	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

WESTERN & SOUTHERN OPEN

August 15, 2019

Svetlana Kuznetsova

Cincinnati, Ohio

S. KUZNETSOVA/S. Stephens

6-1, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Every time you have played Sloane it's been quite close and coming off of a long match. How pleased are you with such an efficient result?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Well, I'm happy I won. What I can say? I tried to hang in there.

I know that Sloane can start playing well every game, each moment. So I was trying to be there for every ball and don't give her air to breathe.

Q. Did it surprise you how seemingly easy the win was for you today?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Nothing surprise me anymore. You know, I expect any result. So I just go out there and try to play every single ball. That's it.

Q. It's your first hard court quarterfinal since you won D.C. last year. What do you think you're doing particularly well through your three matches here?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Well, first of all, I have not been playing much. It's not like I have been playing full year and have not been doing well. I played very little.

And now I'm just feel different inside. You know, I'm just happy and I just try to take things simple and just play each point. It comes to this, anyway.

Q. What's it like for you right now to kind of, with the coaching situation with Carlos' team and working with him and he's working with Dasha, how do you all kind of balance that and manage that?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Yeah, I mean, it's not easy. First of all, well, when I ask Carlos if he could help me, he was just starting to work with Dasha. So it was everything confusion. I said, Look, I don't want to interrupt. I understand Dasha needs him, because she has really long career future and she has really great potential.

So then he said, I'll try to help you. I will give you my coaches, which works for me. Like, I don't need Carlos 24/7 right now and I'm more than happy what he does for me right now.

And I spoke to Dasha. I said, Look, I can offer you my help in case you need anything. I have a little bit of experience on the circuit, and I can help you out with things and I appreciate if we could share Carlos the times you don't use him.

So that's it. She seems to be fine. I appreciate that. And I have another guy, so I'm really fine with that.

Q. I know you didn't get to play Washington because of your visa issues. I'm curious if you always knew you'd be able to come here to Cincinnati or if you thought you might have to cancel the entire U.S. trip.
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: I didn't know. I didn't know. I gave my passport -- well, it's not a secret. Everybody, like in Russia, many players have, like, two passports. Like this you can swing them, like, I went to play tournaments and I gave my passport to embassy of America. I went myself. It's embassy and Canadian first year that you have to go personally, and British, and do the fingerprints, picture, whatever.

So I stood the line in February. It was really cold. They ask me couple questions. So I said, Yeah, I'm professional player. I know, what you can see everything, the tournaments. I think it's really transparent. Like, you can have questions to me.

He ask how I earn money or something like this. I never paid any attention. I said whatever it was.

And then passes two, three, four months. I'm, like, What's going on? Each mail I sent to embassy, they were saying the case is under review. Then it was closer and closer and closer.

Then I write again, and then, I don't know, it was no answer. They said, You cannot go. Some people say, Go to get visa in other countries. They told me no.

And then when I did my post in Instagram -- like, before Washington I already said it in French that I doubt States because I have no visa. My situation was that I haven't been playing, and I have been training and I wanted to play full swing. And if I won't come to States, what should I do? Like, my position is gonna be over 200. I don't play till the end of the season. And to play only China doesn't make any sense, or you stop your career. So it was lots of things on the line. But it was out of my control.

And then I said in the press in Paris that I doubt I don't have visa. And then Washington -- before Washington, they told me, better don't put it out so people don't know what's going on, because they can, like, immigration of United States can be mad or whatever is going on.

I say, Okay, whatever. I don't know what even to do, because I didn't expect this situation.

And in the end I made -- I already was really pissed. I said, Look, I'm skipping Washington because of this issue. And the next day I read in the press that some lady from embassy says, We cannot find Svetlana. She has visa. I said, What do you mean I have visa? I have my passport, no visa.

And then the same morning before she said that they call us to give the passport to the embassy. So I don't know if I should have said this earlier to the press, but it was really confusing and it was moments I was, like, What should I do? I practice, but I don't know for where do I practice.

I didn't know until the day I saw the stamp. Because once they gave my passport back and they called me, You're coming, you're coming, you're coming to the States.

I book a ticket. Next day they call me. They give empty passport. I say, Okay. So here they say you have a visa. I didn't believe it already. Like, I was waiting to see it.

And after the time she said that in the press I had it only on Tuesday. And then Tuesday I get my Canadian visa, as well. So on Wednesday first flight I catch to go to Toronto.

Q. You've come to the U.S. many, many times before. This is a new process this year? They changed the rules or something?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: No, I had visa for five years or whatever. And I know it's been a little bit messy in Russia. They close embassy. They open embassy in Saint Petersburg and Moscow. Many people went to Poland, to London, to Paris to apply for a visa in U.S. embassy. I could do it too. I never expected it would take so long, because I have been in London, I have been in Paris, have been in Prague. I could do it any tournament. I never expected to have problems in Moscow. I was so sure, and then I couldn't do anything.

Q. Are you happy to be here now?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Of course (smiling). No, I didn't expect sometimes when I play and crowd goes, like, applause to myself, I feel happy that people love me here, you know. Maybe somebody don't, but fans is what we play for in some parts.

Q. You have missed tournaments because of injuries and not known exactly when you were going to come back. But was this moment maybe the most stressful in your career? How does this compare?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: There has been many stressful moments. Look, next year is my anniversary. I turned pro in 2000. I heard about this. I cannot value which one was more or less. Every time you struggle, it feels like end of the world, but it's not.

Q. In Toronto you said that you overheard the speaker say, you know, that you had been playing for 19 years, 19 years old is how old you were when you won the US Open. What do you anticipate it's going to be like in New York again with that kind of fact in your head? Or do you let this go?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: I let this go; otherwise it's impossible. If I let all the facts, this tournament would be very difficult, because for example, the girl I played, she's, like, double younger than me. I was just newcomer not long ago. That's what it feels like. Just play and just enjoying.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297