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BNP PARIBAS OPEN

March 20, 2009

Vera Zvonareva

INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA

V. ZVONAREVA/V. Azarenka
6-3, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Congratulations on the win. How does it feel to be in the finals?
VERA ZVONAREVA: It's great, you know. It's my first final here, and I played first semifinal here today, so I'm pretty happy to be through this one.

Q. You did play a great match. You seemed to keep very focused and aggressive, even when a couple of times your serve seemed to go off on you. But can you talk about your return of serve? It seemed to be extremely good today. I didn't look at any statistics yet, but I noticed that was a very strong part of your game.
VERA ZVONAREVA: Um, you know, she's a good server. I was trying to concentrate and tried to keep my returns in as much as possible. I know it's not easy, it's not going to happen every day, but I'm pretty satisfied about my game overall today.
I had, you know, few double faults, few mistakes here and there, but I was going for my shots. Happy to, you know, to win this one.

Q. Did the sun bother you a couple times? You looked up, and it looked like there was a little trouble with the sun.
VERA ZVONAREVA: You know, it's always difficult to play when the sun was right on that side. So when she threw a couple of high balls, it's very difficult, because you try to concentrate on the ball so much. You're trying to see it, and then you don't see what's going on on the other side.
So it's very, very difficult. But I think I managed it pretty good. I tried to -- you know, it's for both players. For both players it's the same. It can bother when sun shines, but overall, it was fine.

Q. You're going to have a very busy weekend. Can you talk about that? Is it a good thing?
VERA ZVONAREVA: Um, I'm very excited, you know. I haven't been playing that many doubles recently, and it's just my second tournament this year in doubles. The first one, it was at the Australian Open where we paired up with Victoria, as well. Well, unfortunately Victoria got sick there. She retired against Venus, so we weren't able to finish our doubles.
But we've been playing pretty good here. You know, she's very nice girl and good partner, so I'm enjoying it.
Then I'll have to come back for my singles, which I'm very excited about. It's my first finals here. It's a big event, great tournament, and I'm really happy about it.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about either, you know, it's going to be Ana or Anastasia.
VERA ZVONAREVA: I think it's gonna be tough match between two of those girls. Because Anastasia, I think she's young, talented, upcoming player. She has a good serve. She has a big game, so it's going to be very tough for Ana. But Ana has all this experience. She's a Grand Slam champion. She's defending champion here. So it's going to be very interesting to watch.
Personally, for me, I wish them both good luck and good match. Doesn't really matter for me, because I'm going to try to concentrate on myself, trying to bring up my best. It's going to be a final match, so I'm going to do everything to, you know, recover and prepare myself the best I can, and that's it.

Q. In your three previous matches against Victoria in the WTA you've not dropped a set. This year she's had a great start. How much a better a player is she now, do you think?
VERA ZVONAREVA: I think she's a much better player. She's much stronger physically and mentally just because she had been on the tour for a bit longer now. She's already played lots of top players.
Because when you're young and you are coming out of juniors, maybe you don't have that experience. You didn't experience playing so many top players. I think she's got lots of that experience last year. She had to play back to back, you know, top players and had great wins.
So she's definitely tough girl to beat at the moment. I think she's improving, and she's going to be a very tough competitor in the future.

Q. You obviously know her well from the doubles, as well. What are her strongest aspects of the game, do you think?
VERA ZVONAREVA: I think she's powerful player, and her shots are very aggressive and very penetrating, so she can hurt right away. She tries to have a good presence on the court. You know, she's quite tall girl. She's strong physically, so that's, I think, the main asset of her game.

Q. If you compare your last two opponents, Victoria and Caroline Wozniacki, who made the biggest progress last year or this year, in your opinion?
VERA ZVONAREVA: It's tough to say, because I think it was my first match against Caroline. There is really nothing to compare to, but I think they both did great progress.
I don't know. I never look at their rankings, but I think they're very close to the top 10, so that's -- that's success for it. They both improved, and they're going to be tough ones to beat.

Q. And who is tougher for you in this tournament, Victoria or Caroline?
VERA ZVONAREVA: Well, you cannot compare like that. Both matches were very tough. They're different players, you know. Victoria is more aggressive, you know, like strong player, hard hitter.
Caroline is a little bit different. She moves great. She places the ball.
So they are very different, but both matches were very, very tough for me. I'm pretty happy to be through in two sets with those two matches.

Q. Question about the men's field, if you don't mind.
VERA ZVONAREVA: Uh-huh.

Q. It's unusual outside of a major to have Nadal and Federer at the same tournament, and the fans really flock to their practices and stuff. Can you sense the buzz at the tournaments with both of them being in the same tournament?
VERA ZVONAREVA: Well, it's a great competition in tennis right now between Roger and Raphael. I think it's very interesting. It makes everyone excited.
I know how tough probably it is for them to be playing each other like all the time. But also, tough probably they get asked so many questions about that. They probably tired of it, but I think it's great to have all the players playing all big events besides, you know, besides the majors.

Q. Can I ask you something about the mental game. Looks like you've made the biggest improvement in this part of the tennis. What continues the most in this improvement, that you are different player than was before?
VERA ZVONAREVA: Well, I think, probably good advices [sic] from my coaches and more experience, more years on the tour.
Also, I don't know. I've been injured a couple years ago, so I had to -- I didn't play for six months. I think really, you know, I realized that tennis career can be very short, and you have to, you know, try to do your best at every moment. That's all I can ask from myself: just try my best at that moment. That's it.

Q. Both of you played an aggressive baseline strategy. In the first set, you had four winners to twenty unforced errors and she had four to nineteen. Do you assume that that is part of your strategy, that you just don't look at that aspect of the statistics and just go out and continue to hit?
VERA ZVONAREVA: Well, you have to -- you know, women's tennis has improved a lot. It's much faster and much more physical than a few years back. So you have to be able to go for your shots no matter what, because if you don't do it, the opponent will take advantage of it.
I think there are some matches where you will have more winners than unforced errors. Some matches are going to be opposite, because you never know what's going to happen. But you have to keep the strategy. If you know it's working and you just have few mistakes there and there, you got to go for your shots.
Because, well, if you stop following the strategy that you can win with, well, you're not gonna win the match anyway. I think we both were moving pretty good today, so it's never easy to hit a clean winner.

End of FastScripts

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