WIMBLEDON

July 6, 2002

Serena Williams

MODERATOR: Ladies and Gentlemen, 2002 Wimbledon Champion.

SERENA WILLIAMS: That's me (smiling).

SERENA WILLIAMS: I feel really good. I'm happy. I'm part of the club. So I'm very excited.

SERENA WILLIAMS: No, I'm waiting for the pin, all the members have the pin. So I'm waiting for it. I'm really excited to get it.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Oh, I don't know. I played really well I think in Munich way back in '99. That was really exciting. The Ericsson, now known as the Nasdaq-100, back maybe in '99 also. But this is up there, for sure.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, okay, I was thinking, "Well" -- always think on the bright side. I figure there's a bright side in everything. When I was up 4-2, serving for 5-2, I lost that game, I thought, "Well, you know, I could have been down 4-2 in the set." So I was always thinking on the bright side. Then when I was serving for it, I figure, "Whatever happens, either way I'm still up 5-4." And I just have to stay calm. What's really been able to help me, I've been thinking 20 years from now, am I going to regret missing this serve? Am I going to regret doing this? So that really helped me calm down. I just wanted to breathe, you know, try to get through it because I really don't get nervous, but then I think maybe I was a little nervous there.

SERENA WILLIAMS: No, just things that I need to work on. Just reminders, like, "Look at the ball." Just simple things like that. Because normally I get unfocused when I'm sitting down, I start to look around. But Venus doesn't really have that problem, but I do. So I just try.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, things I write to myself - to stay focused, I won't look around, lose my mind.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I can't become satisfied because, you know, if I get satisfied, I'll be like, "Oh, I've won Wimbledon, I've won the US Open. Now can I relax." But now people are really going to be fighting to beat me now. So in the beginning of the year, I said, "You know, I don't care what happens this year, I want to win Wimbledon." And it was an extra bonus for me to win the French. Sure, I really wanted to win the French. I mean, I just couldn't even believe I won. But I just wanted Wimbledon. I wanted to become a member of so much prestige, so much history. I want to be a part of history.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, this is going to be my main hang-out, don't you know (laughter)?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, times were low a year ago. But, you know, it's high tide now, it's high tide.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Like I said, it's all changed mentally. I'm mentally a different person: I'm stronger, I seem to have more experience under my belt. I don't know. I don't know what the main turnaround point was. Maybe last year at Wimbledon when I lost - it was a tough loss, it really was. I don't know, just sometimes I wonder if I hadn't of lost, would things be different.

SERENA WILLIAMS: No, today, honestly, I wanted to win so bad, and I kept thinking to myself, "Okay, Serena, just stay calm. She already has two Wimbledons. Try to fight." And I really played really good today. Venus, she didn't -- her serve -- her arm was a little tired. Too much work on it. We just really have been beating ourselves up. So in the second set, she couldn't serve as well as she did in the first because my game -- wasn't as high, because I wasn't as emotionally high in the second as I was in the first. So I think things might have been different.

SERENA WILLIAMS: No. I don't know. I just always believe the way Venus plays at times, it's impossible to beat her. Because sometimes, even in practice, I'm really fighting just to get the ball back. And I don't even think I'm a good enough partner for her because of the way she's playing against me. But I don't know. I'm not going to say that I don't feel I'm -- but I think really, if I missed a shot in that match, things really could have swung either way, and she would have been sitting here as the champion. I just think we're so close right now -- okay, I lost my mind.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, I thought at that point Venus, she was playing really good at that point. And I said, "Well, whatever happens, I'm going to go out here and I'm just going to fight and try to hold my own." And then at the end of the day, when I go home, when I go to sleep, I'll be able to say, "You know what, I tried my best." I don't want to have to say I didn't. So that's what I was thinking at that point. So then I wanted to go out and fight again.

SERENA WILLIAMS: No, it's impossible. I think I live a definitely different life than most 20-year-olds. You have some pop stars who are 20 who are living maybe the same life I'm living. It's totally different. But I'm just as normal. None of it goes to my head. I have normal friends. I'm just as normal as anyone else, but I'm just not -- it's going to be impossible to be the same.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, yeah. I talk to -- well, Chanda and I really get along well. Alexandra and I, Alexandra Stevenson, we're really good friends. And Kim, she's a very nice girl. We always talk. There's a lot of players - Lisa Raymond, Rene Stubbs. We definitely get along.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't know if I really had that feeling. I just felt that we both were struggling a little during the French. I don't know. I didn't really feel that she had to go for more. If anything, I had to go for more because she was running so fast. I kind of at one point made a couple mistakes I shouldn't have made because she was pretty much getting everything back.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I guess (smiling).

SERENA WILLIAMS: No, she didn't tell me anything. Venus is the type person that she won't -- she never has an excuse for anything. Because I knew it was hurting beforehand. And I said, "Are you okay?" She said, "Oh, yeah, I'm going to be okay." "Are you going to be all right?" "Oh, yeah. Don't worry about me." And you really have to respect her not only as a person, as a player, as a sister, because not everyone would do that. She never lets anything bother her like that. She's a real champion. You know, this is why she is where she is.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, especially in the second set today I noticed it. Definitely, obviously, if I'm a competitor, I'm going to have to notice it. Unfortunately, it's like -- it's a war out here. You know, if there's a weakness, someone's going to have to be attacked. So, unfortunately, it was too bad.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Wow, I don't know. When I first walked out there, I was just thinking I wanted to win, but I was thinking also that my dad always said that, you know, one day we'll be playing in the finals of Wimbledon, in the finals of the US Open, just the big ones. And here we were 10, 15 years later. And it's really amazing if you think about it because my dad - and my mom - it's hard to get one champion, but now he has two. And this is unbelievable really.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I did a lot of work. And, you know, I don't regret any of it. It's nice when you can do a lot of stuff and you never have any regrets.

SERENA WILLIAMS: She never turns her chairs around. In doubles I make her turn them around. I don't know why I like to turn them. Because normally they're always facing the court. So I always -- you know, I'm very -- I have to have it the same way every time. So for me, I just did it like that. But she normally never turns hers around.

SERENA WILLIAMS: No, she told me. She told me, "When you accept the plate, you have to curtsy to the duchess." I think she was a princess today. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I didn't do it to the guy, though. Then she told me afterwards that she wasn't sure. Since she wasn't sure, she did a small one. I realized I should have done it, too (smiling). Older sister is always the wisest.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, it did. When I was able to win the first set, I think I got a little lackadaisical, I got a little too satisfied. I think I had a chance to break her. I was up 30-Love. And I just hit a couple ridiculous shots. Then I said to myself, "You're going to be telling your grandkids about this day, how you didn't take your opportunity." So then that's what I decided I just needed to go ahead and take my opportunity.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I'm a Jehovah's Witness. If you don't believe in God -- I think if you don't believe in God, it's going to be tough to live life because pretty much that's the basis of life, it comes from God. And so being a Jehovah's Witness, obviously we believe in God and the Bible. And without Him, I wouldn't be here right now. I really thank Him for everything. I've been blessed really. People are sick, just born with just disorders, and I've been blessed to be born, you know, pretty much healthy. So I really -- that's basically what I mean.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, I definitely am. I'm really exciting, I smile a lot, I win a lot, and I'm really sexy (smiling).

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, it was fun. You know, it was a great match. It was really fun. We were really serving and returning, Venus running down balls - I was running down a lot of balls, too. You know, it was a good match to watch. I think the crowd really got into it. So it was fun. It wasn't long. Our matches really never last long.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, most definitely. And mostly because I would like to win the doubles, not only because for Venus, but just for me, too. I don't like losing at all. I just never have, and I probably never will.

SERENA WILLIAMS: My dog's kids, my son.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Tell them that, you know - I don't know - I had fun. It was just an experience of a lifetime, and I tried to hold on to it as long as I could, at least another 52 weeks.