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January 12, 2009

Jarmila Gajdosova

SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES

J. GAJDOSOVA/K. Knapp
6-4, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. So I guess you didn't end up playing the player you expected. Talk us through how that happened and when you found out about who your opponent was going to be.
JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: This morning I still warm up as I'm playing Azarenka again. So my coach and everybody give my the plan in practice suit to the player I play about a week ago.
Yeah, so I pretty much warmed up, and then I was walking off the court and somebody came up to me and was saying she's, Oh, she's not feeling well. She's pulling out, so you're playing lucky loser, which was Knapp. Okay.
I was a little bit shocked, as you can imagine. Last three days I'm preparing I'm playing her and it's somebody else. And also I know her but I never played her, so I didn't know what to expect. I haven't seen her play in a while.
So I pretty much going on the court trying to play what I did last week and hopefully play as good as I did last week and get the win, which I did.

Q. So you must be pretty happy with the way to turned out.
JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: Yeah, I was very happy. I mean, I would like to get a second shot of trying to beat her this time, but I didn't. I had another match to play and I had to fight my way through it and find different game and everything, and it worked well and I won. So I'm really happy that I got to the second round.

Q. Were you planning to do anything differently this time against Victoria?
JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: Yeah. Probably I will change a little bit of the returns. I was working a lot on my serve, so I served better on the big points where I had the chance to hold on and to win the second set, as I did in Brisbane.
So probably the main kind of key plays I was working on to try to improve and win more of the big points.

Q. What's the furthest you've gone in a tournament of this caliber?
JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: Is this a tier II or...
THE MODERATOR: It was a Tier II. It's now a 600.
JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: Probably -- actually, I don't think I ever played like Tier II -- well, I played Indian Wells/Miami, of course, but I played quallies there and lost first round.
So the best semifinal in Tier III, I think that was so far the best one I had.

Q. So this is your first time in the second round of a Tier II tournament?
JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: I think so, yeah.

Q. So that's a good thing to take forward?
JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: Yeah.

Q. Elena next. She's pretty tough.
JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: Tough cookie, yeah. She won't be easy. She's obviously playing well. Her being so long on tour it's kind of hard to say that, Oh, she may be tired from winning. I'm looking forward it to it. I never played her.
I will try to do what I do the best: Play my sort of game. Hopefully it will be good enough to give her some kind of trouble.

Q. Have you played her before?
JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: No.

Q. Will she be the highest-ranked player that you've played?
JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: Well, I played Serena, so second highest.

Q. Where are things at with your citizenship? Any movement in the last week?
JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: It's still with -- Tennis Australia is updating it I haven't talked to them since. I guess they'll tell me, or...
Maybe they don't want to tell me now that I'm playing so they can keep me until I get back to Melbourne. But so far as I know, it's the way it was before.

Q. Is it something that weighs on your mind at all, or do you just have the feeling that it is all going to be okay?
JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: It's going to happen anyway, so it's just a matter of time sooner or later. Hopefully it's going to be sooner so I can have an AUS behind my name, which I'm trying to do for the last couple of years.
But, no, not really. I'm trying to play as good as I can and not to disappoint all the people who are helping, which is the AIS and Tennis Australia and all the coaches and everyone. I will continue doing that and see how it goes.

Q. What's your understanding of the holdup? Is it to do with Australia had a change in citizenship laws and it went from to four years?
JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: Yeah. You have to be in the country I think for nine months without leaving the country or something like that.

Q. But you're a tennis player.
JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: That's what we're trying to tell them. Yeah, trying to prove that. So you know they made up a case around it and they're trying to get it through.
But I'm not that much in, you know -- they tell me if they need something from me to give it to them, so I'm not much in the loop of it.

Q. And marriage, that will obviously help.
JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: Of course it will help. That's why I'm saying I will get it sooner or later. But, still, it's like in the States when people get married for the green card, so they changed the law as well here so people don't do it just for the sake of getting the papers.
So I think you have to wait I think it's a year or two years. I'll get it and be an Aussie, and hopefully it will be sooner than later.

Q. But I think next week you can represent Australia.
JARMILA GAJDOSOVA: I will be Australian next week. Four times a year I'm Australian. I'm very proud about it, too.

End of FastScripts

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