WIMBLEDON
Date: 2007-07-06

WIMBLEDON

July 6, 2007

Ana Ivanovic
LONDON, ENGLAND
The Moderator Questions for Ana.

Question How important was the way the match began?
Ana Ivanovic Well, I started a little bit nervous today as well. Obviously she's very good player. She was serving really well today. Was very hard for me to return.
My serve was not as powerful so she could step up and use that to her advantage, and she did very well. She played some good tennis today.

Question What is it about her game on the grass that makes her so strong here at Wimbledon?
Ana Ivanovic She has very powerful serve, and she had I'm sure very high percentage of first serves today. That was the biggest difference.
She was very aggressive. She's staying low and hitting the ball quite flat, which is very good on grass because ball doesn't bounce that high. So I think that's why she's playing so well.
And last few matches, I had feeling she's playing better and better, so I think she has very good chances in the final.

Question Who do you consider more dangerous, Venus or Serena?
Ana Ivanovic I think they're both very dangerous. They have quite similar game. They both play very, very powerful and very aggressive. It's very hard to say actually.

Question Who is the best Russian player at this tournament?
Ana Ivanovic There is so many players at the moment playing well from Russia. Sharapova, I think she likes grass. Also Svetlana had quite a good tournament.

Question Svetlana better?
Ana Ivanovic Well, she played very well this year. She had good match against Venus yesterday.

Question In your mind what do you think is more important for you at this stage of your career to move forward, something you need to do technically or physically or mentally?
Ana Ivanovic No, I think it's just experience because now for the first time in my career I'm experiencing that I play more matches on central court. It's all different during the tournaments. It's semis or quarters or final. That's something I never faced before.
I have to learn how to deal with it better. These matches are very tough matches because I usually play against top players. So I think that's the part where I have to work on most.
Now I feel physically fit and also mentally. I guess I just need some more experience, and I'm sure it will come. I still have many years in front of me.

Question Which for you is the stronger emotion now, happiness at making it to the semis or disappointment at losing?
Ana Ivanovic Well, definitely I'm little bit disappointed. But on the end of the day, I lost to a great champion. She was better today. But still I'm very happy about tournament I had.
It was tough with all the rain delays, playing lot of matches in a row, and yesterday I had very emotional match and tough one. I'm really exciting to reach the semifinal. That was experience that will help me for next time I play here.

Question Venus and Serena, their rankings have dropped a lot, not playing much. The media sometimes, they're forgotten about heading into a tournament. In the locker room and on tour, are they thought of still as being at the top?
Ana Ivanovic Yes. I think players have lot of respect for them. Most of the times they come to play tournaments, they win or they play final. Definitely they don't play tournaments if they are not hundred percent ready.
They had very few tournaments, but still ranked quite good for that amount of tournaments. Players respect them a lot.

Question Are you going back to Belgrade now?
Ana Ivanovic Actually I still haven't made a plan with my team. We're going to talk today about it. I hope I had have some time off and have some rest in Belgrade.

Question After that are you getting ready for the US Open? Hoping for the same kind of success?
Ana Ivanovic It's far away to think about that right now. I for sure am going to take some time off and make a good preparation before tournaments in America. Probably my first tournament will be San Diego.

Question Where will you stay when you go back to Belgrade? With your parents?
Ana Ivanovic Yeah, with my parents. I stay in Belgrade.

Question When was the last time you stayed with them there?
Ana Ivanovic I was in Belgrade just after French Open. I went there for a couple days.