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BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL PRESENTED BY SUNCORP

January 6, 2018

Elina Svitolina

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

E. SVITOLINA/A. Sasnovich

6-2, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Congratulations. How are you feeling starting off your year with a title?
ELINA SVITOLINA: Well, first of all, I'm relieved that everything finished. Because I didn't had so much time to recover after yesterday, and I slept very, very bad. Hopefully you didn't see this. Because I was trying to -- hopefully I'm the good actress.

Well, I was trying to be really focused on what I have to do on court. And, for me, it was very important to stay really focused on my game plan. And everything pretty much worked well, and, of course, I mean, you can see on the scoreboard.

Q. You had a great year last year and you're continuing that on. What changed for you, do you think, that's brought you this success?
ELINA SVITOLINA: I started to play more consistent and, you know, there's lots of things that changed. I'm stronger physically. I have a different look on my game.

And, you know, each time I try to improve. When I have a small block of training, I always try to do something, you know. With my team, we always look what we have to improve and really focus on that.

Q. When you arrived here, you had said that maybe the offseason there were a few injuries here and there and things like that. I'm curious. Obviously the goal when you get to a tournament is always to win, and I know you guys believe that you can, but did you feel like the level that you were playing throughout this week that that's exactly where you were based off of how you came off of your preseason, or did you feel like you played better than you might have expected?
ELINA SVITOLINA: You know, I didn't have any expectations for this week. Was just trying to take one match at a time. The first match was already quite tough against Suarez Navarro. You know, she's a tough opponent to play. And I had a very tough draw.

So for me it was very important to use what I was, of course, working on during the offseason, and it was working. You know, one match at a time, I was improving in some parts. I was playing better and better and, you know, serve worked really good during this week.

So, you know, there is lots of positive things. And I am on the right path and we can see that, you know, the things we've been working on is the right things, that we found a way. And, yeah, we will continue on that.

Q. You had 11 aces against Navarro and 10 aces today. Did you work on your service or change something about it?
ELINA SVITOLINA: Yeah, of course. There is not only on serve that I'm working on. There's lots of things. You know, to be a good, consistent player you have to work on everything and to be really confident with all the parts of your game. So, of course, the serve is one of them because you can get free points off that.

Q. I'm pretty sure you're leading the WTA in aces after this week.
ELINA SVITOLINA: Well, it's new.

Q. But does it feel like a bigger weapon than before? Do you sense that when you're out there?
ELINA SVITOLINA: Yeah, of course. We can see on the stats that it's different than the years before. And I get more free points and my second serve is better.

And, you know, yeah, just in general my game is more composed. That's what I feel that is better. You know, I have to continue to work on this and that's -- you know, this is the good sign that the things I'm working on is the right things.

Q. How do you feel lookng ahead to the Australian Open? Do you feel it presents a big opportunity for you?
ELINA SVITOLINA: No, I don't look at the things -- I don't look at in this way. I just try to take, you know, this as one step that's forward.

And, no, if I'm there with my game, I have a good chance to play well there. And, you know, just, no, I don't have any pressure, you know, that I have to play well there. You know, it always can play a bad game on your mind.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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