AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 25, 2005

Serena Williams

THE MODERATOR: First question for Serena, please.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't -- I don't appreciate that language, to be honest with you. I'm tired of not saying anything, but that's not fair. We've been practicing really hard. We've had some serious injuries. I mean, I've had surgery. And after surgery, I got to the finals of Wimbledon. I don't know too many people that have done that. Venus had a severe strain in her stomach. I actually had the same injury, but I didn't tear it the way she did. If I would have torn it, I wouldn't have been here. That's another understatement. She played a player yesterday that just played out of her mind and Venus made some errors that she probably shouldn't have made. And to top it off, we have a very, very, very, very, very close family. To be in some situation that we've been placed in in the past little over a year, it's not easy to come out and just perform at your best when you realize there are so many things that are so important. So, no, we're not declining. We're here. I don't have to win this tournament to prove anything. I know that I'm out here and I know that I'm one of the best players out here.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yes. I definitely think it was a lot better. But it's in the past now. I'm focused on the next round.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I mean, I couldn't tell. I was just really looking at the ball and I was trying to be focused on the ball more or less.

SERENA WILLIAMS: It was extremely hot out there. Geez, it was like taking -- it was really hot. Was that the hottest I've been? Maybe. Maybe. It was definitely one of the hottest. Because before I think they closed the roof, so that kind of chilled it out a little bit.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yes (laughing). Because it's so hot out there. But, I think they cancel some of the matches if it gets to a certain degree and it gets too hot. I know they cancel. I know that today maybe they moved some of them back to the Vodafone arena where I think that roof -- does that roof close as well? I think it's to a certain degree they close it. I was pretty hot out there. I think we were playing above the closed-roof degrees.

SERENA WILLIAMS: To me, it doesn't matter. If they would have closed it, I would have been okay. Probably would have been a little cooler. But if they kept it open, I was fine, too.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I think when you play a person like that and they have a good record against you, I think next time she plays me, she probably feels she has nothing to lose 'cause I have such a good record. It's like, "Okay, I have nothing to lose here." In a way, it's like I have a little bit of an advantage but at the same time she does, too.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, still a little bitter about the Rome experience (laughing).

SERENA WILLIAMS: She's playing really good. She's really -- I think she's a really mentally tough character out there. So, yeah...

SERENA WILLIAMS: Not really. I tried to focus on my match. But I can only imagine. It was hot out there, for sure. She played three sets. So that was -- you know, wasn't very easy to do.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I just feel as if my advantage is going to boil down to me playing, you know, my shots. Like I said, if I play well, then it's hard to beat me. Sometimes I make a few too many errors, get a little excited. But, yeah.

SERENA WILLIAMS: To be honest, I feel like I don't have anything to lose. I think I was way too nervous at Wimbledon. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't breathe. Sometimes you want it too bad that you just freak yourself out. So now I feel fine. I feel like I just -- I'm really proud of myself, doing pretty well with my preparation here.

SERENA WILLIAMS: A little better. My mom got on me this morning in practice and yesterday. She put a lot of pressure -- not pressure, but she got behind me and really motivated me because I think she was a little upset at some of the way my strokes were going. So she was like, "Okay, Serena, you can't do this anymore." That really helped me a lot.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yes, yes. But not crazy tough, but more mentally.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, she did make a lot more errors than normal. I don't know if she ran -- I don't remember even running her that much. I know she made a ton of errors. She usually doesn't hit that many errors within two sets like that. Usually it's over three sets so...

SERENA WILLIAMS: I was actually expecting to play, not necessarily looking, saying, "Okay, this is going to be easy," I'm expecting to compete, be the best competitor I can out there.

SERENA WILLIAMS: As a revenge match? No, I look at it as a chance to be in the finals here again. But I got to play that one first.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, there's a few -- I'm two matches away, Maria is two matches away. So we both kind of have it in our grasp and we're both going to be going out there and fighting. We'll see.