THE LIPTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 22, 1997

Venus Williams

VENUS WILLIAMS: I finished nine out of 14 geometry assignments and nine out of the 13 chemistry assignments and I took a French test, English quiz. I was busy on Friday. I did that in like four hours. I didn't even have time to breathe. Fortunately enough, my teachers gave me till Wednesday to get it in instead of Friday. I'm allergic to bad grades. I was talking about how I couldn't get my work in the last time. We can start now.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Well, the first game you could tell that Jennifer was a little nervous, she was hitting some double-faults. Then I think in the fifth game when I went up 4-1 she hit some, too. She was a little nervous. She hasn't played that much in this year. Sometimes when you aren't used to being in a certain situation a lot, you do that. I was hitting some double-faults, too, in the beginning. Then she really took command and saw if I wasn't going to take control, she ought to have taken it. She was right. But I felt that when I'm down, I'm not one of the players that gets down on myself, to show my opponent what I'm thinking. I really try to stay real positive. I always think this isn't over, even when it's 5-1. That's mostly what I was thinking.

VENUS WILLIAMS: No. I mean, I remember that one match against Monica and Jennifer, and they both were striking the ball. She hits it hard consistently, over and over and over. I hit it hard, too, but not all the time like that. They were very deep also, and sometimes it would catch me off guard. I was having slow turns, just wasn't prepared for that. She was hitting them hard and deep consistently, all the time.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I like to take it as it comes. I don't care.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Of her? I do remember her first round match, I think it was the Virginia Slims, Delray, Boca Raton. She played Gilda in the first round. Why do I remember that? I think that was her debut in 1990. I'm sure I probably remember a little more before that because she did a lot of stuff with juniors, I suppose. But I don't know.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I don't know. I'll have to think about that afterwards. I was putting some pressure on her, I was hitting the ball harder, a little more away of her. I think I took some of the short balls and put some pressure on her, came to the net sometimes. She had to rush her shots. I think I might have served a little better. I feel that she made a lot of mistakes also, and that helped all the time.

VENUS WILLIAMS: My thoughts?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Oh, uhm, I think it's going to be a good match. Look forward to playing her. She's been around town, in the world, globe trotting. I'm ready to play her, probably tomorrow.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Oh, no. I can go on and on. I can go on.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I try to smile some, even when it's a very serious time, like 5-1. There were a lot of 5-1's in that match today. I try to smile. Even when you don't feel like smiling. Smile, not because you're angry, but because you're intense, if you smile a little bit, the crowd is happy. No players really smile a lot. You're happy, you get more relaxed.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Oh, no I think it will be my sister and I fighting to be the two best players in the world. I don't see that at all.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I measure myself against myself. I would never measure myself against someone else. I feel that I'm the best, okay? That's just how I feel. Even if it wasn't true, that I can feel that way, it makes you play better, makes you have more pride about what you're doing, saying, "I'm the best player out here, why am I losing, pull it together." What was the question you asked?

VENUS WILLIAMS: I wanted to say something else, but I forgot the question.

VENUS WILLIAMS: No. Because even tonight I didn't play anything like I can play. My serve, I thought it was terrible. Even though I was very happy with my second serve, even though it can be better, today I was hitting 60s. That's terrible. I can play much better than that. Jennifer, she was playing, she forced me to play. If she didn't play, I probably wouldn't have played. It's very sad but true. She went out there and she forced me to play.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Actually, I didn't have any expectations at all. I just wanted to come to the net more because the last match against Helga (sic) Nielsen, is that how you say it, I really wouldn't come to the net. You couldn't force me there if you put a gun to my head. I would have said, "No." It was very sad. Even tomorrow's match I'm going to try to come even more because obviously I'm a pretty good volleyer, have a pretty good touch, nice overhead. No need why I can't pull that out of the closet.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, I go to sleep with this. It's very easy.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I don't remember. What happened?

VENUS WILLIAMS: I don't remember. I probably just went out and served it.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I didn't really notice myself getting a mental edge. A lot of times I've been up 4-1 and I managed to really blow it. Last week at Indian Wells, I was playing in Oakland against Brenda Schultz, I managed to find some way to lose. I didn't want to find that path again, I wanted to find the other one to the win. I think I was more or less focusing on me staying focused. Once I had her down, I guess the mental edge is what you're saying, for me just to go and run with it, take the torch or baton, whatever.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yes, my mind. It really is. I have to work on that. There's a lot of things I have to work on. That's what it is.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I don't understand the question.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Do I plan to play more?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, I feel it's about time I do that. Right now I feel ready to play more. About four days afterwards, you don't feel as excited, but a week after playing a tournament, I feel really excited and ready to go out and play again. I'm ready to play.

VENUS WILLIAMS: It probably isn't the path for everyone because everyone probably needs to go out there and play matches and get confidence. But as for me, it was a path. It just shows that there is an alternative way, rather than playing juniors, junior Slams, satellites, whatever they do, I wasn't there. It probably does. I wouldn't say beating Jennifer does that because Jennifer is obviously on her way back. You can see that out there today. She's doing real well. I don't think that beating her validates that.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I don't think the juniors are significant. I just don't think so. I mean, it makes a name for someone, if you do real well, when you come into the professionals. But it's a total different ball game.

VENUS WILLIAMS: No. I could see it on TV.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I like big crowds. I suppose everyone feels a little nervous sometimes on the court. Usually I try to hit through that or ignore. If you lose a match because you were nervous, at the end all you can say is, "I was nervous, I lost." That's a sad thing. I don't want to ever have to say that. It's different when you first start your career or haven't been there. Obviously, I haven't played that many matches. Under 30, there's no reason for that, I feel.

VENUS WILLIAMS: No. Sometimes I'd be watching a match on TV thinking, "Man, let me get at it. I'll show them." I never was very uptight, breaking out, things like that.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Actually, I don't get into watching as many films as I'd like. I'm doing homework or other things. When I get free time, I don't necessarily want to watch films or watch tennis.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Do I want to finish high school?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yes.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I'm taking some college classes. Unfortunately, I have a report that's due Thursday and I haven't even started. It was on a poll. I had to have the statistics and I lost that. I don't know what to do. It's going from worse to worse. I missed the midterm when I went to the Evert Cup. In freshman communications, I did terrible on that midterm. I just don't know what to say.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Terrible?

VENUS WILLIAMS: When I don't know the thing that they're talking about. That really makes me sad. Losing a match, I can learn, but I can't get back to that test. One time I did bad on geometry, I got a 60. After math, I never cried. After that test, I did cry. I had to put my head down, "My God." The worst part, Serena started laughing, wouldn't stop for five minutes. That made it worse.

VENUS WILLIAMS: In high school I was like 3.75. I'm only taking two classes in college, political science, freshman communications. I really don't like all that writing. I don't know. You guys might like it (laughter). It's not for me. They're trying to tell me all these mistakes I had. It looked right to me.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I plan on being an architect. I change my mind. Right now it seems like the right course.

VENUS WILLIAMS: No. I'm getting there slowly but surely. Actually by the time May comes around, last year I burned out. I was crawling to the finish line, bleeding, dying, barely breathing. It was terrible last year. I could barely get all the work in. This year it seems like I haven't burned out at all, and it's almost April.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Last year I went to summer school, then I took extra classes throughout the semesters. I'm somewhat halfway down. Probably just have to do fall semester. Probably supposed to take three classes, but I'll go ahead and take five, go ahead and get more smarts in my head.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Oh, yes, I play doubles. I play doubles with Serena. It's the best thing. We have fun out there, smiling, laughing. We have major league comebacks. We came back from 6-Love. One time we were down 4-2 in the tiebreak. It was crazy. We were having fun. We weren't that very experienced at doubles, but we'll get better. We're going to work on it.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Okay, uhm, my mom usually always getting on me how I'm not responsible and I'll get killed if I don't learn to get better. Things like not locking the door. I'm much better at that now. Usually, Serena and I are always teasing and laughing at her. We're always laughing together, usually always give her the car keys to drive so I can sleep. There's a lot of things. My mom and dad are always keeping Serena and I straight, always sitting us down and talking to us. I listen, try to do better. You don't always do better. Sometimes takes three years, but you get there.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Thanks y'all.