Venus Williams - 26.05.2013

TENNIS – 2013 French Open: U.Radwanska d. V.Williams 7-6 6-7 6-4


Q.  This was a long battle out there.  What was the difference in the end and
how did you feel energy-wise towards the end?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  You know, I mean, I was just in a really big hole.  You
know, it's definitely not the place you want to be in the third set.  But
just tried to stay positive and keep fighting back.
You know, she played really well.  She didn't really make a lot of errors,
kept bringing a lot of balls back and competing well.
I definitely have to give her a lot of credit for that.

Q.  How did you feel about your preparation coming into the tournament?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  Extremely unideal.  (Laughter.)
Definitely, you know -- definitely been struggling.  Just wanted to come here
and try to -- you know, try to play.  I mean, I think my movement is awesome,
but I just haven't played any matches and just haven't hit any serves, and
it's just hard to be perfect in the first match.
I think there were periods where, you know, I found some rhythm and there
were periods where I didn't.  I tried very hard, but my opponent just played
a little better.

Q.  Clearly you can serve a lot faster than you served today, so just talk
about your back a little bit.  Is it painful or just stiff, or what's
happening there?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  Yeah, I can't really serve very hard.  It's painful when I
do that.  But I'm getting better.  I just, you know, ran out of time to get
better for this tournament.
My strategy was more or less to put the ball in, and that's very difficult
for me, too, because that's not who I am.  But that's all I had.  So that was
challenging to, you know, be conservative on the serve and then go to be
aggressive during the point.  It's like, you know, you have to, you know,
suddenly change your mindset.  That's a little challenging.
So I'm just, you know, obviously going to try to, you know -- I want my serve
back.  I'm going to try to get it back for Wimbledon.

Q.  I realize you're super competitive, but the back's been a problem since
early April or maybe late March.
VENUS WILLIAMS:  Yeah.

Q.  So did you think about maybe not playing here and saving yourself for the
grass?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  I did.  Not really, no, actually.  No, I wanted to play.
Sometimes you can just play yourself into the tournaments, and maybe if I was
able to win that match maybe I could have continued to play better off the
ground.  I'm not sure how much better I could play off the serve.
That's sometimes how it works in tennis, but it's just been a very
challenging injury for me.

Q.  When you leave moments like this, you still like the way you are living,
I mean, what's happening to you, or you hate to be on a tennis court where
you were thinking, oh, my God, what am I doing here?  I would like to get
out.  Or you say, Well -- you're very still sort of positive all the time?
 Or ups and downs?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  You know, I think that obviously it's disappointing to lose.
 It's not what anyone is going for out here.  Coming out to win.  I'm coming
out to win my matches.
And, you know, with what I've gone through, it's not easy.  But I'm strong
and I'm a fighter.  You know, I don't think I'm just playing for me now.  I
think I'm playing for a lot of people who haven't felt well.
I think for me today it's a positive to be able to play three hours.  I'm
constantly finding ways to get better and to feel better.
For me, I would never give up because, you know, obviously at some point
everyone has to retire.  You know, that's an asterisk, but I feel like I have
to give myself a chance to continue working on feeling better.  I wouldn't
just give up just because it was difficult.
That's not me.  So my thing is that I'm going to keep -- continue trying.
 And, you know, I had a very challenging year last year, but I had many
successes, as well.
So I'm continuing to look forward to more successes.

Q.  It's obviously tough.  Do you find that because you know you're fighting
other things besides just forehands and backhands, is it more easily to be
more philosophical about defeats than when you were younger or not?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  I'm just trying to handle defeats better because it's no fun
having a bad attitude about it.  So I try to move on.
It helps if you had some wins in the past, too.  Those keep you warm at
night.  I have a lot of wins under my belt that help me feel better.
So that helps.  It would be horrible if I had never won anything.  That would
make it worse.
So, for me, it's just about, you know, I mean, especially at this point,
getting my back better, too.