US OPEN

August 29, 2001

Serena Williams

MODERATOR: Questions for Serena.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I'm feeling a lot better. Most of all, I'm feeling I can get any ball right now. I feel so fast, just so quick. I feel special.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't know. I always really -- I guess maybe, yeah. I'm feeling really confident. But I'm just taking it one match at a time. That's two down now. I'm just trying to make it happen.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Actually, she's a really good player. She hits the ball really hard. If you hit it hard back to her, she hits it even harder back for a winner. She did that in a couple games, so I had to kind of change up the pace. Playing her, I know what I have to do because I played her a few times. That's the good thing about playing people, knowing their games. The girl I played in the first round, I didn't know her game at all.

SERENA WILLIAMS: No. Because in the end you're going to have to play and perform and compete, so it really doesn't matter who I play.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I really don't know, honestly. As a top player and as a competitor, you have to be ready for either, you know, a Lindsay Davenport and a Venus Williams or, you know, anyone. It doesn't matter, the hundredth ranked player. They're going to come your way, one way or another, sooner or later. When you enter a tournament, if you're not ready from the first point, then you shouldn't be in the tournament.

SERENA WILLIAMS: She perhaps what?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I'm definitely going to play a bit more next year, maybe in the earlier part of the year, to make sure I can do well at the Australian Open this year. Maybe I'll play more clay court events because I haven't had any clay court warm-ups before I played the French Open. Yeah, I think -- I don't know. I definitely am going to try to do better at those two Slams in particular. Those are just as important as the rest.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Obviously, you're going to have to lift up your game and lift up your mind basically when you enter in a Slam. First of all, the more you win, the better chance you have going into history. It's just been a dream since I was a young person myself, a young child, to win the Slams. So obviously I'm going to try everything I can whenever I get into a Slam. But at the same time, I'm the type of person, I don't like to lose, I don't. I give my full effort no matter what tournament I play. For me, I definitely must agree that the Slams are really important. You get the most points. It's just a good feeling to go home with a Slam under your belt. At the same time, I'm the type of person that would like to go out there and do the best I can in everything I do.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I've always been serious about my game. But I think now maybe I'm a little more serious, I guess, if you want to put it that way. But I'm just really geared up to move up to the next level. I've been on the same level for a little too long now. It's time to move on, let it go.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I think the next level for me is Top 3 and then top place. Obviously, I haven't been able to reach that because I'm not playing the tournaments I need to play. If you see with my results, if I played more, I definitely would be a better-ranked individual than I am right now. Right now, I'm not even worried about rankings. I'm just going for the titles. If you get the titles, the ranking is going to come.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I definitely think so because it gets people to watching more women's tennis, maybe even women's sports in general. I'm all for that. I think it's great. I think it's really great.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Not for me, no. I mean, she's gone to the finals a few times. She's won a few doubles titles, even a doubles Slam. She's a good player. It's just a matter of time. I just think any publicity right now for women's tennis is great because we can get more kids into it, get more role models. People look at us as role models. I think that's a positive thing.