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BNP PARIBAS OPEN

March 13, 2010

Svetlana Kuznetsova

INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA

C. SUAREZ NAVARRO/S. Kuznetsova
6-4, 4-6, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Frustrating time for you today?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Yeah, I mean, it's frustrating, because I know I have the game. I feel great. I do practice, play unbelievable, and then get to the match and I don't do much.
So my thinking is I just need more matches. This is it, you know. Because as soon as I have matches, I keep going. It's fine for me, you know. But here I kind of don't know what to do which moment, and it's really frustrating.

Q. It seemed towards the end of the second set you had begun to feel your range. Did you feel that, or no?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Yeah, I did. I did found it. In the third set it's again a new situation and again I'm 1-Love up, 30-15 and it's important point, and I don't play it well, you know. It's kind of frustrating.
If I could go when I'm playing matches, I have lots of confidence. I could go along with that, still not playing good some points. It would still be bad, but this is a little bit harder for me now.
I know I'll be back and I know I'll be fine. But it's just frustrating, because see your chances passing by. Because normally I'm pretty comfortable playing with her. For me it's frustrating I just didn't do anything today, what I have to do.
I mean, I did some points, and some points I did not, but...

Q. When you say you didn't do what you had to do, is that to play more aggressively, or what should you have done that you didn't do?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Oh, I mean, I do play the right things what I had to do, but I miss every time by a little. Then I did lots of doubles faults when I normally don't do it.
Some balls I would go inside and I'm not sure how to hit it, and normally I know. In practice I do hit this balls right, you know, because she does lots of spin. To play this ball, attacking half bounce, it's not really easy, you know. You need to have timing.
And I do have this timing. But when you're a little bit nervous, tense, and you have nerves, it's a little bit tough for you if you didn't have matches.

Q. You still have nerves?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: I mean, it's tense because it's important for me. I love the game. I want to perform well. I want to play well. Definitely have nerves.

Q. But at the end I think you tossed your racquet once. Were you just frustrated?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: I'm frustrated. I mean, I feel good and the ball doesn't go where I want it to go, you know. I play there and it goes different way.
I'm like, Okay, I play tennis for like 17 years, and I still cannot put this little ball in this huge court. It's frustrating, you know.
I'm not the worst player in the world, so definitely I have expectation from myself to put a little bit more inside of the court.

Q. You get mad at the ball, or do you get mad at yourself?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: No, what's fault of the ball? The ball is perfect. You know, it's right size, you know, it's -- yeah, it's fine, you know. It's not broken. It's bounces, it's green, has white lines, it's written Penn.
But I'm not perfect, you know. I have to work on it, you know.

Q. Are your nerves more a problem when you are No. 1 seed than when you aren't?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Believe me, I didn't think about that at all. I just go on the court and it's me. I feel like I'm fighting against myself. This is what I don't like.

Q. I'd like to ask you sort of a general question. You've been on tour for many, many years. What are your thoughts about us, about the media? What are the things you really like, you don't like, and do you think we do a good job or maybe not?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Personally myself? I love to go to press conference, definitely more when I win than when I lose. But I think it's -- every player is the same. Myself, I like to communicate to you guys. I like to tell more and, you know, be more open. I think I'm a little bit more open than some other players.
But what I don't like about press is when you talk. You guys, everything is in your hands. You can change one -- it's the same sentence you're going to write, but you change words different places, you know, just switch words, and it's completely different sentence.
You make it so huge so you sell the newspaper, probably. It's your job, as well, you know. But this is -- sometimes you want to say something else, and you read next day in the paper and you get in trouble.

Q. She played 10 feet behind the baseline, and you volley so well. I was wondering, it was obvious that you were not feeling the ball well today. I thought you might be able to intimidate her a little bit more by coming to the net.
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Yeah, but every time I try to do something out of my zone I was missing it, you know. It was two sides: When you play against the sun and against the wind, and when you play with the sun and with the wind.
With the sun and the wind it's perfect. If I would play all the match on that side, I would win. (laughter.)
But in tennis, you have to change sides. When I'm serving with the wind and sun, she's very far behind. When she plays the ball back it's so slow you have to move your feet. Apparently my feet didn't feel like moving today maybe.
So, I mean, just frustrating. I just didn't play my game. Doesn't matter. I can win either way if I play good, coming in or stand back. But, you know, sometimes it's out of your hands, like your hands just don't work. Maybe mine was today like that.

Q. What was the reason for your stepping? Were you trying to loosen the strings?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Yeah, I took the racquet and -- the tension here is hot and it's getting loose so fast, so other racquet was very loose and it was new, so, yeah, it was very tense.

Q. You come from a fantastic Russian sports family. What the heck happened in Vancouver to the Russian team, do you think?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: Okay, my family is cycling and summer sport, and it was Winter Olympics, you know. I have no idea. I do snowboard once a year maybe if I have one good day. But, you know, if you ask me, I'm just a tennis player. Just hit the ball all over, over the net and even cannot do this today, you know. (laughter.)
So it's very hard to answer what happened in Vancouver. You know, all Russia now is going crazy what happened. They change politics of sport, everybody, so it doesn't happen again, you know.
I'm on side of the sports guys who went to Vancouver. It happens. It happened to me today, and critics are tough. For them it's hard, so I'm supporting them, because, you know, it can happen in sport.

Q. So is it good that in tennis there are not style points like in figure skating? Is that good that you're not judged on your...
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: It's also line calls. You look at it, and you don't play always on the court where you have challenge, you know. So yes, it's better. How to answer your question, it is better, but it's always sometimes it's not fair.

Q. Did you watch the Hit for Haiti last night?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: What?

Q. The Hit for Haiti exhibition, did you watch it?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA: I didn't know it was on TV actually. Would I love to watch it here.

End of FastScripts

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