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TEB BNP PARIBAS WTA CHAMPIONSHIPSOctober 22, 2013Serena WilliamsISTANBUL, TURKEY S. WILLIAMS/A. Kerber THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Seemed like a fairly comfortable start for you. I know you got here a little early, had time to feel out the conditions here. How is it suiting you so far out there on this court? SERENA WILLIAMS: It's been fine. Tonight was fine. Always good to get here early, not too early for me, but it's good to get here and feel the conditions. Plus, I have played here before, so I think that helped. Q. Does the court seem any quicker or slower or anything? The balls this year? Some of the players said it seemed a bit slow for an indoor court. SERENA WILLIAMS: I guess. You know me. You cannot ask me these questions. I say this every press conference. I will say it's fast when everyone else says it's slow. But I definitely will say maybe it's slow, but I thought it was slow last year, so every court is slow nowadays. Q. I just want to know on that, what do you think would be the optimum speed for a court for a Championship like this that will perhaps bring the best out of every single player when players are tired, players are looking to end the year? What do you think would be the optimum speed for this kind of Championship? SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, I don't know. I think maybe for it to be faster than what it is, but I like slow surfaces, so, you know, I like grass, so it doesn't matter for me. Q. On a similar point, would you like to see this tournament played on different surfaces? Do you think it's a shame in some ways it's always played on indoor hard court? SERENA WILLIAMS: No, I think it's best on this surface, only because we can't switch from having a complete hard court season to playing on grass or to playing on clay or carpet. It's much easier just to keep it going, because after this we are still playing on hard court, so ultimately it's the best way to go. Q. It's been a long season for you. When you get to the final tournament, do you start to kind of feel the fatigue and the tiredness, or are you still as fresh as you were maybe in the clay court season? SERENA WILLIAMS: I didn't hear. When I get to the finals of... Q. The final tournament. SERENA WILLIAMS: Okay, okay, yeah. No, I definitely don't feel as fresh as I did in Miami or, you know, maybe Charleston, but I definitely feel surprisingly good. So I feel okay. Q. I saw your mom was here with you, and there was a report back in the States that Venus had gifted her a house for 10 bucks. I was wondering if that was true? SERENA WILLIAMS: I haven't heard about this. I wish I could have got in on that. Q. I was going to say, if it was true, how you were going to top it? SERENA WILLIAMS: No, I wish she would have gifted me a house for 10 bucks. That's what I was talking about. I'm not that competitive anymore. (Laughter). Q. Part of I think the philosophy in having the Championships move around is that they can plant seeds in different countries and cities, you know, with women's tennis. I'm just wondering if you think that actually works, you know, coming here three years and then playing up the stakes. Does that leave any lasting legacy? SERENA WILLIAMS: I think ‑‑I don't know. I don't know. I think that obviously growing up and always seeing it in NewYork was somewhere where I always wanted to play, but also having a chance for countries like Turkey or where we are traveling to next and countries like Spain and, you know, all these other countries, to have an opportunity to see the top players is also very unique. These countries don't normally ‑‑some of these countries don't often get tennis, so it's a good opportunity for that, as well. Q. Could you imagine a Turkish female champion tennis player in your lifetime? SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, well, there is a girl that ‑‑there is a champion from Compton, so anything is possible, especially from Turkey. Q. You played a lot of matches this year, more than any other year, but you generally have been injury‑free. Do you think in some ways playing as much as you have has helped you in that? SERENA WILLIAMS: That's an interesting question. I don't know. I don't know if it's helped me. I don't think playing more has helped me stay injury‑free. But maybe it has, because maybe I have had to be more fit for it throughout the whole year, so I have no idea. Q. I saw the fan who was here last year you gave the racquet to, is back in the front row. Have you had a chance to talk to him at all? SERENA WILLIAMS: I keep up with him on Twitter. Yeah, he's a great guy. He's a loyal friend/fan. Q. After winning China Open you went to Paris to do the final preparation for Championships, but next year the Championships will move to Singapore, and the same situation is that there are only two weeks between the China Open and year‑end Championships, so would you consider maybe buy a house in Hong Kong so you will stay there to do the preparation and not to consider with the jet lag, those kinds of things? SERENA WILLIAMS: I'm not sure. First of all, I thought it was one week, or maybe it's in 2015 it moves to one week, but if it is two weeks, I love Beijing. It turns out it's actually my favorite city. I have no problem spending two weeks, 20 days in Beijing. So, yeah. Actually, I look forward to that. I'm really looking forward to that. Uh‑huh. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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