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SONY ERICSSON OPEN

March 24, 2011

Samantha Stosur

MIAMI, FLORIDA

S. STOSUR/J. Zheng
6-2, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Obviously very emphatic result. I would think you thought you played pretty well today.
SAMANTHA STOSUR: Yeah, I thought I played quite well. I don't think I, you know, hit the ball out of this world fantastic, but I guess I did what I had to do.
Against a player like Jie Zheng, you want to be able to do that from start to finish. She, I mean, always competes hard for every single point. I think I served really well today, which also helped me get through.

Q. Again, conditions so different this week to Indian Wells. Which do you prefer?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: Um, oh, I think I like them both. I mean, they're both quite warm. Obviously we have the humidity here compared to the dryness of Indian Wells.
But both places the balls tend to jump up. They don't fly fly through the air quite so much here as what they did there, but definitely bounce up higher.
I think for my game I can, you know, really use it to my advantage. If I'm hitting the ball well and feeling confident, yeah, can you really try and manipulate things the way you want.

Q. Do you feel you're hitting it any better between Indian Wells and now?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: Ah, pretty much the same. I felt good in Indian Wells. Obviously I didn't feel good during that last match that I played, but every other day was fantastic. I had some good practices here and before I got here in Tampa.
Yeah, I'm feeling good going into each match, and hopefully I can keep getting better and better.

Q. What about playing Lucie Safarova the next round?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: It's a tough one. We've had some matches in the past, and I think the last time we played was in Brisbane not this year but the year before, and she beat me there.
You know, she's a good player who can pretty much beat anyone on her day. Left handed, so haven't played a lefty for a little while. That's something to have to adjust to, especially on the return of serves.
I guess I'll think about it more today and tomorrow and try and remember what happened in Brisbane and hopefully have a good match.

Q. Before you came here last year you were not a Grand Slam finalist. How different is your life as you head into these events that lead up to Roland Garros and the US Open?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: Yeah, I guess there's more, whether it's expectation or whatever, on me now. I guess going into this year's French Open, I had such a great leadup into the French last year.
I guess it was a big test to see whether I could replicate a semifinal result, which I'm glad to say that I was able to.
So now I guess the step is to try and do it again. I think I've got to just not worry about that and not try and think, Oh, my God, I have to do it again; if I don't, you know, win a tournament leading in or make finals, then it's not gonna happen. Just got to play each match as it comes.
Hopefully I can have a great leadup and do just as well there. I think I've gotta take it match by match, and not, you know, not fall into that trap of, you know, having to defend or anything like that.

Q. But in your mind, are there moments where you're finding yourself fighting against that?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: No, I think every player who achieves something one year, obviously you want to be able to back it up the next. I think all the true champions of are the ones who can do that the second year, third year, fourth year.
I want to try and do that this year. I've managed to -- now it's pretty much been a year since I got to the top 10, and been able to get higher and higher.
So I guess I want to keep trying to move along that way and not fall back and not think it was just a one-off, I guess.

Q. Why do you love playing tennis?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: I just always have. I think it's a great life, and I'm able to do something that I love to do. So whether it's competing out on the court or seeing different places around the world or meeting new people, I think whoever can do this is very fortunate.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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