TMS - THE ERICSSON OPEN

March 24, 2001

Serena Williams

THE MODERATOR: First question for Serena, please.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I played a little erratic today. Just getting in the mood of things. I was very erratic. But it's nice to be erratic in your first-round match.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah. (Laughing.) Yeah, first-round win match. That's the time to be erratic. It won't be good for me to be erratic in the quarterfinals or semifinals. I don't think that will be too fun.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah.

SERENA WILLIAMS: The last game?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Oh, yeah.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah. No, no. Not at all. I was just -- it was a weird match. She's a very weird player, very, very, very unorthodox player.

SERENA WILLIAMS: She played -- she hits a lot of spin. Most players don't play like that. I know Amelie Mauresmo kind of plays like that but kind of on a different level. And this girl, she has a very -- she has a good serve. I like her serve. She works on it, it's going to be a lot better because it has some nice kick on it. Only guys do that really.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, you know, it slows down time because I'm a fast player so it makes me -- I wasn't hitting my strike zone today. She hit everything above my strike zone.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't think I played down. I mean, she was a good player. You have to be a good player to be a professional these days.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, obviously, yeah, yeah. For sure. But it's normal. I'm pretty used to a lot of being harassed. (Laughing.)

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, it definitely takes a lot of patience. Because every week, especially --.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I get asked that one at least twelve times. But, yeah, it's really I don't know. People think of different things to ask, but everybody has the myopic views. No one's just looking left or right. Everyone's looking straight ahead.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Actually, I'm practicing a lot better than I was at Indian Wells so I am feeling a lot better. I didn't play like I was, but I am practicing, I'm getting the feel of the ball a lot better than I was last week. So it's looking pretty good.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Hot pink. You know, the color I have on, it makes me feel really powerful. Actually I'm designing a lot of things in hot pink, I don't know, because it's a very fashionable color. It also was the color of the '80s, everyone was wearing the pinks and hot pinks and everything's coming back.

SERENA WILLIAMS: '80s are coming back in fashion. It's a nice popular color for now.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I didn't design this one but they mixed it up with this blue, which I think was really fun because not normally do you see a pink with a blue, but it goes very well together. The blue is kind of like a bright blue rather than a dark blue. It's really nice.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, actually I've gotten into a lot of blues, like a light blue that goes on into dark blue and also --.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Like a fade almost. And also I've gotten a lot into greens. I don't know why. I think greens are --.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Tracy? (Smiling.)

SERENA WILLIAMS: I listen to your show all the time!

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I'm really into the green.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, I actually took a few days off after the Ericsson -- after Indian Wells, because I just wanted to take some time off. But like I said, I'm hitting a lot better ironically enough, after I took the time off. Sometimes I think if you step back and take a step forward, you can go even farther. I think that's what I did and I think it's working quite well.