STATE FARM EVERT CUP

March 10, 1998

Venus Williams

Q. She had a little run at you in the first set. Did you worry at all?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Well, I knew that -- I went up 4-Love. I think she was making errors. I was playing aggressively. I was attacking the second serves. But then when I got up 4-Love, she began to hit a lot more balls very deep, whereas I couldn't attack her as much as I would have liked to. She began to play much better. I lost serve twice. At 4-All was my serve, so I really felt comfortable because I have a pretty good serve these days. I was pretty confident the whole time.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I've seen her play before. I know she's the type of player that doesn't give up. I was very confident in the second set. I always am, especially after I win the first one. I felt I had nothing to lose. I was winning. I just played like -- that was it.

VENUS WILLIAMS: No.

VENUS WILLIAMS: That is true. If you don't sign one, someone always gets the misunderstanding that, "She doesn't have time for her fans." It's not like that. I don't think people understand to what degree you have to be patient. People always want pictures, autographs. I understand that because I probably would want one, too. Sometimes there's only so much one person can do. If people don't understand that, you can't always give everyone autographs all the time. But I think I have to look at that levelheaded. Everyone is going to understand, I suppose. If they don't, then people can't live and breathe for me. I have to do that of the -- I have to be happy.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I'm excited for every doubles match. I love playing doubles with Serena. No matter what, we always have fun. Whenever we get too serious, we say to each other, "Do you remember last year when we were playing at Indian Wells, we were losing, we were no good. How we laughed even though we were losing?" I'm like, "Serena, how come we're not having fun now?" That's what we say. No matter what, we have fun.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Definitely. How could I forget? I have all types of great memories from last year, Serena and I together. We had lots of fun, especially.