WIMBLEDON

July 1, 2002

Serena Williams

MODERATOR: First question, please.

SERENA WILLIAMS: You're kidding, right?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Thank you. No, I -- here I go again. There's always room for improvement. I think I missed a few too many returns. She kept serving me out wide. You know what, I had it every time. But every time it's like I missed it. I don't know. That's like my favorite serve to receive. I think I just could have done a little better on the returns.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I almost got ran over. But I survived. I'm a survivor. I made it to another day.

SERENA WILLIAMS: No, I just went out to stretch. I stretched a bit, just to relax and cool down. It was important, very much, to stay focused and just stay relaxed, not get too tense.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, confidence-wise, I guess I have a lot more confidence now. I have a few more titles under my belt. I think my game is better. I'm mentally stronger. I'm higher ranked. You know what, I'm really having fun. And the second week, like I said, you really have to buckle down and get really serious.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, she definitely picks up her game during every week during week two. Even today, you see she had a very good win, a very solid match. If I'm going to be able to compete with her, I have to pick up my game also.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I had to go out there and I really focused for this match because Chanda's been playing great. She won the Eastbourne tournament easily. She really didn't have any trouble there at all. And here, she's been doing very well. When you play a player like this -- and she's a good player. She just was injured for a little bit. Actually, she's 27 now, I believe. So to be injured that long and to jump back in the rankings so quickly, you know, obviously I was going up against a very good player. I knew I really had to be focused today or go home.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Did I?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't remember hitting a lot of winners. I was, you know, really focused today. I really wanted and needed the win.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, there's a lot of people who are running very fast these days. Jennifer Capriati tends to run down a lot of my shots, as well as Justine Henin. Obviously, Venus seems to get all my shots. But I've been practicing against her. And in practice, she's just getting all my balls. And then now when I'm going against these other players, I get as many. So I guess that really helps me out a lot.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, they are. I think I have definitely had more forced errors than I did outright winners. I haven't been able to look at the stats yet. I think that's definitely as critical, if not more, because it gets your opponent to thinking, "Wow, I have to go for a better shot."

SERENA WILLIAMS: You know, I never -- I had overconfidence maybe once in my career, and I proceeded to lose that match. So I was reading one time where Billie Jean King said whenever she went out to play anyone, especially if they were ranked lower, she played them as if they were the No. 1 player in the world. And I think it's very important not to get overconfident because for us, everyone wants to beat a Williams right now. We're the top players. Everyone wants to beat us. So they're obviously, even in the past before I was No. 2, everyone was bringing their best game against me. This helped me out a lot, obviously. But, still, they're still bringing their best game. So I have to make sure I'm ready because anything can happen.

SERENA WILLIAMS: That's not necessarily true all the time. I played a really tough player in the fourth round of the French Open. There's a lot of young players coming up, a lot of new faces. So I don't think that's necessarily, you know, true.

SERENA WILLIAMS: No, I'm a huge fan of his. I went to the Rock Man fight. And I saw his David II. I wasn't obviously able to go to the last one. You know, every time he walks out there, before he's walking out, I can tell he's going to win because he's really focused and he has this look in his eyes. Like I saw on TV before he fought Mike, he looked really much more focused than Tyson did. I don't know. He's a good boxer. I don't know, I like his hair (laughter). I think it's really cool.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, definitely. If you lose your focus in boxing, you know, you could be knocked out. I think maybe also in tennis, before you know it you could be down 5-Love.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I definitely wasn't itching to get back. I just was more or less ready to play a little better. Yeah, I really went out, practiced a couple days. I just tried to, you know, be a little more serious in my practice, the way I was in Paris. Because you can't win one Slam and slack off. I think maybe I slacked off a little bit. But I'm back.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, it depends. It just depends basically probably on how I'm feeling that day. I think if I need to, I can get 50 balls over. I mean, you have to be able to do this on the clay. I can hit whatever. I think if I need to, I can work the ball around a little. I love to run people. So it just -- and I love running. So for me, it's just -- I don't know. Venus is definitely getting more like that. Maybe next year or a couple years, I'll be more like that, too. But it just really depends. I don't necessarily always hit winners. It just depends.

SERENA WILLIAMS: No. I actually read the transcripts of what she said. It wasn't really put like that. You know, Jennifer is a nice girl. We always get along. We have tough matches. It's great for the fans to watch us. So I think maybe it was mixed up a little bit.

SERENA WILLIAMS: No, definitely not. She's a champion and a competitor, and we're all here to compete. We're not, you know, in a cat fight. We're all just out to do the best for ourselves and, you know, the tour.

SERENA WILLIAMS: In what way?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Oh, definitely, yeah. I think you have to definitely not get distracted. And I guess if that's a way of being selfish, then ... You know, you can be selfish till you're 30, then you have the rest of your life, so...

SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, you know, I really don't know. I think Steffi Graf, when she was on top, she was very quiet. And Monica, also. She's still very quiet. I think champions always just have that distinct, you know, something about them. I don't know about the men. But I just think maybe they're just a little more quiet, a little more to themselves, a little more focused at all times.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Oh, I just stay at home mostly, at the house. I read. I finished a couple books already. I'm starting a new one. So that's about it.

SERENA WILLIAMS: What is it? I can't remember. I haven't started it yet. I can't remember the name of the author. I just finished a couple Marian Keyes books. They were really good.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I couldn't answer that question. Obviously, you have Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf, who won, what, seven Wimbledons maybe. Martina won nine. Venus two (laughter). It's just -- I can't really say. It's very difficult. If you want to go back with Billie Jean King and Margaret Court. I think it's impossible.