AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 21, 2005

Serena Williams

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Serena, please.

SERENA WILLIAMS: By no means I don't think it was a walk in the park. I think I was really ready to play because I knew she was a young, talented, good player, and I wanted to make sure I was ready.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, she did. She definitely brought up her game. Maybe she got rid of her jitters, if any at all. Maybe I made a few more errors.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I'm happy with my serve today. Finally, after forever it seems, able to feel my serve. So I was really happy about that.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I told her to keep up the good work because it was good to see someone from India for the first time do so well. I was excited to see someone particularly do so well from that country, and I told her to keep fighting.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Not really. I'm always -- when I try to watch Venus' matches, she always gets stuck behind five-setters. Today, you know, I thought I would play earlier but I was stuck behind a four-and-a-half hour match. I've pretty much been spending the nights here.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Definitely. I'm not one to hang out and I'm not one to be seen, but...

SERENA WILLIAMS: I think it could if you were waiting all day. But for the most part I usually am pretty good timing as to when I'm practicing. But I kind of got it off a little bit today.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I think she has a very solid game, especially to be so young; she's only 18. I definitely see a very bright future for her.

SERENA WILLIAMS: It is one of the outfits that I designed. It's a part of the Serena collection. It's called -- it's about the agents of change because it's all about -- Nike wanted to do something with me since I was able -- you know, they see me as an agent of change. You know, in my sport, I kind of changed the sport. This actually comes off, this dress part, and it's a short. So this is actually a short. I can play in a short if I wanted to. The top is a top and then it's the bottom. Then this jacket, it's cool. I think it's sold out so far in Melbourne. We're working on getting some more here. But this is actually a part of a jacket that I wear. I was inspired to design it because I wanted it to look like kind of like a motorcycle neck. The zipper isn't a center-front zipper, it's actually a bit -- two or three inches on the side. It has a button here. But it comes off and then you can have this little piece here or you can wear it as a vest. I don't have the main part of the jacket on. I just have the vest part because it's so hot here that I can't wear the whole jacket, but I still want to have something to cover up my arms so I can stay warm. So this is perfect. I just wear this little sleeve part, but it kind of buttons up and it zips on the side to connect to the vest area. It's really cool. It's really like interchangeable; you can wear it so many different ways. Like you can wear this one outfit three different ways and no one would ever tell it's one outfit.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I used to want to buy a motorcycle when I was younger, but my mom didn't think it was a good idea.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't know, whatever one that goes really fast and makes a lot of noise. And that's what I was going to get, but... I didn't. But I do, I kind of like to go fast. So I like to watch a lot of race car driving.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I like velocity. I'm stuck into the race car driving instead of the motorcycles.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Not long. Not long. I mean, for me, if I get an idea, I'll think about it and then I'll look at different inspirations and pop culture and then all of a sudden it could either come right then and there (snapping), or I'll leave it there for a day or two and I'll come back and then I'll just sketch something. And I'll get together with everyone at Nike and then we'll put our sketches together. But really, like honestly, 20 minutes at the most. Because once I get a dress, I just keep sketching and sketching and sketching.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I'm not the best at sketching, but it's improved. I used to not be able to draw a stick man, but now I'm actually doing really good at forms. I have a way of doing my own things now, so I'm much better.

SERENA WILLIAMS: No, I definitely am happy for the match today because in the second set she was hitting -- first two matches, I played girls that didn't give me any pace. Today she was hitting lots of hard balls. In practice I'm hitting against some hard hitters, so I'm okay.

SERENA WILLIAMS: This?

SERENA WILLIAMS: It's attached to -- it's a dress. I demonstrated the -- I demonstrated it for my -- it's a dress. It's attached here. It's like a button. It snaps on and off. I would snap it off, but I'm really shy. See? It snaps off. Okay. What the hell? Is that okay?

SERENA WILLIAMS: It snaps off. I've never done this because... okay. It becomes a short. So I can play a match. Like a lot of players play in shorts, so there you go. But it's still a dress. Like you saw me today, I was playing in the dress. It's really cool. It's a great outfit. People should buy it (laughter) - it's really hot - please. And I can throw it to the crowd, too.