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WIMBLEDONJuly 7, 2012Venus WilliamsSerena WilliamsLONDON, ENGLAND WILLIAMS‑WILLIAMS/Hlavackova‑Hradecka THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Venus, how does it feel to be women's doubles champions? VENUS WILLIAMS: Oh, wow, it's amazing. I was definitely inspired by Serena's single's performance. Obviously it's wonderful to play on the court with her. I couldn't have done it without her, so it's great. Q. You've never lost in a doubles final at any of the Grand Slams. Why is that? VENUS WILLIAMS: Well, I think a lot of it has to do with the serve. SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, for sure. VENUS WILLIAMS: I think it helps. Serena and I both put so much pressure on our opponents with our serves, and our returns are also, you know, very good. I think maybe that has something to do with it. SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah. VENUS WILLIAMS: I think we just stay really relaxed when we play with each other because we believe in each other so much it helps the other one to stay relaxed. Q. Is it more fun than singles? SERENA WILLIAMS: It's definitely more fun. At the same time, the last thing I want to do is let Venus down. In singles it's okay if I let myself down, but I don't want to let her down. Sometimes it's almost a little bit tougher because you put so much pressure on yourself, so... Q. Did you feel like you were racing the curfew? SERENA WILLIAMS: I told Venus on the court like it doesn't matter. Regardless, we're here. We go longer, we'll be here tomorrow in this. Have a nice, late match, it should be fine. We weren't really racing the clock, we were just playing our opponents who were playing really tough and really good. Q. Venus, can you describe what it was like for you to watch Serena today with what she's come back from? VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, I mean, she hasn't had an easy road. You know, things have happened in her life that you can't predict or control, so it's hard to be in that situation. You know, things happen, that you didn't deserve. For her to fight through that and come back and be a champion, and not only that, but to have made the finals of the US Open, reached the top five, all these achievements that she's done, you know, I don't think anyone else can do is just amazing. It was definitely emotional. I was so nervous. I felt like I was trying to play the match, too. I couldn't. You never miss in the stands. But she played amazing. Q. Were you surprised by the dropshot? VENUS WILLIAMS: The dropshot? Q. Did you think it was coming? VENUS WILLIAMS: I was just glad it went in. It was very exciting, definitely. She had a worthy opponent. Agnieszka plays so well on the grass and uses it to her advantage. Q. Does she dropshot much in practice? VENUS WILLIAMS: She does dropshot in practice. You know, so, hey, it was genius at the time. If she makes it, it's genius. If she doesn't, maybe it's not as genius. But she made it. Q. The comeback is complete. How scary was that whole time with Serena in the hospital? VENUS WILLIAMS: I mean, I think it's all about faith. I think we all had faith that things have to come out right. You have to be positive in those kind of situations. You have to put it away to a higher power. So I think that's what we did. She's such a fighter, you never say die. I think positivity really brought her a long way in that. I don't think either of us believe that we can be defeated by anything. Nothing has defeated us yet, so we're going to keep that track record. Q. Serena said earlier today in her press conference that she didn't know where she would be without you. What are your feelings about her on that level? VENUS WILLIAMS: I wouldn't be doing this without her. I mean, I feel like Serena was my role model. I couldn't have done any of this without her because she showed me how to win. I think, you know, it was a match made in heaven basically. We couldn't have done this without each other. Q. Compared to when you first played when you were kids, how much more do you know about doubles strategy and that sort of stuff? What were you like way pack then? SERENA WILLIAMS: Man, I remember ‑ sorry ‑ but I remember my dad told Venus to get aggressive at the net. I don't know if we were playing together or against each other. So he was like, You need to be more aggressive (laughter). So Venus crossed while the guy was serving. So she ended up crossing on the serve and hitting a volley on the serve. That just goes to show you her attitude. It's so funny. I think about that all the time on the doubles court. It's not appropriate. But we've been playing doubles a long time. When we were young we played doubles, so it's been really, really fun. Q. Venus, you're battling a situation yourself now. What Serena went through, is that any help to you for your own comeback? VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah. For me it's been definitely a journey. I'm sure it still will be. But I'm definitely very inspired by her and everything that she's done. Like I said, we're not into the whole getting defeated thing; we're into the conquering thing. For me, I want to try to do the same thing she's done. Q. Do you think this is going to help you in the Olympics? VENUS WILLIAMS: I fought everything to be in the Olympics. I mean, really. I mean, after Rome, I was in tears in the press conference because, you know, I'd come close to making it. I almost made it. I fought hard to be in that Olympics. So for me it was really important to be in the doubles and play well because we hadn't played in two years. I think throughout this tournament we were really able to get our doubles game back. SERENA WILLIAMS: To feel it more. VENUS WILLIAMS: To feel it more. So that was important for us. Of course, to win the title was amazing. Just to be able to be a doubles team again was huge. Q. Why was that so important to you? VENUS WILLIAMS: My dad made us watching documentaries growing up. We watched it for years. SERENA WILLIAMS: He recorded it. So it wasn't like we watched it live. He recorded it and we always watched the Olympic documentary. It was so cool. VENUS WILLIAMS: He wanted us to play for him, so in the beginning we played because he wanted us to, but it became our dream. It's definitely the pinnacle of sport. People live and die in those Olympic moments with you, so for us it's about sharing that moment with our country and the world and each other. Q. In those documentaries, was there a favorite gold medal moment? VENUS WILLIAMS: We watched a lot of Greg Louganis. We watched a lot of Jackie Joyner‑Kersee. SERENA WILLIAMS: Mine was Greg Louganis when he hit his head and still came back. I was thinking the other day how we totally‑‑ he totally had it on a‑‑ VENUS WILLIAMS: ‑‑ VHS. SERENA WILLIAMS: He allowed us to watch it. We didn't see it live. It was really cool. Q. Do you have any awareness of L.A. or was that‑‑ VENUS WILLIAMS: We were far too young. Far too young. Q. Did you watch track and field and think that you could have done that? SERENA WILLIAMS: I always felt that way about gymnastics if I didn't get tall. VENUS WILLIAMS: I think we ended up in the right spot. SERENA WILLIAMS: You're right, we ended up in the right spot. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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