THE LIPTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 28, 1999

Richard Williams

MIKE BROEKER: Questions for Mr. Williams.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I left the match because I really thought I was going to cry. I felt too ugly to be out there crying so I left.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Well, what I thought would go through my mind was not what was going through my mind. What I thought actually would be going through my mind was how happy I was to see both my girls being out there. That's what really was going through my mind was, I guess, all the problem we've had in tennis, bringing the girls up, how difficult it was, all the gang members, all the peoples out there. I guess I was just thinking about those things. I was saying, "Look where you are today." It was so difficult for me to believe it. I think I was going to cry, so I left and went out.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: No, I do not. I know Serena did not.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: No, Serena did not. Serena's knee was actually hurting her. I could tell her knee was hurting her. I heard a reporter named Mr. Bud Collins say it was Venus house, but there was a thief in it. I really thought the thief would steal that match today, Serena Williams.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: No, not at all. They was out to practice. I stayed out there for about maybe five or ten minutes, and I left because it became sort of very boring for me. What was boring for me about their practice today was that I really felt that if I was them, I would be so happy, I don't know if I would have had the intensity to practice at all, not at all. As a matter of fact, what I did, I left the practice and came down to Mr. Butch Buchholz and Cliff Buchholz's office instead.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: No. I didn't know anything to give them at all, no.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I think Serena might have been a little emotional at first. That's not to say that she was. Serena tends to feel her way through a match to find out what her opponents like and do not like. As soon as she figures out what they like or do not like, she usually hit her way straight through them. She tend to do like a big train: run over them.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Practice is different than playing. What makes it different, in practice, Venus and Serena usually laugh their way through practice. You get to know what a person will do. That's on a laughing, joking level. I didn't see Serena play enough angles today. She stood up a little too high on her serve. Her ball toss dropped too low. I really think that Serena was out of it today.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Yes, sir.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I would never tell my daughters to do that. As a matter of fact, I really think my daughters should get off that concrete as soon as possible. I wouldn't care who win. If they could have won it in ten minutes, that would have been great enough for me. I would have been sad for TV, but I would love to see my daughters off that concrete as soon as possible. I would never tell my daughters to tank a match. It's like telling a person to give up. We don't teach giving up. We teach our kids that, You didn't come here to start a match, you came to win the match.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Actually, I don't think I took a hit. I think in America, according to the Fifth Amendment, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I just felt people were giving their own opinion. My opinion is that I've always been that no one here knew what they was doing to start off with. I think as people probably took hits at me because I was speaking my opinion. I think that if you look at the tennis world, where it is, we don't have anyone in America that's playing tennis. I think it's disgraceful. You have a girl, I think she's No. 29 on the ITF list, you have one boy. So I never thought they was taking a cheap shot at me. As a matter of fact, I thought that they was doing me a favor. I think that we have been able to show peoples that if you give a person a opportunity to show what they can do, if it can be done the correct way, this would be the way. But running to a junior tournament every weekend, forgetting the rest of your family is not the way. Forgetting about education is the wrong way. Forgetting about other languages - those two girls, when they come in here, they speak more than one languages, they write their own newsletters, they are up-to-date on computers, they do a lot of community service. I make them give back as much as they earn. I have to do because they earn a lot. I don't think no one was taking a shot at me at no time. I think that people have a right to say what they have to say. I love what they was saying.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Knowing Venus, Venus is not like that.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I wouldn't think Venus is like that at all. I think this is their third time playing each other. I think that every time Venus went out to play Serena, she tried to murder Serena. I think that's what she tried to do today. Serena has this tendency, if you've been watching her game, she can hit winners anytime, from the forehand or backhand. I think Serena got a little bit shaky when Venus started running those balls down. I don't think Serena played no one in this tournament that could run down as many balls as Venus. I think she just kind of gave up a little bit when her knee started hurting.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I doubt it. I haven't talked to either one of the girls, except for to say, I love you very much, I'm really proud of you, and I think that you have done very well. I don't think there was nothing psychological about it at all.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I would say no, I don't think so. I think that if it would have been someone else, maybe they might have focused a little bit harder, maybe. But I can't say for sure because I can't speak for my girls. But sort of watching what I seen today, it did not look like they was as focused as they have been the matches I have seen. Of course, some of the matches I've seen, they gave away points anyway, for the hell of it, especially Serena's match against Hingis.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I hope so.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I work with a lot of underprivileged kids and kids that have AIDS and so on, kids that no school would like to have. Doing the sign boards, we're trying to teach the kids that you can do anything you wish to do. Some of the messages was for them to do reports on. One of the reports that they will be doing is on FOX Television. Whoever carried the finals that my girls are in, they actually have to do a report on the television station. Last year, it was ESPN, I believe, I'm more than sure it was. But this year they be doing it on FOX. This year it will just be a little different, they'll be asked to send the reports to FOX. That's why we put the message boards up.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I think that they are a long ways from being there, but I really believe that they on track to getting there. I think they will be there, yes.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: That question usually get me in troubles. The first person that got me in troubles with was my wife because the first time I ever took my daughter to the tennis court, I actually walked home, left my raggedy Volkswagen at the tennis court, walked two miles. I said, Baby we have a champion. You just a proud father. I said, I know a champion. I work with athletes. This girl is rough, tough, strong, mentally she's sound. Those are the four qualities all champions has. Doesn't matter how old or how young they are. Venus and Serena demonstrated that the first time we went out. I knew they were a champion.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Four years, six months and one day.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Venus. And at five years old, I took the racquet out of her hand. I wouldn't let her play for a year because she loved it too much.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: This trophy, here, no, it will not go in the garage. It will probably have to go in their room. It will be the first one in our house. I usually don't allow trophies in our home.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Serena was the same age. She was just further up in the future. But I really think Serena had a better chance at making it than Venus. I really didn't feel the same way. By the time we really got Serena involved, we had Mr. John McEnroe, she would hit sometime with him. Pete Sampras, before Pete Sampras became really as huge as he is right now, we had a lot of professional peoples. Because Serena couldn't beat those guys with power, she had to learn to do angles and dropshots. Right now Serena is hitting angles and dropshots better than anyone. I think she have a better chance than Venus.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Yes, sir, because we're used to being on the corner in Compton where people shouting and doing drugs. This is very strange to me sitting up here and you peoples talking to me. I actually feel like a fool.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: No, we moved from Compton back in the third week of September of 1991. But we make it a point to go back at least twice a year. Right now we have I think it's a ten million -- either ten million or twenty million dollar building going up where we once practiced there in Compton and Atlantic.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I was outside smoking a cigarette. I was out there teasing this girl. I wanted to buy, I don't know what it's called, but it costs three dollars. I say, I only have a dollar and a half. She said, I can't sell you half of it. I was out there arguing with her.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: No. I was having fun arguing with this girl about buying something for a dollar and a half. Some guy came up and said, You don't know who this is? The girl said, I don't care who it is, I want three dollars.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I think it's one of those pretzel things, you buy it, they heat it up, put salt on it. I don't know what it is, but it costs three dollars.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I don't know if it's ten million or twenty million. Do you remember which one it is?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Compton and Atlantic in the City of Compton. We try not only to give. A lot of peoples talks about giving back. What is that? Richard, can you come over and speak. I want you to give back. First, I never had anything to give back. Giving back to us is simply setting up a center that can actually run with people with people that is in a position to help underprivileged kids, to live in a computer world because we live in an information age today. What's so interesting about that is Reebok's has been a major help to us, and so is Puma now, helping us to get our message out and so on. One of the key factors that I think helped us more than anything one of our programs here in Florida, I have no problem calling Butch Buchholz or Cliff Buchholz to help us out and our program. The Buchholz brothers are very good at helping us. Two years ago, I went to Cliff and Butch about a girl that was in my program out in California. The girl today is dead. She died with lupus disease. But I remember Venus was here playing two years ago and I couldn't come because I was raising money. The Buchholz brothers was kind enough to help us out a great deal. We are very thankful to them as well.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I don't know if it's true what I think. But we paid a guy, his name is Michael J. Goldstein, he's a psychiatrist. I wanted him to go out and find out what happens when brothers and sisters play each other. Well, in the study we found out more than what we needed to know. But it was very helpful. We learned that tennis is the only game that's extremely rough on a family. You can see how tennis has taken place with some of the families that's involved today. So we employed two more doctors, Dr. James Malord (phonetic), to do the same thing. And I learned that it wouldn't be good to enter Venus in this tournament and Serena in this tournament because we wanted two girls to grow up with a bunch of love for each other. And that love needed to be cultivated and developed, and it needed time to do so. So Venus was going to play Long Beach, Serena was going to play someplace else. So Venus might be in one place, and Serena might be in another. Today it works the same way. And they really happy to do it that way.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Actually, I don't make the rules no more. I'm out of it. They the ones make those decisions now. I told them as soon as they got to be 18, they could do it. Serena yet 17, but she's so close to 18, "You just make those decisions." I'm just out of it now.