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SONY ERICSSON OPEN

March 30, 2011

Victoria Azarenka

MIAMI, FLORIDA

V. AZARENKA/K. Clijsters
6-3, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Is it starting to feel like two years ago here a little bit?
VICTORIA AZARENKA: No, not at all. (Smiling.) It's 2011. Completely new year; different tour; play Kim. And she was not there at 2009, so definitely not the same.
But, yeah, I'm really happy with the way I start to play. I'm really happy on the court. When you enjoy playing, it makes it a lot easier to be there.

Q. What you do differently today? Because she has beaten you four out of five times you played.
VICTORIA AZARENKA: Well, I think I played a little bit more aggressive, played more forward, tried to come in more. That was the biggest difference.
And physically I was much more stable today.

Q. Did you sense that she was tired?
VICTORIA AZARENKA: Um, I thought she would be. You know, she had a very tough match yesterday. But as I said, with Kim you never know. She's such a good player and such a good fighter that I know she's going to fight for the last moment, which you could see at 5-1, 40-15. She went for her shots and stayed in the match throughout the end.
So I knew she's going to be tough and ready for today.

Q. At this time, did you think about the match of yesterday against Ivanovic?
VICTORIA AZARENKA: No, I didn't, because I didn't see it. I just heard and read about it because you guys described it pretty well. (Laughter.)
But, no, I didn't think about it because you don't want to take the negative thoughts into your head while you're playing.

Q. Is two years ago still your biggest victory in your career?
VICTORIA AZARENKA: So far, yes.

Q. Is there something about Miami, about this environment, that gets you in a good mood, gets you feeling confident about your game?
VICTORIA AZARENKA: I'm just in a good mood always now. I feel like I'm happy all the time. Doesn't matter when I'm on the court, off the court. Miami certainly is a great place. So much excitement from people and so many great fans coming.
I don't know, it's always going to be a special place for me, so I'm really enjoying my time here.

Q. You said that when you were up 5-1 and she broke you you weren't too concerned. I remember in Australia you had more or less a similar situation with Serena Williams. Any of those thoughts possibly creep into you head at that point?
VICTORIA AZARENKA: Not at all. I don't care what happened before really, because I try to forget -- learn from those things and forget them.
But I was just really focused on each point. I don't really look at the score much, I mean, because you just to have keep going until somebody - well, not somebody - a chair umpire says, Game, set, match, you have to be in the game.
With how the tennis is, you can be up 5-1, match points, and have a ball right here and still lose the match. So you have to be really focused on the present moment, not what happened before.

Q. You are playing against Zvonareva, and she's leading in your head to head. What do you have to do to win tomorrow?
VICTORIA AZARENKA: Well, I have to play on a high level, because she's a very consistent player. She's showing some of her best tennis in her life right now, so I definitely have to be, you know, aggressive and focused on my game to play forward and have fun.

Q. Did you serve particularly well in this time or...
VICTORIA AZARENKA: I think I improved a lot. Today I had a little bit of trouble with seeing the ball, but I managed to, you know, go through it and still serve pretty well.
But when you play with Kim, you never know if it's a good thing when you serve or when she serves, because she can be very aggressive on her serve or very aggressive and dominant on your serve. You always have to hang in there, no matter who's serving.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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