ROGERS CUP

August 16, 2005

Serena Williams

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Serena, please.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, it was pretty tough for me to be out there today. I don't know, I just played, and now I'm here.

SERENA WILLIAMS: She hit a very weird ball. She had like a lot of spin. When the ball bounced, it was way above my head. It was definitely a little tough physically out there, as well.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Ankle's good. But I'm just dealing with some issues with my knee because of my ankle. Since it went bad, my ankle, my knee got a little weak - well, weaker than it has been in the past. So I just don't feel like I'm doing well.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I prepared really hard actually. I was actually practicing way better than I was playing. I actually practiced for like three weeks every day, which is a lot for me, just on and off the court as well.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I'm going to have my therapist look at it because I might have tweaked it a little bit when I sprained my ankle. While I was trying to recover that part of my body, like I said, my knee just got a little weaker than I had expected. In match play it's totally different because I'm doing different things that I can't do in practice, and I'm not playing matches in practice.

SERENA WILLIAMS: No, not at all. It was before.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Like I said, I'm going to talk with my therapist and see what the best thing for me to do. The way I felt tonight, I didn't feel very good at all. I wasn't even moving to any balls. I have tomorrow off, so maybe that can help. But I have to see what my therapist says.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I'm playing.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't know (laughter). I was playing so bad. She was playing really good. She was moving very well actually. I played her before. She plays good when she's down. It seems like when she's down, she wants to come back and play good on some points. I don't know. I was down and out, and I just was so angry, I wanted to crack every racquet, but I didn't do it. That's a plus.

SERENA WILLIAMS: No.

SERENA WILLIAMS: It was a little bit, like just because of the ankle issues, because it all kind of goes into play. It's all in the same leg, so...

SERENA WILLIAMS: No, it's better now.

SERENA WILLIAMS: No, not at all. It's just because I had surgery on this leg before. After surgery, I got it really, really strong. I was playing well in the beginning of the year. When I injured my ankle, my leg, even after surgery, was still weaker than my right leg. I injured my ankle on my left leg, unfortunately. That happened to be the leg that I had surgery on my knee. When I wasn't moving and working out on my legs, I lost a lot of the strength that I had to build up in that area. So just the muscle tone over there, I just need a little extra strength in it.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Not tonight. But I must say that sometimes it does. It definitely does. Sometimes I'll think about all the people myself and my sister have an impact on. I always say I'm playing for myself, but in the back of my mind I feel that there's a lot of people that live vicariously through us and never had an opportunity. We were fortunate enough to have great parents just who supported us with our careers. So I think about that every now and then - but not tonight.

SERENA WILLIAMS: No, I've been actually working really hard off court. I've been doing a lot of different things. It just felt weird. I think maybe I was just tired today. I don't know. Like I said in the beginning, I'm going to have to consult Ms. Brooks.

SERENA WILLIAMS: That is frustrating. I can understand. She wants to come back?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, uhm, I don't envision -- oh, yeah. I forgot the question.

SERENA WILLIAMS: It is disappointing to go out there and be like, "Gosh, a couple months ago I would have got that shot." That kind of gets a little upsetting. I guess you have to work through it sometimes.