Serena Williams Interview
Wimbledon 2010
By LadyDragon
WIMBLEDON, United
Kingdom --(LadyDragon) 02/07/10-- Serena Williams
Interview after her match with Petra Kvitova.
Q. It's been a
remarkable decade for the Williams family generally.
Would you like to reflect on it a little and look forward
to the next decade.
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, it's been a great decade and I
feel honored to be a part of it. You know, just to have
my name mentioned at Wimbledon is amazing.
Q. And the next decade?
SERENA WILLIAMS: You know, who knows. Hopefully we'll
still be around. But, uhm, you know, there's so many
other things that we already have going on that we want
to continue to do.
Q. So is there doubt about the Williams sisters'
participation in 2011?
SERENA WILLIAMS: No. That's a sure thing.
Q. Serena, tournaments like this, can you feel joy
while you're playing or is it just all intensity, focus?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, for me it's a lot of intensity.
I'm really an intense player, so...
Sometimes I do feel joy, but it's rare 'cause I want it
so bad.
Q. What about when you're not practicing or you're not
playing matches and you're eating dinner or watching TV?
Is it, I'm happy, this is where I want to be?
SERENA WILLIAMS: No, I'm just really always just happy to
be competing and to be healthy to be here. Like I always
say, to have this opportunity is really unbelievable.
Q. What does it mean to you to see your name up on the
winners' board year after year after year?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, it's a really cool feeling because
it's just like, you know, you work so hard to reach that.
To see it there is unbelievable.
Q. Do you want it as bad each year?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I don't know. It's like always
once you have something, you always want it and want to
keep it. So it's always something that I desire.
Q. Do you ever have those 'I've got to pinch myself
and wake up because I can't believe what kind of career I
had' moments?
SERENA WILLIAMS: No, I've never had one of those moments,
not tennis-wise.
Q. Do you want to talk about the offcourt-wise?
SERENA WILLIAMS: It's probably not appropriate to discuss
(smiling).
Q. How many Green Day concerts have you been to in
your life? What's your favorite song? Can you give us a
quick verse of it?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Can't give a verse of it. I'm a bit of a
stalker. So I've been to I don't know how many. Maybe too
much.
Q. Over 10?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Oh, yeah, over 10. But, uhm, it's gotten
to the point where I know the run of the show kind of
thing. I always know when the last song is coming, the
encore. So it's a bit much.
If I were them, I'm kind of watch out for me.
Q. Seems you're heading to Belgium next week, we
heard.
SERENA WILLIAMS: Oh, yeah? So I heard, too.
Q. Can you talk about it?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't know if I can talk about it yet.
We'll just keep discussing this right now.
Q. Is it still unsure that you're going to go?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Who knows, right?
Q. We heard you're going to play against Kim in a
great exhibition.
SERENA WILLIAMS: Okay.
Q. Is that true?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I've already answered that, so...
Q. With your sister going out of the competition,
losing in the doubles, do you feel any extra motivation
to prove that the Williams sisters are still a dominant
force tomorrow?
SERENA WILLIAMS: No, I don't feel any more or less
motivation. I mean, no matter if Venus had have won and
I'd be playing her in the finals or not, I would still
feel really into it and really like I want to do this.
Q. In some ways is it easier not playing your sister
in the final? That must affect your emotions a little
bit.
SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, honestly I would feel like I would
almost rather play her because at least I know for
certain one of us is gonna win something and take
something home. But now it's a 50/50 chance.
So in a way, I didn't realize how good a feeling that
was.
Q. You've dominated at a lot of Grand Slam events. Is
this shaping up as maybe a masterpiece Grand Slam for
you, given the way you're serving, scores, or is it all
the same?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Uhm, I definitely think that my serve
has so far done well. I'm hoping for it to do well one
more match. Then I kind of have to analyze it after the
last match more than anything.
Q. How do you guard against over-confidence? Has that
ever been a problem for you?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, no, I never, ever get over-confident.
I mean, I did once maybe a long time ago. And I think
everyone goes through that where they're like over-confident.
They're up. Then you end up losing the match. So you
never do that again.
So, no, I don't do that at all.
Q. Where was the example that it occurred?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't know. It definitely happened in
my career. I don't know. I'm thinking maybe Monica Seles
once. I played her in L.A. I was over-confident and ended
up losing. It's important not to do that.
Q. Have you heard that Justine has been badly injured
here and is going to miss the US Open?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I haven't heard that.
Q. Any words of support for her?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I hope the best for her. I didn't hear
that at all.
Q. It happened when she skidded on the grass and hurt
her elbow. You're not afraid when you play on grass?
SERENA WILLIAMS: It happened to me a couple years ago,
too. I have too many experiences. Yeah, I severely
sprained my thumb, almost broke it, so... I still
competed in the Open, but had like one hand.
Q. I think it was against Hantuchova, then you had to
play Justine.
SERENA WILLIAMS: I was equipped with just a slice and a
serve.
Q. You have quite a life with big moments like
tomorrow will be, a lot of glamour events. On the
flipside, there's lots of travel, smaller events,
training. Do you ever get bored at all with your life and
with tennis?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I mean, it's interesting. You can get
bored. It just depends on how you look at it. Yeah, it's
a lot of work. It's every day. But I try to look at it as
my job is to stay fit and travel the world, be healthy.
I think it just all depends on how you look at things.
Q. Do you remember learning how to serve and who
taught that to you?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I remember my dad taught us how to
serve. Always at the end of practice, we would just
serve. Venus and I would serve on either side, but with
each other. We always talked a lot. I don't remember
serving; I just remember talking. Lord knows what we were
talking about, but we never stopped talking, unless my
dad was looking at us, then we would serve. Then when he
wasn't looking, we would just talk, talk, talk, talk,
talk, so...
Q. Have you received any messages of goodwill ahead of
the final from any of your famous friends at all?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Not yet, no. Maybe.
Q. What would be a perfect Wimbledon for you?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Obviously winning. I think that would be
a good Wimbledon. But we'll see.
Q. Did you take the doubles loss hard? I know you were
going for the calendar-year slam. You've been dominant in
doubles. It was a bit of a surprise.
SERENA WILLIAMS: No, I mean, we were okay. We obviously
wanted to win. But more than anything, we were happy to
win the French because we hadn't won that in 11 years. So
I think that was our main goal, was to win the French
this year.
You know, we'll try to win Wimbledon against next year.
Q. You and your family have tremendous successes here,
but there have been some setbacks here as well. Can you
rank your doubles loss and Venus' loss in singles, your
questionable bow to the Queen, on what was the most
painful?
SERENA WILLIAMS: No, honestly we obviously wanted to win
doubles, but it wasn't the end-of-the-world kind of the
thing. It was like we lost, but what are we going to do
about it? I'm not going to die. I'm going to keep going
on, be positive, encouraging people. So it was what it
was.
Q. How do you prepare yourself before the final game
and what are you going to do today? What is a normal day
the day before a final?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, I'm just gonna relax a little bit.
I'm going to watch some 'Desperate Housewives' because I
have to catch up. So I'm excited about that.
Q. How long does it take for you to decide what shirt
to wear when you come to these press conferences?
SERENA WILLIAMS: It took me a while today 'cause I was
trying to decide if I wanted to wear my red tops, which
I've been wearing, and I want to change anything, or
which Nike top should I wear? So I finally decided pink
is my favorite color, so we ended up on this, 'Just Do
It'.
Q. Will you be coming to Belgium next week or not?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I think I'll come if you guys want
me to.
Q. You know it's about a record-breaking exhibition
match?
SERENA WILLIAMS: No, I didn't. I'll find out more about
it.
Q. To break the spectator record that Billie Jean King
set in '73. You weren't aware?
SERENA WILLIAMS: This is all so fast, so, you know...
Q. 37,000 people waiting for you. It's true.
SERENA WILLIAMS: That's amazing. That's really amazing,
so...
Q. It will be your first visit in Belgium?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I've never been to Belgium.
Q. Your sister came last year.
SERENA WILLIAMS: So you guys will have to tell me where
to go. Thank you.
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