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ROGERS CUP PRESENTED BY NATIONAL BANK

July 29, 2008

Svetlana Kuznetsova

MONTREAL, QUEBEC

S. KUZNETSOVA/A. Kudryavtseva
6-1, 1-0 (ret.)

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Can you quickly go over the match a little bit. You didn't get to finish it.
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Well, it's not much to talk. I mean, I was attacking, put solid pressure on her second serve. She did many double-faults. Also she said she had pain in her shoulder. Basically I was just trying to mix the rhythm a little bit. She was doing many mistakes on the baseline also.

Q. Can you talk a bit about your year so far, which pretty good.
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: It's good. But I think I could have done much better. I just have to work on things, just keep going.

Q. Are you looking forward to going back to hard courts?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Yeah, I'm happy to play on hard court because it just suits better my game. You're more used to it. We have more matches on hard court.

Q. Would you like to draw a comparison between the sport of cycling and tennis? Do you see a comparison?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Well, I have nothing to compare. I don't like cycling.

Q. Nadia Petrova said before she doesn't mind not to compete in the Olympics because it will be very difficult to go to China and come back. What is your feeling about that?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Maybe she said because she doesn't compete there. I care for Olympics a lot. Definitely I'm looking forward to it.

Q. Is it really big?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Definitely, it's big. It's huge because it's defending our colors of my country. For my family it's also big. It's big for the country. So I'm just looking forward for it.

Q. But is it bigger than a tournament like here?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: For me it's like a Grand Slam or maybe even bigger because it's once in four years. If you would put me a Grand Slam and Olympics in singles, I would choose definitely Olympics because I have one Grand Slam title, yeah.

Q. The competition is easier in the Olympics because some good players are not qualified.
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: No, it's not easier, because top players still go. We compete not against the other players, we compete against the top players most of the time.

Q. Some very good Russian players won't be there.
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Who? Sharapova is there. Me is there. Dementieva. Safina. I think we are the strongest ones now.

Q. Sometimes you could lose against a player like Chakvetadze.
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: I didn't lose once again Chakvetadze. I think it's a very strong field, very good players. I don't think it's weaker. Our country is just four players of top 10. Everybody in the tournament, I think it's extremely hard. I think it's going to be harder than this tournament, even here competing best players in the world. It's going to be Williams sisters and many other more players.

Q. Do you follow the men's tennis?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Yeah.

Q. So who are you rooting for, Nadal or Federer?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Federer.

Q. Why?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: I don't know. He's different. I mean, I'm good with Rafa. Like I respect him. He's big fighter. But Roger has so many things in the court. He's so classic. I don't know. I just like his style.

Q. Do you know what the score of the first set was in Cincinnati today?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Who was playing?

Q. He was playing Ginepri.
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Roger?

Q. Yes. He served for the first set at 5-4 and then it went to a tiebreak, he was down 5-Love, he lost in the first-set tiebreak.
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: I root for Roger, but I don't think he's in the best moment right now. He's a bit low in confidence. In this level, when you don't have confidence, it's very hard to play. And also he been struggling a lot. In January he had this infection. Sorry, I don't know how this thing called. It's hard. It's hard to stay on the top all the time. He was like -- for me, he's one of the best players ever. It's very hard to maintain level all the years because we have extremely hard schedule and many tournaments and many pressure.

Q. You've been at the top almost as long as him.
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Yeah, but I have not been the No. 1 and I have not been winning so many Grand Slams as he. For me it's hard. I have not been on the top top. I've been in top five maybe last years, but he was the best of the best. He was winning. It's huge confidence out there. But it's hard to be I think so long.

Q. Do you think of taking maybe four months and just clearing your head and trying to come back?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: I would love to do that. It would be the best. But the thing is you never know if you can manage to come back because everything goes quicker. You think at first point, yeah, I would like to have a break and get back. But then when you get a break, you come back and you're not so confident, you don't have so many matches, maybe you start losing some of them. You get even worse. So you never know if it's better or worse.
But, yeah, it would be great idea, I think.

Q. What would be the ideal time? One, two, three, four months?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Well, maybe like four months, five months. I mean, I'm laughing because I cannot imagine me having it. But I would dream about it because it would be so good. You just can come, I don't know, home or whatever, just relax, just a regular person. Just have normal life for two months, then maybe two months for preparation.

Q. So it's only really two months?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Yeah. Because, I mean, if you want to come back, you got to be in shape. For make you in shape, it's two months, probably one month and a half.

Q. The best time to do it would be at the beginning of November, forget the Australian Open, maybe start in March.
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Yeah, but how do you forget Australian Open? I rather you finish, whatever, indoors, like US Open, and then you have time, then you start Australian. Then you catch all the year, but you lose like Doha or something.

Q. It's all intriguing, right?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: You never know (smiling).

End of FastScripts

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