TMS - THE ERICSSON OPEN

March 25, 2001

Venus Williams

THE MODERATOR: First question for Venus, please.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Just protection.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Precautionary.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I'm fairly content, you know, I'm doing some of the things that I've been working on. Sometimes I'm not, but other times I am so I got to be happy with the win tonight that I didn't have to work too hard and really move on to tomorrow.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Not conserve energy, but really just not stressing my body too much.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Thank you.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Well, no. It's not one of my designs. Serena was telling me she likes it a lot, too.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I don't know.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Normally I try not to wear white but this turned out to be the best set in the little collection, so... This is what I'm in. Actually, I've won matches in this. I have other dresses I can wear, but I'm just superstitious.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I saved the Wimbledon outfit and the US Open outfit. The rest, I'll try to save one of each design, then I have to get rid of the rest, give them away.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Well, normally I have the one-piece for the past couple years, but now I have the two-piece. I have some one-piece dresses but I haven't been wearing them.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I've had a lot of tough matches in my life, so I've been there and I've done that and really I like it this way. That means I'm playing good because I was up 4-1 and I could see her trying to move her feet and get in there. I felt that I kept the balls deep and hard and so I kept neutralizing her efforts. I think she really just felt that she couldn't get her foot in. Although she didn't play exactly bad, maybe she felt a little rushed. But I know she can play. She's a good player and I've played her before. So, I think it's good for me that I'm able to do that.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, she does. Gets something on the ball.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Sometimes I'm playing too fast. I try to slow myself down but I just don't want to, especially tonight. Other days I play a little bit slower, but sometimes I do play fast, especially if I lose a point. I want to get to the next one and kind of correct the mistake.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Depending on what kind, if I had a long point, naturally I'll try to recover a little bit. If I make too many mistakes, I do have to slow down and take a step back and reconsider. But, normally I do like to play fast.

VENUS WILLIAMS: The best thing is when you play and you don't have to think. But when I'm out there and I do have to think about what I'm doing, then I think I just need to go back to practice and work a little harder.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Well, if I'm not turning my hips on the ball, maybe I'm just not comfortable with doing it in a match, I'll go to practice and work on it. Especially if I have an easy match, I'll start working on things that I want to do especially under pressure situations.

VENUS WILLIAMS: That doesn't happen too often, especially at a tournament. I will practice. At home, a lot of times I don't feel like practicing. But when I was at the Olympics, I didn't feel like practicing and I didn't because when I went out there, I was just wasting time and kind of making my game a lot worse because I was playing lazily. So at that point, I was tired. I had done a lot of weeks in a row. So that's the reason I didn't really want to hit.