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Valuable experience Hingis glad she chose to testify against stalker
AMELIA ISLAND, Florida (Reuters) -- Martina Hingis said Tuesday that she was satisfied with the outcome of last week's trial of the man she had accused of stalking her and felt that testifying in the case was a valuable experience. "I'm definitely very pleased with the outcome," Hingis said from the Bausch & Lomb Championships in her first public statement since the conviction by a Florida jury of Dubravko Rajcevic, the Croatian-born Australian naval architect, whom she had accused stalking her since 1999. Rajcevic, 46, who spent the last year in jail awaiting trial, refusing bail because he would not agree to stay away from the top-ranked women's tennis star, was convicted in a Miami courtroom on four misdemeanor charges -- one count of stalking and three counts of trespassing. The 20-year-old Hingis, who initially tried to avoid a public courtroom appearance by offering to testify on videotape, ultimately decided it was important to face the accused and tell her side. "It was a good experience to have," Hingis said. "You wish that you don't have to go there, but you know you have to pay for what you do," she said of Rajcevic. Hingis said she was fully prepared before taking the stand but said facing the defense attorney made things interesting. "I tried to be as well prepared as I could at the time," she said. "I knew the questions -- through my attorney I went through the whole procedure, I knew the whole process. "But then the defendant's attorney, that was a little more tricky. I think sometimes he was trying to get me and sometimes I didn't know what the answers were at times." Rajcevic is scheduled for sentencing on April 12th and has said he will not cooperate with a court appointed psychiatrist who is supposed to evaluate him while he awaits sentencing. Hingis, who making her first appearance at the Bausch & Lomb Championships and plays her opening match against Spaniard Virginia Ruano Pascual Wednesday, said her goal for the year was to win her first Grand Slam title since the 1999 Australian Open. Her other goal is to make all her future court appearances on a tennis court. "I definitely don't want to be in a courtroom defending myself because of someone being crazy," she said as she walked away.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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