AUSTRALIAN OPEN

February 8, 2021

Serena Williams

Press Conference

S. WILLIAMS/L. Siegemund

6-1, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Talk us through the match today, what you're happy with, how you felt it went.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I was happy just to get through it. Wasn't sure how my serve would be after a little bit of that shoulder, but it's feeling good, I'm feeling good. So it felt really good.

Q. Talk about the atmosphere, the crowds being back.

SERENA WILLIAMS: It's getting there. Obviously it's not a full crowd like I'm used to. At the same time compared to last year, it's definitely different. Just to have any sort of crowd, like playing in New York where there was no crowd, it's definitely nice to have some people, a lot of people out there.

Q. At this stage in your career, what do you get from the crowd? How does that help you?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I think the crowd always motivates me, albeit good or bad. There's always something that can get you motivated from the crowd.

Q. Your attire, what you wore on court today, can you take us through what it is?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I was inspired by FloJo, who was a wonderful track athlete, amazing athlete when I was growing up. Well, watching her fashion, just always changing, her outfits were always amazing. This year we thought of what can we do to keep elevating the Serena Williams on the court.

The Nike team actually thought of this design of inspiration from FloJo. I was like, Oh, my God, this is so brilliant. That's where we started. Obviously we made some changes and tweaks to it. It became this.

Q. Tom Brady doesn't have a three-year-old, but even so he banished everyone from his house in the days leading up so he would have uninterrupted preparation. You clearly have chosen the exact opposite. Why is it important for you to have a three-year-old with you during this stretch even though I'm sure it makes life a little more challenging?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I would not be able to go function without my three-year-old around. I think I would be in a depression. We've been together every day of her life, so...

Is that healthy? Not at all (laughter). Not even close. But every single day I just want to be around her. It's great.

Everyone's different. I can totally understand why he would banish because if I had the strength to do it, I would too. I could see it's definitely a distraction, especially every year that I've played except for the past few months, I finally am starting to get better at it. The first two and a half years was very difficult.

I wasn't strong enough to do the banishment.

Q. Can you describe what it's like for you to imagine a 43-year-old winning his seventh Super Bowl.

SERENA WILLIAMS: It's unbelievable. I just was watching as much as I could to see. My only word is it's unbelievable. I kept saying, This is unbelievable, this is unreal. You can't say it was the system he was at formerly. It's definitely Tom Brady, he's Tom Brady. He's amazing.

Q. Two years ago here when you played Simona, I remember you said you thought back to that loss you had to her in Singapore, that motivates every time you play her because you remember that. They flushed up a stat today that you're 76-1 in first round Grand Slam matches. Do you think back to the Razzano match at the French Open and use it as motivation?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't usually use that as inspiration. That was one of the worst days of my career. But it also brought the best days of my career afterwards. It was kind of necessary that that happened. It was one of those necessary evils.

I don't think I would be who I am if I hadn't had that loss. It just completely changed the whole course of my career. I'm happy to take another first-round loss if it happens like that again.

Q. You went right to Patrick after that, right?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah. Everything changed. I just realized that I needed to improve, and I could improve. I went to Patrick's academy instead of going home to train. I just trained a lot. It was great.

We won so many Grand Slams that year alone, then after that as well, so...

Q. There was a little girl not too much older than Olympia who was holding a sign today that said, Serena, you are the reason I play tennis, we love you. How does that hit you?

SERENA WILLIAMS: It's definitely cool. I didn't see that sign. I wish I had. That's pretty special. That's the reason I play, is to keep inspiring others, especially young girls in particular, to come join the tour and be amazing.

Q. You spoke about the performance of a wonderful 40 something-year-old athlete. Venus also had an incredible performance today. What makes her so wonderful, how she's inspired you?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, definitely. She's such an inspiration because she never gets frustrated about her situation, health-wise. She's always looking on the bright side.

Then she works so hard. Yeah, she's been great. We were hitting partners for the first two weeks, two and a half weeks, since we were here in Australia. It was so good to train with her. It was so good every day.

It's also very inspiring because she still pushes me on a level that no one's able to push me, so it was incredibly helpful.

Q. What are your thoughts about not having lines-people for this tournament and maybe for the future?

SERENA WILLIAMS: It's interesting. It's definitely different. I didn't love it in Cincinnati. I'm loving it here, so...

I just needed to adapt, and now I'm adapted to it. I think it's for the best. I think it's not too much that can be wrong. I think there can be some close calls that you can check, but I think it's good.

Q. After the first game you were striking the ball incredibly well. When was the last time you felt as comfortable as you looked in that first round today?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I felt really comfortable in the tournament leading up to this just a couple days ago when I was playing. I actually didn't feel that comfortable today, so... Interestingly enough.