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MIAMI OPEN PRESENTED BY ITAUApril 4, 2015Serena WilliamsMIAMI, FLORIDA S. WILLIAMS/C. Suarez Navarro THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Well done today. Congratulations. An eighth title. How does it feel? SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, it feels really good to have eight under my belt. Can't say I thought I would win eight, especially in the beginning of the week. It just feels really weird. Definitely feels good, and I'm happy to be able to get through it. Q. How does it compare to the other seven? SERENA WILLIAMS: I mean, each one is special. Some finals are long; some finals have been shorter. But it doesn't matter. At the end, each one is a lot of hard work. At the end of the day, it's just standing there and being successful. Q. I notice that you've been through so much these last few weeks with the knee pain, not sure if you're going to play or not. Seemed like your celebration was a tad understated. Was it because you beat her so badly, almost like C.C. earlier in the week? SERENA WILLIAMS: You know what? I was just so focused out there today and so ready. When you're winning 5‑Love, 40‑Love, it's not a surprise that you necessarily go out to win. Usually you've kind of accepted that you're going to win at that point. So, I don't know, it's not kind of in your face, kind of like, I'm up 5‑Love and I won and I'm going to really jump up really high. It's different if it's 5‑All or 7‑5. You don't know which way it's going to turn. Definitely different. Q. I know you dedicated this win to your dad. Is he okay health‑wise? Why wouldn't be here from Palm Beach? SERENA WILLIAMS: No, he's okay. He just had some things to do. Just for the past three days he was just so upset that he couldn't make it down. Yeah, he's doing good. But I wanted him to know that I'm thinking about him. I'll take this trophy home and put it in his house. Q. What are your thoughts looking forward to the clay court season in Europe? SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, just want to stay consistent in the clay court season and get a little more fit. I think in clay courts obviously you have longer matches, consistently have longer matches. So I've got to get ready for that. I'm ready for it. I'm looking forward to the challenge and looking to have fun. Q. On Thursday you mentioned that you needed to get some rest and practice on your day off. Did you practice something specifically that helped you play so well today, or was the rest the big thing? SERENA WILLIAMS: I think the big thing was the rest and just regaining my confidence. I had a couple matches where I had nearly 60 unforced errors in both, so I just needed to kind of get my mind back there and say, Serena, you normally don't play like this, so just go to how you normally play. Q. 2001 was the last time anybody pulled of the Australian‑French double; that was Jennifer. Obviously it's a tough thing to do. Why do you think it's so difficult? SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't know. I don't know why no one has ever done it. I don't know if I can do it. I've never done it, so... I don't think it's necessarily tough, I just think that sometimes the tournament's hard or you just fall and you fall at the wrong time. That's just what happens. Q. Where are you playing between now and the French? SERENA WILLIAMS: I'm going Fed Cup, Madrid. Q. And also, I think Martina won 12 titles at one tournament, if I'm not mistaken, in Chicago. Think you might get to 12 in Miami? SERENA WILLIAMS: I hope not. (Laughter.) Because I would still be here‑‑ I would be how old? (Counting on fingers.) Yeah, no. Let's pray that I don't get to 12. Q. You indicated in some of your previous matches that you were unhappy with your serve and struggling with it. Talk about how you felt about it today and where you are with that. SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, like I said, I had to improvise in some of my matches. Quite frankly, I had to take some pace off today because I wasn't serving the way I normally serve. I normally serve tons of aces really hard. This tournament I wasn't serving my best. On the flip side, it's good to know that I can win relying on my groundstrokes or relying on other shots. It's not just one shot that makes me good. It's an all‑court game. It's comforting, but at the same time, I definitely want to get my serve going again. I just really haven't had time to practice. I've just been dealing with injuries, and when I'm practicing I'm hitting groundstrokes and just not hitting enough serves. Q. You're sort of in uncharted waters: 33, No. 1 in the world for two years now, and just alluded to at some point it's going to end. How far do you think you can keep dominating women's tennis like this? How much longer? SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I'm just doing the best that I can. Every day I wake up I go out to play and I feel like I can still play well, that's how long it'll be. No one can answer that. Q. She has one of the nicest one‑handed topspin backhands in the game. SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah. Q. You seemed to take it away from her early. Was that your plan, and did you think once you broke that down you kind of broke her spirit? SERENA WILLIAMS: No, I didn't think about that. I didn't really realize that I took it away from her, to be honest, so... Q. Did you go after it at all? SERENA WILLIAMS: Not really. I just kind of went out there and was hitting. I didn't have a plan it hit to her backhand or forehand. That's never really my plan. I just can't do that. I get too worked up. I just got to play my game. I'm not the kind of player that's like, Oh, her forehand is weak, so I'm going to hit 100% there. I can't do that. Q. You haven't lost this year. Do you think this could be the year for the pure Grand Slam? SERENA WILLIAMS: No, I mean, I don't know. I can't answer that either. Obviously anyone that wins the Australian Open wants to win a Grand Slam. I've won the Australian Open six times and I have not done that yet. I'm not saying this is the year or not the year. Who knows? Q. Is there a mantra or something you tell yourself when you need to kind of get refocused and build your confidence? Is there something you tell yourself, a mantra, something that keeps you pumped? SERENA WILLIAMS: I always just tell myself just to stay in it and one point at time. If I'm really far ahead or really far down, just one point at time and just go for it. I don't think too far out of one or two points. I think that's what really helps me a lot. Q. Do you feel you understand tennis better now than you did a few years ago in terms of patterns, play, everything else? Talk about that a little bit. SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I think I definitely do. I actually think that I read the game better. Like when I'm playing an opponent, after three games I'm like, Okay, now I know what you're going to do. I know you're going to do that or that, or when the coach comes out I really key in on what they change their games to. I'm like, Okay, now I got that. I don't think I did that before. I think that's just experience and age. I'm not saying ‑‑ I think an 18 year old could do it, but for whatever reason it took me longer. But I really like key on really fast on what's going to happen. Q. You and Martina seem to be having a good time up there. What were you talking about? SERENA WILLIAMS: No, I told her, You again? Because I see her all the time now in the trophy ceremonies. So we were just laughing about that. She's great. She's someone I looked up to, so whenever I see her I'm always really excited. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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