WIMBLEDON

June 23, 2005

Venus Williams

THE MODERATOR: Can we have your questions for Venus Williams.

VENUS WILLIAMS: It was a good game. I got to hit a lot of balls. It was good.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, I was up in the first set, but then I felt like I couldn't control my backhand that much. I tried to rely on, you know, the things that my dad has told me to try to pull it back together.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I was just competing.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, yeah. I played on that court quite a lot.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Was I down Love-40?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Oh (smiling). I just wanted to win one point at a time and take my time. I just felt like I was probably rushing a little bit because she was retrieving a lot of balls, not really making too many errors. So I felt like I needed to take my time and try to move forward.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I think probably I was just a little disappointed. I probably had made some errors to get to that point. But I really wanted to hold serve.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, I feel like I was coming in a lot today, sometimes getting passed a few times. That's all right. I even felt like serve and volleying, but not on the sunny side. It was kind of hard to recover after looking in the sun, so I needed to stay at the baseline to have extra time to adjust my eyes.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Oh, yeah, a few times.

VENUS WILLIAMS: It's only a handful of time I'm going to get to play Wimbledon in my life. I just always enjoy it, try to play my best and, of course, try to get the best result.

VENUS WILLIAMS: No. It's not good to think too much. Nothing super special.

VENUS WILLIAMS: No, I always never thought I did enough, or, you now, even if I was like doing great things. I always thought like, "Wow, I just didn't play well at all." I was never feeling like I was playing my best. I, of course, continue to feel like that. I think there comes a point when you have to understand that sometimes you make mistakes, but most of the time you won't.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I hope I can get a little smarter actually. That's the thing.

VENUS WILLIAMS: To show?

VENUS WILLIAMS: I don't have anything to show at all. That's not even the way I think. I'm not out here trying to prove anything to anyone. If that were the case then -- no, that's not even the way I live.

VENUS WILLIAMS: My whole thing is I have to do me, and that's all.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I don't know (laughter).

VENUS WILLIAMS: I think definitely the future, especially as I continue to move forward and come to the net.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Because I love playing doubles and I love playing mixed. I just haven't been that healthy in the past, or Serena hasn't been healthy. I couldn't have played at Australia because I was a little shaky still. But finally I'm starting to feel decent. So now I'm like I'm thinking I can play. He's always asking me a little bit. I'm like, I don't know; I don't trust myself. I've got a little bit of this going on, a little bit of that. Finally this time I was like I think I can do it. I think we're going to of course more than have fun, but I'm expecting him to carry the team, as I haven't played doubles in ages. I'll be the singles player on the doubles court, but I still have very good reflexes.

VENUS WILLIAMS: No. We're planning on it. He hasn't called me (laughter).

VENUS WILLIAMS: Hopefully.

VENUS WILLIAMS: No, not yet. Maybe tomorrow.

VENUS WILLIAMS: It's just, you know, if you're playing tennis like it's supposed to be played, on the short ones you move in, if it's in the air, you try to take it out of the air, just in the simplest terms. For me I think it's good to move forward because I have the penetrating shots, a ton of reach at the net. But I think it's definitely the place to be.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I think no one wants to be attacked. No one likes that. No one wants to be on the court and know that you're going to move forward and attack and that they're going to be constantly under pressure to try to make a great shot. I think, you know, if whoever's forcing the play usually is going to -- forcing and executing, obviously, is most likely going to be the victor.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I've always believed in it (laughter). But what is it, "Faith without works is dead."

VENUS WILLIAMS: I hate mistakes. That definitely holds me back a lot. I hate mistakes on the court and just life in general. Other than that, I always have fun. That's been my whole thing. Like my parents always told us to do, "Just enjoy it."

VENUS WILLIAMS: I think just for me consistent play, just playing consistently, having lots of great points together that are very good points. I think that's a very -- motivating and inspiring. But in general I love my job. I love what I do. There's only a handful of people who can play Grand Slam tennis year after year. There's a lot of people who aspire to do it. I'm living the dream that lots of people want to do. I'm just really blessed. I loved it. Of course I'm going to take advantage of it the best I can.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I believe -- I live in a black and white. I think things are like either black or white. I don't really believe that much in the gray. I think that there's gray for a lot of people, but I don't live in the gray. I realize whatever action I have or take, it's going to have a consequence - either good or bad. So I live my life in a way where I don't have bad consequences. I just notice there's a lot people around me just live in the gray. I don't know, for me, I'm just really straightforward.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Not really. It's just like being reasonable. A lot of people can't accept the truth or don't want to see the truth or unable to, it just makes life hard. I think life is already kind of hard, so I don't want to get in the business of making it even tougher for myself because I'm just an idiot. That's how I feel. My mom is like that, too.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Nothing changes. It all stays the same. For me, I'm just playing one match at a time here because that's all I can do. I think if you're thinking about, "Oh, fourth round. Oh, quarterfinals. Oh, I really want to win." You can't win until you win the last match. So for me it's like, "Okay, great, third round."

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, for sure. For sure. We just -- we keep it simple. And the thing is, like I've said so many times before, we're really living our dream. Like when we were growing up, training, practicing, battling, we always dreamed, "Yes, we'll be out there together. We'll be playing each other, of course, in finals." Even in this case, we'll be playing each other, we'll both be really great. We always motivate each other to be our best. One of us -- we're always upset if the next one's not doing their best or not doing what they can do. I think in the end we just want equal for each other or maybe more for each other.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I mean, it is what it is. Nothing more.