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FEDCUP SEMIFINALS: RUSSIA v USAJuly 15, 2007Anna ChakvetadzeNadia PetrovaShamil TarpischevElena VesninaSTOWE, VERMONT THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Elena, is this the biggest win of your young career so far? ELENA VESNINA: Yeah, of course. It's one of the best moments in my life. I was so nervous before the match. It was so important match for me, for my country. Nadia, she just helped me. She was so confidence. Our team was so confidence also. So this match was just unbelievable, just incredible. I don't have any words just to describe this match. Q. You had three winners and an ace in the tiebreaker. Is there anything that possessed you in that time? ELENA VESNINA: Yeah, I'm surprised also (laughter). Yeah, actually I was very happy when I actually returned Venus' serve because it was so difficult for me today to return her serve. I couldn't put the ball in the court. She was serving so good, so powerful. She was all the time changing the direction. On that return, just give me more confidence. After that, I was relaxed, more relaxed, and I was playing my best. Q. Shamil, you said yesterday you wished you had more time to see how all your players were, how fit they were. It turned out okay in the end for you, didn't it? CAPTAIN TARPISCHEV: (Through translation.) Of course, if we had more time, we could attain this victory much more easier because I could feel my players and give them more advice. I don't say that we would have won easily the match, but I would have felt easier. There was a question about how Elena successfully returned Venus' service twice. Not only luck, but this is kind of logic. When you're losing, you feel bad, mobilized. You get angry in a positive way. I think that's what happened to Lena. She was excited in returning this serve. After returning this serve, she said she felt more confident. What happened yesterday during the match with Nadia and Venus was a little unfortunate and unfair in a way how the situation turned around. The gist is, we should win anyway, we should win somehow, sometime. In the end, everything was balanced. Q. Elena, before this weekend, Venus said she never heard of you. What kind of impression do you think you made today? ANNA CHAKVETADZE: A dark horse. ELENA VESNINA: I'm a dark horse. Now she heard about me, now she knows me (laughter). Yes, of course she never heard about me, she never played against me. Maybe that was the plus of our team, she didn't know me. That's why maybe we won our doubles today. NADIA PETROVA: That's the best way to introduce yourself. ELENA VESNINA: I'm a dark horse. Q. Nadia, you kind of carried Russia on your back all weekend. Do you feel a little bit like Super Woman today? NADIA PETROVA: You know, I'm very happy that I did it because I was very disappointed after losing to Venus when I had everything in my hands and then I broke down, I couldn't handle the nerves and the pressure. So, you know, I thought, okay, I'll let it go yesterday. So today I got to do everything, get it back to my team, make it up to them. I did it today. It just feels great. It feels fantastic. Q. Shamil, you were missing two of your top players, yet you still had this great depth to win this semifinal. Can you talk about the depth on your team that was able to pull this off. CAPTAIN TARPISCHEV: (Through translation.) I think today, nowadays, there are four national teams which could compete each other provided they're in full number. I think that we could stay in these four teams with three teams, three Russian teams, which stay within four best national teams. Q. Where are there so many strong Russian women players today? CAPTAIN TARPISCHEV: (Through translation.) Because the best women in the world are in Russia. It's so simple (laughter). Q. Elena, can you talk about Nadia and how her play helped you this time around? ELENA VESNINA: We didn't talk about her match after her match. We just forget it. I congrat her. I say it was a great match. She was playing very good, very solid tennis. We just forget about it and we will just keep talking about the next match. She was just giving me some tips, you know, how I need to play because she knows Venus, she knows Raymond, she has more experience than me. I was just listening very careful and I was just trying to do my best, just trying to be very concentrate on this match because at the start of the match I was so nervous. You cannot just imagine how nervous I was. Q. Shamil, do you have some early thoughts on Italy, your next opponent in the final, and also in the final will be held in Moscow? CAPTAIN TARPISCHEV: (Through translation.) This match will take place in Moscow, yes. I think we have a better chance against Italy than we had against U.S. End of FastScripts |
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