adidas International

January 9, 2001

Serena Williams

Venus Williams

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Venus and Serena, please.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I don't think we were just not part of the match at all. I don't really feel like we were part of the match. I mean, I think the question was posed like were we just happy to be out there. We weren't. We were playing pretty good.

VENUS WILLIAMS: No, we did our best. We always do. Today, just didn't pull in the win.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Well, it was a night match. People were really out there.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I never really thought about it like that myself. But --

. VENUS WILLIAMS: We were the wildcards in.

SERENA WILLIAMS: With Venus, it was Venus' first match back since October.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I was a little bit shaky sometimes, let Serena down sometimes. But I tried to pull it through.

VENUS WILLIAMS: You know, it's been tough coming back here because the Olympics, it was so exciting. We were so involved with the whole Olympic spirit that it was tough at first with this just not being the Olympics. But we got through that and we accepted it, that it's a match.

VENUS WILLIAMS: What winning streak?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Oh. Oh, yeah.

SERENA WILLIAMS: We're going to start again in Melbourne. We should be back to 6 or 7, and by the French we should be back on a roll by the end of the year.

VENUS WILLIAMS: We're confident we'll do a lot better. They played real nice. They played very consistently. Sometimes we just didn't play as a team.

SERENA WILLIAMS: We're glad we got this under our belt. We don't usually practice doubles. This was a good match going into the Open, so...

VENUS WILLIAMS: We definitely learned from our mistakes in the match. I really feel like sometimes it's better to lose, you lose a battle --.

SERENA WILLIAMS: -- And later on we can definitely win the war.

VENUS WILLIAMS: No.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Not really. Just enough.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I refuse to kill myself. If I don't feel I can play or if I'm hurt or injured or even tired, I won't force myself to do anything. I love my life, and tennis is just not my life and it never has been.

SERENA WILLIAMS: We'll just play the Grand Slams. (Laughter.) We got our ranking now.

VENUS WILLIAMS: As far as doubles, you mean?

SERENA WILLIAMS: As far as doubles, yeah, just the Grand Slams.

VENUS WILLIAMS: We'll do our best to compete in as many as we can.

SERENA WILLIAMS: It gets annoying to play singles, because we're always winning tournaments in the Finals. Then we're playing doubles --

. VENUS WILLIAMS: There's a lot of scheduling conflicts.

SERENA WILLIAMS: A lot of matches that end up being under your belt. We just like to focus on singles mainly.

VENUS WILLIAMS: We get injured a lot, so we have to save our bodies.

VENUS WILLIAMS: No.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't think she has an ankle problem.

VENUS WILLIAMS: That wasn't me. That was someone else.

SERENA WILLIAMS: A perpetrator.

VENUS WILLIAMS: No.

SERENA WILLIAMS: That was someone else.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Maybe that was someone else.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I definitely think so. I got my attitude back at the end of the match, just really getting back in there. It was actually a real nice match for me.

VENUS WILLIAMS: If I'm not ready by now, then I should just go home.

VENUS WILLIAMS: As many as I'm physically able to handle.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Full scheduling.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I'm staying here.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah. I should be here for a while. She's the best practice partner one can have.