nice. Good memories.

    I would like to thank the WTA for giving me the opportunity to give something back to the tennis and also to give something back - I mean to help a little bit Magüi's career.

    At the beginning I was also very nervous, because it was my first time doing this and I didn't know my ability to do this. But then Magüi, it was very easy going because we spoke the same language and we became friends very easy. So really you make my job very easy. I enjoy very much doing.

    And also I would like to thank you, Billie Jean, because you were one of my inspirations. I remember in Hilton Head when you seat us in the room and you said that you had to be a leader in this game, you must make the difference. So, for me, it really was something that wake me up, and I still remember. So thank you for all you give back to tennis and also for being the leader of this mentor program. I think it's very good for the upcoming players.

    Magüi, I know that you didn't give your best yet. In Argentina, I'm watching you every week. I know we're going to see much more. I wish you the best luck in your career. I know you're going to go farther, and one day you will become a great mentor also.

    So good luck, Magüi.  

    MAGÜI SERNA: Thanks.

    Do you have any questions for our mentor or our mentee?

    QUESTION: Can you describe in more detail what the important components of what Mercedes has done for you have been? Was it more the help she gave you technically?

    MAGÜI SERNA: No, was pretty much when I begin -- when I start playing, I was very young. I didn't know anything about the tour. She taught me a lot of things about the tour and how to get over, like, when you are young and you are coming off matches that you don't play well, you get down really fast. So she helped me a lot with that, getting my confidence back and saying, "It's the beginning. I mean, everybody's going through the same thing you are going through. You're not going to be the only one."

    So it helped me more like in mental way.  

    MERCEDES PAZ: For me it was great because I was at the end of my career, I was with Magüi in Madrid. So for me it was very good. Because then I knew how she was thinking in between points, what were her strengths inside the court and outside.

    Sometimes, for example, especially the Grand Slam, usually she got a lot of pressure because she want to be good. Sometimes those nerves make her go down. I say, "Come on, this is your first US Open, you have many to come. So give yourself time, it's not going to happen, you must be prepared. Sometimes you will have that."