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WIMBLEDON

June 24, 2010

Serena Williams

LONDON, ENGLAND

S. WILLIAMS/A. Chakvetadze
6-0, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Good evening. Serena Williams for you.

Q. Your bow had a lot of rhythm to it, tremendous depth. Some critics thought it might be a tad overproduced. Can you analyze it?
SERENA WILLIAMS: My bow didn't go the way I wanted. I didn't get my wrist action that I thought I would have, and then I got nervous. So my knee kind of got tight, and I felt a lot of pain in my left knee, so I couldn't get as low as I wanted to.

Q. So you're blaming your injuries?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I'm going to blame my injury.

Q. What was it like meeting the Queen?
SERENA WILLIAMS: It was amazing to meet the Queen. I mean, it's just like history. Also to meet her at Wimbledon, and then to have her come when she never comes out. It was a very, very -- it was really an unbelievable moment.

Q. Yesterday Venus told me your curtsy was unreal. She also said you'd beat her in a curtsy-off. Do you think there was too much hype for your curtsy?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, it was definitely too much hype. I feel like I had the number one curtsy and then I just got nervous. Next time I'll have to take more Advil.
I definitely handle pressure way better on the court than off. No comparison.

Q. How did you find playing on Court 2?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I have mixed feelings about that. You know, I don't think I should be out there. But in a way, I feel like, you know, with my popularity, it's cool to see -- when I was leaving, I stayed for a while, and I signed tons of autographs. A lot of these people can't get into the Centre Court and stuff.
Other than that, that definitely made up for it, to see fans I wouldn't normally see.

Q. Are you of two minds? Because you're the champion, you feel you should be on centre?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, anything like that. I don't want to get too much into that. The only way to console me was, okay, I just saw so many kids, these little girls, these little boys. I gave some things away. It was fun.

Q. I notice yesterday you were watching the USA game, weren't you?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I was. I got really, really upset during the USA game.

Q. You were tweeting, weren't you?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, we got another goal taken away.

Q. But some of these tweets were then sort of taken away later. Why was that?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Uhm, I just -- you know, because people thought I was angry about something. Because I should have put World Cup instead of just writing. I assumed everyone was watching World Cup, you know. I mean, I am. So they were like, Why are you angry? Are you okay? I was just like, Whatever.

Q. What are your thoughts on the Isner match and its effect on your sport?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I think it definitely got a lot of eyes on the sport. I mean, I was looking at different blogs online. It was on all kinds of different blogs that normally does not show sports. I thought that was cool.
I thought that I was really happy not to be playing after him.

Q. How would you describe what you know of the match and of the person who won it?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, I know John, so I was really happy that he won. Obviously I was rooting for him. But I was thinking I was glad that it wasn't me. I don't know how the coach and everyone stayed out there. Must have been really tough.

Q. There have been arguments about playing a tiebreak in the fifth set at Wimbledon, or the third set in your case. What are your thoughts on that matter?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, I think this is like a once-in-a-lifetime thing. This is the first time this has happened in hundreds of years, clearly. Maybe it will take another couple hundred years to happen again.
I like how the rules are at Wimbledon. Again, this doesn't happen too often.

Q. How did you feel when you saw your court assignment today?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I didn't really think about it 'cause it was really late when the schedule came out. I mean, naturally I thought, Well, why wasn't I on centre or at least No. 1? I guess they wanted to put Roger and Sam and everyone else there. I'm over talking about it, so...

Q. I'm doing an interview with Sasha, your hitting partner, tomorrow. Some players change hitting partners from tournament to tournament. Why do you like to work with him on a regular basis?
SERENA WILLIAMS: We really get along. We really, really get along. We have very similar personalities. You know, he's young, but at the same time he's fresh and he makes me smile. He makes me laugh. I think that's important. We realize that tennis is great, but it's not everything for me.

Q. How do you feel your game is compared to this stage last year here?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Honestly, I've been feeling a bit off. Hopefully I can get a little bit more on.

Q. In what way?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't know. I just feel like I don't feel like I'm connecting with some shots. I'm framing some shots in practice. Obviously I feel like I played well today, but mentally I just haven't felt it yet. Hopefully it will come.

Q. The Queen is famous for her gift of brief small talk. What was your exchange?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't remember. Honestly, I was supposed to say, Your Majesty. I totally choked. I was like, Hey, nice to meet you, total American style. And then, you know, she started talking. Then I was like, Your Majesty, while she was talking. I don't know, so...
Really, maybe she'll remember me (laughter).

Q. Andy Roddick tweeted she said to him, I love your work on all the American Pie films. People thought it wasn't a joke. It shows that people don't get a lot of the tweets.
SERENA WILLIAMS: I didn't hear that, so... I'm definitely going to tease him about that.

Q. What did you call the Queen? Did you say, Hey, girl?
SERENA WILLIAMS: She shakes your hand. Lovely to meet you. Next thing I know, you're supposed to say, Your Majesty. She's talking. I'm like, Oh, Your Majesty.

Q. She had the blue outfit, great matching old-school hat. What did you think of the outfit?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I really liked it. It was definitely good for her. It was nice, it was great, it was conservative. It was a nice tweed. It was perfect.

Q. She does blue well?
SERENA WILLIAMS: She does blue well.

Q. How do you think this day will be remembered in tennis history with the visit by the Queen and the Isner match?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I definitely know that my match will be remembered. Between those two, they definitely take the cake.

Q. Were you more nervous for Prince William or the Queen?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Probably the Queen. She's the ultimate. You meet presidents, you meet people, but you never really meet the Queen. So that was really exciting.

Q. What is it about her? Just the tradition? Is she different from all the celebrity red-carpet events?
SERENA WILLIAMS: She's the Queen of England. You know, with all the history that's behind England, you know, hundreds and hundreds of years.
So it's like, you know, the families, you think of -- is it Henry VIII? You think of all these people. She's the latest Queen of England. So that's pretty impressive.

Q. On your level, are you maybe being too hard on yourself that you beat a former top 5 player fairly quickly?
SERENA WILLIAMS: No. I think I really played well today. I think I played really well. I just feel that some of my shots are off and I feel I can do a lot better.

End of FastScripts

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