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23/01/2011 13:59 CEST - Interviews

Francesca Schiavone

d. S. Kuznetsova 6-4 1-6 16-14

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Q. You seem to love creating little pieces of history. First it was Paris, and now tonight. How do you feel about the way things turned out?
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: Thank you. It was for me personally really fantastic. I hope one day to show this DVD to my son.

Q. How do you feel now, about an hour and a half afterwards? Total elation, perhaps?
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: I prefer don't come here, but they say, You have to. I will go to sleep. I will try to relax. Tomorrow is a new day.

Q. Svetlana said she forgot the score and didn't know who was serving. Did you feel like that at times?
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: No, no, no. When she was serving it not easy to break her. We did one, two, three times.
But, no, it was always in that moment. To live the moment was the most important thing for me.

Q. When you hit the net on the breakpoint, did you feel that that was a very important thing?
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: I couldn't stop. I was returning, but I say, Oh, oh, oh, I can't stop. So I try to ask to the umpire, Please give me this point; I need it. But he didn't give me.

Q. But mentally you recovered from that, or did you think that was an important moment that you let slip there?
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: No, when you are in a situation like this, I think every points are the most important. It's like every points are match point. You have to keep going. You know that physically you are tired, but the other one, too.
Mentally it's the same. So keep going. We work every day to do this kind of ‑ not work ‑ but to give the best when you really say, No, I can't do it.
But at the end you have something more always.

Q. How do you feel about being part of history, being in the longest women's match at the Australian Open?
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: Good test.

Q. How do you feel to be the No.4 in the world today, top of your career, like only one Italian player has been in the past?
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: Si. Big emotion. They just wrote to me an SMS to say, Thanks. You are No.4. I say ‑‑ I don't know if you feel it, but I feel really in emotion, big, big one.

Q. Did you notice the crowd out there today during the match?
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: If I felt the crowd?

Q. Yes.
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: Oh, yes. But in Australia, they love this sport. They love the people that play and give all the best that they have. So you are great. You are a great nation. I really wish one day to come here to practice and maybe to have a house and spend some time.
No, it's true. Not just for history, but it's ten years that I say, I like this country; I like to live in Melbourne.
So now is present for me to arrive here and to arrive in history.

Q. After the match point at Wimbledon last year, John Isner and Nicolas Mahut became very, very close friends. They didn't know each other too well, and now they have like a bond, a friendship. You've known Svetlana a long, long time. Do you feel particularly close now that you've had this match?
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: You know, one has to win; the other has to lose for sure. But I think we played very high level all the match. Maybe a little bit me in the second set I went a little bit down with too many mistake.
But in the third set we give everything. So when we finish, I say Svetlana a really good job and you are great, fantastic. She say the same. We respect a lot each other.

Q. How confident that you'll have energy for another tough match?
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: If you ask me now, I say no. But, yeah, I'm young. I can run; I can do anything. Yeah, for Tuesday I will be ‑‑ I don't know how, but it will be good. Why not?

Q. Have you ever tried anything like this before? Or remotely close to it?
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: Not play tennis 4 hour 44.

Q. Were you aware at all as the clock ticked to 4 hours 44 minutes that it was becoming the longest match?
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: No, but I was watching the clock. I say, Brava, Francesca, you are tough physically. So it's great for me, because I work to do this kind of thing. And to arrive and win a big match like this is ‑‑ you feel big.

Q. I think a lot of players who just before they were 30 years old won their first Grand Slam, they would say, I can't do any better than that. That's about as good as I can do and maybe slow down a bit. You seem to have done the opposite. You've improved. It's quite remarkable.
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: I was 29, huh. Not 30. But anyway, when you have one dollar, you want to have two dollar and then three dollar and then blah, blah. So this is the sport. Always can happen everything.
I believe it, and I keep going to work to have a new emotion and to win other trophy. It's a passion. Just with passion I think you can go forward.

Q. How would you describe your next opponent?
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: No. 1 in the world. She's young, but good mentally. She's really tough player, because she doesn't give you nothing for free. You have always to work every point.
She's consistent, so I really need to be aggressive and to play really good to beat her.

Q. The match that went 9‑7 in the third set a few days ago, did that help you at all out there today?
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: I think that help me for sure, but physically, no. So mentally, yes. Was tough match. Not so good; not high level like this one.
But to win make you more experienced, tougher, so was good match for me.

Q. The Francesca we saw today the same one we saw at Roland Garros, or is a different one?
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: I think every day I improve, so I can say I am better. But to win Grand Slam, it's seven matches. But when I won French Open, I played really good.
Today I played really good. But is one step more. Always something more I think every day.

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