TMS - THE ERICSSON OPEN

March 23, 2001

Venus Williams

THE MODERATOR: First question, please, for Venus.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I felt a lot better. Fortunately I didn't have to run too hard or run too fast. I'm feeling good. I'm happy to be competing here because it's one of my favorite tournaments, I play at home. My nephew, my niece can come. My sisters are at school, but my brother is here. So I love it here.

VENUS WILLAIMS: I'm not afraid. Really I was looking to gain a lot more points in the beginning of the year, but it hasn't happened yet. I mean, I think a few, but not a lot. That's why it's really important for me to be able to play right now because I have so much coming off those Grand Slams and all the little titles I won last year. So I really want to get in working order.

VENUS WILLAIMS: I was defending Serena's title. That's the best I could do. (Laughing.)

VENUS WILLAIMS: Oh, yeah. Definitely. Because Serena, she played every match in the '99 US Open, she went for it, she did all the things at the right time. It was really a good lesson for me. We really help each other as far as learning to play. I take things from her, she takes things from me. We set good examples for each other. That was definitely my turning point. She was my encouragement. If any other player had played the way she did at that US Open, I most likely wouldn't have taken notice. But since it was Serena, I really could notice. I meant a lot to me and it helped me.

VENUS WILLAIMS: I'm not so connected to them. So I see it, but I don't take it to heart.

VENUS WILLAIMS: Yes, I did. But I stayed off the leg. I had a couple engagements. So I think that helped a lot because if I hadn't had something to do that I had to do that I committed to do, I would have been trying to practice more. I know that would have thrown me off. But I'm not really off of my game, which I'm happy. I didn't practice too much. And I feel pretty confident. So I'm happy about that, too, because I'll take a few days off and I'll be off of my game. Serena will take some days off and she'll be ready to go, so...

VENUS WILLAIMS: I really, I want the best for Serena, and naturally I want the best for myself, too. But hopefully we'll both be in the final. That's what we like. And we played once in the final here before, and, for example, at the US Open last year, Serena had a tough quarter final loss and I was a little bit sad because I felt like I -- I'm the older sister so I should have the hard lessons in life so that way she can learn from it. That's how it worked out. Serena was second, I was first. She learned from all my lessons and all my losses so when she came out she did even better. I kind of felt like I should have taken the loss, but she learned from it and it was good for her to have that loss.

VENUS WILLAIMS: Well, as far as really just being straightforward, really not beating around the bush because we usually tend to take everything in stride. Things kind of just run their course and they move on. So I think in this instance we really just need to meet it face-to-face because really we're a good family. We're incredible in everything that we've done, and we've been honest. Really, we're just two young people that are really doing something with our life. We aren't doing anything else other than that. We've only had positives in our life. So that's really all.

VENUS WILLAIMS: Oh, yeah. Definitely. He has quite a few more years on me. He's the CEO of this Tour, knows a lot more. Really, the information I can gather, more advice I can get as far as dealing with these things now and even in the future, that's good for me because, you know, so much is so much and anyone can get tired and frustrated. I don't feel like that. I think the Tour has really supported me, my family and even some of the papers.

VENUS WILLAIMS: You know, there's a lot of ways it could have been done, but really I just did what I could to be in the match and really that's really why I had a late withdrawal, because I wanted to be there. And I've learned that I can't take anything, I can't change the past, only do better in the future.

VENUS WILLAIMS: I didn't feel bad about being booed because if people feel like that, if they aren't my fan, I can't change their mind. I'm not into changing people; it's almost impossible. As far as Serena, I don't know how she felt about that. If anything, I was there for her to be strong, encouraging her, and, you know, I just think we learned a powerful lesson about how people can be.

VENUS WILLAIMS: Yeah, I did wonder how it would be today but then I also knew that I am in Florida and whenever we're away from home we're always on the front page in the headlines here, especially in Palm Beach, on the Palm Beach Post. I really felt it would be supportive for us, for me. And plus what happened was last week, it was 5,000 miles away so it didn't directly affect anyone in Florida.

VENUS WILLAIMS: No. Not normally. Sometimes. But --.

VENUS WILLAIMS: I have the leverage to design some pieces. I don't really want to if there's not a line for them. I think they more or less know how they want their lines to go and their planning for the future and their marketing and so on and so forth. So I don't really try to bother with that because I don't know as much. They're a huge corporation.

VENUS WILLAIMS: I'm learning about it. It's good because I can learn more.

VENUS WILLAIMS: Yes.

VENUS WILLAIMS: Well, I think the crowd may have felt slighted in a way that they didn't have the opportunity to see the match, and I understand that they, you know, paid money, possibly the semifinals -- I don't understand the ticketing. Maybe it costs more than a first-round match, the ticket. I can understand that. As far as the press, I don't always understand you all but I do know that you want a big story. I do understand that, you're interested in selling papers. It's all a business. Everything is tennis for me, it's my career and it's entertainment but it's also a business. But all of it, I think, was a lot -- not very necessary.

VENUS WILLAIMS: I've had a knee injury since I was six, pains. I think it has a lot to do with my body build, the way I'm put together. So a lot have it, my injuries are preventive if I know beforehand my weaknesses. Most of the time you don't find your weaknesses until you get injured, so...

VENUS WILLAIMS: No, I wanted to play. I could use the points. I could use the title.

VENUS WILLAIMS: Ice, exercise, stretching surrounding muscles and quadriceps.

VENUS WILLAIMS: I've had this injury before. When you sit around with it, it doesn't help. It's even more sore. If I do take time off and I can't just rest, I have to do my exercises and things like that or else I come back even worse. So I just have to exercise and keep moving.

VENUS WILLAIMS: Yeah, I was. There was a lot of factors involved including that I was playing a top player. If I'm not at 100 percent, what can I do? So in the end, I had to make the choice that was best for me because at the end of the day I have to go home and I have to take care of myself and I have to be healthy and no one else can do that for me.

VENUS WILLAIMS: Well, the first part is that we don't have an emotional difficulty playing each other. We never had a problem playing with each other. We played each other on five occasions already. I just think that people keep thinking there's an emotional problem. Serena and I, we love each other. There's nothing -- we don't talk about tennis normally. A lot of times we'll talk about a lot of the difficulties we had the court, "I couldn't keep the ball in, I didn't know what to do." Things like that. But we don't talk about tennis at all.

VENUS WILLAIMS: We play what we want to play.

VENUS WILLAIMS: Yeah, it's easy to worry about what others think, everyone does that unless you just really just don't care. But I do care. Because naturally, you don't want someone to think bad of you, especially if you think good of yourself. So I have to realize that I can't change what you write. You guys make that decision. I can only control my actions and what I do, and that's all I can do. I'm only one person overall.

VENUS WILLAIMS: My response is that the accusation is false; that it's not true; that my dad would never do anything like that. What can I think? The magazine isn't exactly the top-notch or exactly credible. I have to move on. That was last week.

VENUS WILLAIMS: No.

VENUS WILLAIMS: If anything, Serena and I have become pretty famous.

VENUS WILLAIMS: No, I haven't read it. I've heard about it. Really just what can I say? Maybe I should check to see if he's really a relative for all the things he said.

VENUS WILLAIMS: I don't know. I don't know. I just think that it's inevitable that we'll play each other again, especially if both of us are playing and we're healthy and we're winning. It's going to happen, and we have no issue with it. It's what we always wanted because we both wanted to be professionals, always be the best, hopefully we'll be 1 and 2 in the future. That's our goal. And, you know, with time, everyone will see.

VENUS WILLAIMS: No. It always seems to happen with Serena and I, and I don't know why. I don't know why.