March 21, 2008


Maria Sharapova

INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Didn't seem like you out there, Maria. She played well,
but you looked a little slow, late to the ball, all that.
MARIA SHARAPOVA: That's pretty much right. You can keep
talking. I'm sure it will be correct.

Q. She did a good job dictating with her forehand, she
served pretty well. But with you, you never seemed to get
any rhythm.
MARIA SHARAPOVA: I was just playing with a much slower pace
than I normally play with. You know, I wasn't -- I wasn't
going for my shots as I normally do, and as usual, I wasn't
seeing the ball that good. I wasn't taking the short balls
and doing anything with them, kind of giving her the
opportunity to get back in the points.
There were a couple important points that could have
changed the match, and she ended up winning them. I think
from that she gained confidence and kind of steamrolled
after that in the third set.

Q. Do you have any idea why you weren't doing those things?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: I'm human. You know, I'm allowed to make a
few mistakes in my life and in my career. You know, that
kind of was the story today.

Q. Is it fair to say you're just a little bit worn out from
Australia to now?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Absolutely, yeah. Definitely. I'm playing
a lot of tennis, been flying a lot. It's all been work
since I took a week off after the Champs. It's pretty much
been nonstop from the season to all the tournaments I've
been playing, and Fed Cup as well.
It takes a toll on your body and your mind as well. You
feel like you have to go out on the court and, you know,
spend a lot of emotion and energy out there, and sometimes
you just don't have it for every match.

Q. Is there any obvious opportunity for you to take a
break?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Absolutely. I plan my schedule, so, yeah,
if I feel like I need to, yeah, absolutely. I think I just
have to be clever about the decision -- I mean, this year
is so young and I still have so many big tournaments ahead
of me and so many goals that I want to achieve this year,
so, you know, I obviously have to be smart about how I'm
going to -- what my schedule is going to be like from
today.
Just kind of, you know, analyze it with my team a little
bit and, you know, and set my priorities to where they
should be.

Q. Have you got any idea when that might be at this stage,
or when you might take your next break?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: I don't know. Maybe next week. I don't
know. (laughter.)

Q. Did you think going into the third set, you know, maybe
it will come, maybe it will get a little more fiery, the
balls will land in, maybe I can kind of fake my way through
it? Or did you think, Ah, it's not going to be my day
anyway?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: There are a lot of maybes. Not a lot of
yeses.
Ummm, like I said, if I could have got my hands on a few of
those tougher points and kind of gave her something to
think about, then maybe it could have gone my way somehow,
but just didn't.

Q. When she's in a good way, she is not the kind of player
you want to be playing on a day when you're not at your
best, huh?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Well, she's a very tough, tough player.
She's not No. 2 or 3 in the world for nothing, you know.
Absolutely not. I give her a lot of respect for her
consistency for what she's able to do on the court and how
strong she is and how many balls she gets back.
You know, she showed a lot of that today and, you know,
this court definitely suits her, her game and her serve as
well, because the ball kind of jumps up. And even though
I'm 6'2" - wish I was like 6'5" on these courts - it would
be a little bit easier. But it still kind of jumps up away
from you, and especially today she used that to her
advantage.

Q. So what do you do during the next week? Do you put the
racquet down and just relax before Miami or...
MARIA SHARAPOVA: I don't know. (laughter.) I'm going to
play it by ear. You know, my body is kind of hurting a
little bit. Like I said, I just -- I just want to -- I just
want to be smart about the decisions I make, and that's
going to be, I don't know, made after a good night's rest,
and have a little sitdown conversation.
You know, just see. I mean, you know, at this point of the
year I can't really be putting any pressure to myself and
saying, You got to go out there and play next week. If I'm
not going to be ready, I'm not going to be ready. No one's
forcing me to go out there and play.
It just has to be smart decisions just because this year is
so young and because I've already played so much. As a 21
year old, I, you know, I've got to kind of stand up and
make some mature decisions that will help me throughout my
career, you know.

Q. It's sort of unfair in a way, too, that Justine, Serena
and Venus get to take this off, right?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: What?

Q. Justine, Serena, and Venus don't play here, but Miami is
a mandatory. So if you take off Miami and they're playing,
is it a big deal for the tour or not?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: I actually don't know. You can ask them.
I'm sure that there's a pretty big fine, but the body's
more important than a fine.

Q. And mentally you're talking about being mentally
fatigued. I imagine that's considerable, too.
MARIA SHARAPOVA: It's not so much mentally as just getting
yourself prepared with every single match you play. I mean,
to be honest, I haven't taken more than three days off
since I started training for Australia. You know, even when
you're taking the time off, you know, in the back of your
mind you're already -- you know, you are very careful about
what you're doing.
In your mind you're already thinking about your train and
go your goals and you never really have time to just kind
of chill out. You know, that's why it's hard when you have
a season so long to kind be ready each and every tournament
and feel like it's a big priority. I mean, you're trying,
but it's a bit unrealistic.

Q. Has it been kind of catching up with you, or did you
just feel it today? In other words, did you feel it in your
last match or did you just feel it today? Kind of today?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: No, actually when I got to Doha I wasn't
feeling good for about a week. I wasn't, you know, I wasn't
sure that's because of the jet lag from all the way from LA
to Doha or what it was.
Then I eventually got sick. But I was, you know, I was able
to play through. I mean, obviously I was playing, you know,
with confidence and I was playing good tennis, and that
helped me get through that tournament.
And then, you know, in the back of your mind you know that
you have, you know, at that point even before Doha you're
supposed to play Dubai and have to play in Indian Wells and
Miami, so you're already kind of thinking towards that and
you're working towards that.
But as you go on, things change and physically you start
feeling it, and, you know, in your mind as well, so...

Q. What do you think Svetlana's chances are of going all
the way here the way she's playing now?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: I don't like to evaluate next matches,
because I don't know if it sounds greedy or selfish, but
when I'm out of the tournament, it's sort of done for me. I
don't really like to think about what's going to happen
next rounds, that's why it's good when you win. You don't
have to answer that question right? Or any of the others
you guys ask.

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