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U.S. OPEN

August 27, 2007

Ana Ivanovic

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Nice to get off to an easy start?
ANA IVANOVIC: Yeah, definitely. I was really happy with my performance today. It's never easy first round. Especially last year we had the tough one.
I was really focused from first point on, played some good tennis. I'm really happy to be through.

Q. Are you staying with your mother here in New York?
ANA IVANOVIC: Yeah. Actually my dad is here from Australia here as well this week.

Q. How often are they both able to be at tournaments for you?
ANA IVANOVIC: My mom and my dad you mean?

Q. Yes.
ANA IVANOVIC: It's very rarely. My father and my brother, they come in Paris and Wimbledon because it's kind of close and they have some break also in that time. But usually just my mom travels.

Q. Are you taking a bus into this tournament every day?
ANA IVANOVIC: No. We have a car luckily, so it makes it much easier.

Q. Less the 40% on your first serve. Does it worry you?
ANA IVANOVIC: Well, it's first match. You always need some time to get into the match. But I think my serve was much faster than it was before. And my second serve was also getting a lot stronger. So that gave me a lot of confidence.
Sometimes I was looking for too much on my first serve. I was just trying to figure out what works the best for me.
So tomorrow I'm going to get some time to work on it, so hopefully for next match I'll have a high percentage. But I think I was serving quite well at some moments. It didn't really bother me much. I'm sure I can improve it for the next matches.

Q. How do you feel about the energy in the stadium?
ANA IVANOVIC: First two matches they took a while, but it was great atmosphere. I practice a couple times on that court through last week. I found that I enjoyed it the most of all. So I was really happy when I saw schedule, when I was scheduled to play on that court.
I really enjoyed. The crowd was great. Hopefully they can support me like this through whole two weeks.

Q. Is there a television network in Serbia so people can see your matches and Djokovic's matches and Jelena's matches?
ANA IVANOVIC: Yes, I think they broadcast all our matches because also lucky for us we are playing on big courts, which are televised so they can also show it back home. I think they have Serbian Eurosport and also Avala TV they broadcast our matches.

Q. If it comes to pass that you and Jankovic play each other, how many television sets would be tuned into that match?
ANA IVANOVIC: Definitely it would be very exciting because we played each other plenty of time in the past years, but never on Grand Slam. So that would be very exciting match for sure for Serbian TV. At least we'll have one player for sure in the semis if that would happen.

Q. What do you think it meant to the country, the big celebration in Belgrade after Roland Garros?
ANA IVANOVIC: It was amazing because they never actually did that celebration for individual player. It was always for a group, for a team sport. So it was amazing for us as players to be on the terrace.
Also for the country, I think tennis is now becoming one of the major sports back home. So I think many people were happy that they organized that for us.

Q. Is it important to you to show some sort of a nice face of Serbia as a tennis player?
ANA IVANOVIC: Yeah, it's a great honor to be representing my country because I grew up there and I know that it's a great country, that we have a great potential. But just it was tough because we were at the war couple times.
I don't know how good image we had in the other countries, in the world. But I think tennis, what Jankovic, Novak, also Zimonjic and also other players, Tipsarevic, what we are showing to the world, it's different side of our country. That's great honor for us.

Q. Is it true the government is now building a tennis center in Belgrade?
ANA IVANOVIC: Well, I don't spend much time home, so I didn't really hear anything about it. But I really hope it's true because we definitely need some facilities. There is many, many kids now playing tennis. It would be great if that's true.
And also for us, that we can go back to Belgrade and spend some more time there.

Q. There's a report that the Djokovic family is trying to build a tennis center.
ANA IVANOVIC: Well, that would be great. I think the more we can invest in our tennis, the better it is. Because, as I said, tennis is becoming such a popular sport right now. We need definitely facilities.
We have maybe one or two clubs in whole Serbia that they have gym and tennis courts in the same place. So that would be great if something new is happening.

Q. How was Nakamura from the last time you played her?
ANA IVANOVIC: Yeah, last year we had quite tough match here, so I was expecting tough match again. From first point on, I tried to focus and tried to play the best I can. I just think I was trying to play more aggressive and don't give her much time because she likes to run and she likes to defend. So I try to get that away from her, and it worked well for me today.

Q. You've had a very fine season. In your mind, do you believe you can win a Grand Slam?
ANA IVANOVIC: I definitely believe so. I think at the moment anyone can beat anyone in woman's tennis. It's definitely something I want to achieve. It's just that I don't want to put that kind of pressure on myself.
I just want to take it step by step and try to enjoy each match. If I start thinking emotionally if I'm going to win a Grand Slam or not, then the journey is becoming much more difficult.
But just focusing on my game, that's the only way I can achieve that goal.

Q. We know what happened at the French Open final, but what's your assessment to what happened to you at Wimbledon?
ANA IVANOVIC: Well, Wimbledon, Venus played unbelievable good match. She was serving amazingly. It was for me tough to hold my serve. So she was in a great shape.
I think if I would be more aggressive and maybe my serve percentage would have gone up I would have more chance. But definitely she didn't give me much.

End of FastScripts

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