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AUSTRALIAN OPEN


January 27, 2012


Svetlana Kuznetsova

Vera Zvonareva


MELBOURNE, VICTORIA

KUZNETSOVA‑ZVONAREVA/Errani‑Vinci
5‑7, 6‑4, 6‑3


THE MODERATOR:  Questions, please.

Q.  When did you decide to sign up for the tournament together?  Last‑minute decision?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA:  Yes, Sunday night or Monday.
VERA ZVONAREVA:  I think we decided the night before sign‑in was closing.
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA:  Yeah.

Q.  Why the last‑minute decision?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA:  Well, because we focus on singles.  Sometimes I go to Grand Slam, for example, and I don't know if I gonna play or not in doubles.
And here, actually I forgot and she forgot that it's Monday close.  It's not our main goal.  I was giving it a thought and I said, Okay, let's play.

Q.  Glad you made the decision?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA:  Well, what do you think?

Q.  Is the Olympics a possibility?
VERA ZVONAREVA:  I don't know.  Everyone is keep asking us this question.  But, you know, when we're sign in to play doubles here, we weren't thinking about it.
I think the most important is that I enjoy playing with Sveta and I like.  You know, it's not our main focus, like Sveta said.  It makes it easier because we are going to play doubles to enjoy, maybe to practice few things, and that's nice.
Long‑term, you know, we don't know.  Depends.  Because we have so many great players that can play good in singles and doubles.  And I think both of us, we will try to make it to the Olympics in singles.  That's the most important thing.  And we will try our best.
You know if we get chosen for doubles, we get chosen.  Like I said, it's a very tough competition in our country and we just have to play it by the ear.

Q.  What was more emotional, the title you won with Alicia Molik in 2005 or the one you won today?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA:  You can't compare this.  You never can compare.  Both of them for me are very, very important things.

Q.  Will you focus more on doubles at the Grand Slams this year after having some success together here?
VERA ZVONAREVA:  We haven't gotten the chance to even think about it.  We'll talk about it.  But I think it will all depend on how we're feeling.  The most important is to feel good, to stay injury‑free.
You know, if we're fit enough to compete in singles and doubles, I'm sure we would like to do it.  But we won't sacrifice I think our singles to play doubles, you know.
At the moment I think it takes a lot out of you when you're competing in singles and in doubles.  It's very difficult.
So we will see how it goes.  If we're fit enough, you know, maybe.  But we'll take our time.  We are not rushing into making any decisions at the moment.

Q.  What was the discussion between the first and second sets?  A change of plan within your game after you lost the first set?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA:  I think we both were understanding that with all respect to the opponents that we were not playing our best game, and still the game were so equal.
We both wanted to do better, and we couldn't just get a little bit.  We needed just few percent to improve our game.  I think we just talking about finding the right key.
I think we did it in the middle of second set.  We found the right game, what was good for us.

Q.  And playing back a little bit more, too?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA:  No, it definitely was not the plan.
VERA ZVONAREVA:  No.  I think we just, you know, started going for our shots a little bit more, just taking risks sometimes a little bit more even though we had maybe some unforced errors, but still we were trying to do it.
You know, it worked better for us the second and the third set than it did in the first.

Q.  How far back do you guys go?  How long have you known each other?
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA:  We know from very, very young.  We played juniors, like even not 18s.  Vera is one year older than me.
VERA ZVONAREVA:  I mean, we've known each other since probably I would say 14 years old, you know, 12, 13, when we were still competing in Russia under‑14s and 16s.  Then it was the time when we started playing juniors under‑18s.
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA:  Sunshine Cup.
VERA ZVONAREVA:  We played the same team on the Sunshine Cup when we won.
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA:  We played even Orange Bowl against each other, final.
VERA ZVONAREVA:  We played the final of Orange Bowl, yeah.  It's lots of memories.
SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA:  Yeah, it's like forever.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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