US OPEN

September 12, 1999

Serena Williams

Venus Williams

WTA: Questions for Venus and Serena.

SERENA WILLIAMS: It's great. I have 363 more days to go as the defending champ. It's definitely exciting.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I've actually won all three events. I'm thinking maybe next year I should try to enter the men's event and see if I can at least win a round (laughter). It's pretty exciting. Just hope not to play anyone like Andre or Pete in the first round.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Who is that?

VENUS WILLIAMS: I love winning. It's great. And, yeah, I'm happy.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I didn't have time to celebrate. I'm not really a celebrating person, to be honest. I did a lot of celebrating on the court yesterday.

VENUS WILLIAMS: She'll celebrate with her credit card.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I guess that's where my celebrating unconsciously comes in.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Not really, because I was really tired. I did a lot of press. I took a lot of pictures. I played a doubles match. I still had to do something after that. I was really tired. Took me really no time to go to sleep.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, if I have time. Yeah, it would be fun.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I just have one more stretch of tournaments. I'm playing one in Luxembourg and two in Germany, and then that's it, and the Chase. That's all.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I'm just playing in Germany, one in Switzerland, maybe the Chase.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I think it's definitely going to change. It was bad before I won the tournament, so I really can't imagine if it could get worse. I really don't think it could, to be quite honest.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Probably so. I mean, it's actually impossible for me to go out now. It's like no real difference. I can't go anywhere. From the beginning of the tournament, I just can't walk down the street. At the end of the tournament, I probably won't be able to, either.

SERENA WILLIAMS: It's the same. You're driving, people honk their horns. It's actually kind of annoying. You can get in a major accident, you know (laughter). I mean, really. It's deadly. It's just something that you wouldn't want to happen.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I don't respond to any honks of the horn. I don't look. Honking is not good.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I didn't check my messages. I had 21 messages on my cell phone. An all-time high. I think I'm very popular now. I would only have one before.

SERENA WILLIAMS: It comes out --.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Should be coming out in about a week.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I think I might make the cover.

VENUS WILLIAMS: You know, there was like an all-Czech quarterfinal, or fourth round. We could do that for the front cover.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah.

VENUS WILLIAMS: It doesn't help at all.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Doesn't help.

VENUS WILLIAMS: It never helps. I'll never forget. Very bitter.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yes. You have two weeks to play a lot of matches. It's great practice. One day before I played - I don't remember - I think it might have been my semifinal match, we played doubles. It was great practice. I was able to work on my returns actually in a match situation. It was good for me.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Most definitely. I like playing doubles in the Grand Slams. We like playing with each other most of all. We don't play too much in the year. So the Slams, a good opportunity for us to play well.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, definitely, because you can go out there and start working on your singles. You just think 'singles' when you're out there.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah. I think that was the first time I practiced after a match in a Slam. I worked on some groundstrokes, trying to get a lot of balls back and be consistent, and some serves.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, it was my suggestion. It was after the Venus match. I knew I'd have a lot -- I would definitely have a chance of winning the tournament. She was playing great tennis, so I wanted to go out and practice and make sure I had my game together. If I had my chance, lost, at least I could say, "At least I did everything I could do." If I hadn't gone out and I had lost, I would have felt very bad.

VENUS WILLIAMS: We're not sure.

SERENA WILLIAMS: We're not sure. We haven't got our schedules yet. We're not sure.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I really don't think any of it has sunk in, really. It's a great win. It's very fascinating. I knew when I went on that 16-winning streak, I could win a Slam. I knew that I really could. It's definitely great that I was able to come through here.

SERENA WILLIAMS: No, I have not. I have not.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Whoo-hoo (laughter).

SERENA WILLIAMS: I mean, yeah. That is really great.

VENUS WILLIAMS: You have a quarterly to pay pretty soon.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I guess Uncle Sam is really happy.

SERENA WILLIAMS: You know, I should have, because he did raise the taxes. I should have said, "How about cutting me a deal?"

VENUS WILLIAMS: Taxes were raised?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah.

VENUS WILLIAMS: What do you mean (laughter)?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I guess you just have to go ahead and pay. They will get you. I mean, really.

SERENA WILLIAMS: In the beginning we had separate rooms (laughter). We actually had five rooms in this hotel.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Different rooms at different periods of times throughout the two weeks.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Venus had her own, I had my own, my dad had his own. Then my mom came.

VENUS WILLIAMS: We all switched rooms.

SERENA WILLIAMS: We all switched rooms.

VENUS WILLIAMS: The hitting partner had another room. We had another room on the other side that someone had before, but switched.

SERENA WILLIAMS: We started out in different rooms the first round. Eventually we ended up back together.

VENUS WILLIAMS: A lot of stuff happened.

SERENA WILLIAMS: A lot of people moved in.

VENUS WILLIAMS: It was six rooms.

VENUS WILLIAMS: All over the hotel.

SERENA WILLIAMS: We almost had every room at that hotel.

VENUS WILLIAMS: No. It was just that we switched.

SERENA WILLIAMS: We just switched rooms.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yes.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yes. One time I was almost knocking on someone else's door. I tried to call Venus. I got a voice that said, "The person in this room is no longer. We're connecting you to the reception." I was like, "Oh, wow, what's going on?"

VENUS WILLIAMS: I was in a different room.

SERENA WILLIAMS: She was in a different room.

VENUS WILLIAMS: It was difficult when you got a different key. I got a different room; I remembered I was in a different room, I had to go back down and get another key.

VENUS WILLIAMS: It's going to be cold.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Is it?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, chilly.

SERENA WILLIAMS: It's going to be good. I guess -- we're California girls. We like it. California, Florida and New York. We like it all.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Maybe last year.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I'm not sure. Actually, I was just passing through, yeah.

SERENA WILLIAMS: We were driving. We were lost.

VENUS WILLIAMS: We were driving. I remember how you get places. When we moved, we were 12. I don't remember any shortcuts. I have to kind of go the long way around.

SERENA WILLIAMS: We were driving.

VENUS WILLIAMS: This is where we used to live. My dad said -- we were driving to go practice at one of the parks. My dad said, "Hey, strangely enough, we're in Compton." I had to kind of turn around and figure it out. It was crazy. We were by the chicken place.

SERENA WILLIAMS: We're definitely planning to travel to Africa next year or maybe at the end of this year. That's definitely someplace we really have in our plans to go. I really want to go there. I'm really excited about going there.

SERENA WILLIAMS: We were thinking about going to Senegal, Nigeria and South Africa.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Visit.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Both.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah. We're going to take a little time off and relax, yeah. We have to go. We practice there, yeah.

VENUS WILLIAMS: The last real holiday I had was - maybe you, too - I was injured once like last year after a tournament. It was kind of like a holiday. I didn't practice for a month. I didn't go anywhere. I stayed home. You had a month off.

SERENA WILLIAMS: At the Lipton, we went to the Keys.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, but that was three days.

SERENA WILLIAMS: We really don't have holidays. We don't have time for holidays right now.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't know.

SERENA WILLIAMS: My dad's a great player. Actually, I prefer him to serve to me because he really is really consistent. It's great. He's consistent. Actually, he gets a lot of balls over the net. He doesn't miss. When Venus is on the road, I know when I travel with my dad, I'll have a hitting partner. That's good.