QUESTION
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.

QUESTION
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.

Sharapova's perfect start to the year came to a shuddering halt when she lost 6-3 5-7 6-2 to fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in the Pacific Life Open semi-finals on Friday.
Australian Open champion Sharapova, who had won her first 18 matches of the season, was outplayed when it counted by the second seed in a fluctuating match lasting two hours, 19 minutes.

"There were a couple of important points that could have changed the match and she ended up winning them," Sharapova, 20, told reporters. "I think from that she gained confidence and kind of steamrolled after that in the third set.

QUESTION
Did you say at the end of the match, This is my home now?

MARIA SHARAPOVA:
Well, I did, because in the first set I was playing like I didn't even belong on that court. I finally got my groove back, and it just felt like, you know, I finally belonged to be out there.
My level just was so low in that first set. I wasn't going up on my serve, I wasn't returning. I was making so many errors, and she had -- she had that first set in her hands and she just didn't take her opportunities.
You know, to be honest, she did everything better than I did in the first set, and somehow I ended up winning it, and that gave me the confidence. And in the end of that set I started to pick it up, but the second set was great.

Russian star Maria Sharapova dispatched No. 5 seed Daniela Hantuchova 7-6 (7-2), 6-1 Wednesday to reach the semifinals of the $2.1 million Pacific Life Open.

Maria, the fourth-seeded Australian Open champion, will meet No. 2 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semifinals. Kuznetsova eliminated No. 10 seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-2, 6-4 in her quarterfinal contest.

Sharapova, who won this tourney two years ago, is 18-0 this year. Kuznetsova was the 2007 U.S. Open runner-up and had lost to Hantuchova, a two-time champion here, in last year's Indian Wells final.

QUESTION
That was quite an escape there?

MARIA SHARAPOVA:
Uh-huh. Yeah, it was. You know, I felt like I was up throughout the match, and I just did a solid job of winning that first set and had so many opportunities in the second set to finish it off.
I was up a couple of breaks and just couldn't. She started playing really good tennis towards the end of that second set, and I just couldn't get my opportunities back, couldn't get those chances that I had in the beginning of the second set.
And in the fourth game, it was just a dog fight. I felt like I was pretty close to being down and out, because I wasn't able to produce, you know, good points for a long period of time. I was like a little kid that would make -- I was doing like a beaded bracelet. I would put four beads together and they would all fall down and then I'd start all over again.