Venus Williams defeats Iveta Benesova
6-4, 6-3

VENUS WILLIAMS


THE MODERATOR: Questions forVenus, please.

Q. Venus, this is your first match on clay in a long time. How did it feel
being back on this surface?

VENUS WILLIAMS: My serve felt great. I definitely feel like I was still
adjusting to the surface, and every clay court plays differently, and the
stadium can play different from the grandstand. So I hadn't played on stadium
yet, and you don't really slide a lot on that court, so just kind of getting
the feel of what the footing is. So it was a good start.

Q. Are you looking forward to another chapter in your rivalry with I can't
Jelena Jankovic?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah. This is great for me to be in another match and to be in
the second round. This is a little new for me nowadays, so I'm going to go out
there and try my best. I know it's a great surface for her, and she always gets
comfortable on the clay, so I know I have to play well.

Q: You got to hit quite a few balls out there today. Was that good or is every
match you're looking to end the points as quick as possible?

VENUS WILLIAMS: You know, I think on this surface it's good. I need to hit some
balls on the clay, you know, getting a feel for this court.
Tomorrow I'll definitely have to hit a lot of balls and try to be patient and
try to move forward the best I can.

Q. Does this feel like a whirlwind, from Miami to here and all these matches
and the comeback and everything? How does it feel to you? Does it feel like
it's coming fast or is it about what you expected?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah. Definitely Miami was definitely a whirlwind. All the
points were going so fast, and I was just living in the moment literally; and
a lot of the times I ended up the victor at the end of these matches and didn't
really know how it happened.
Here I did feel a lot more calmer and I felt like in some ways a little bit
more match tough as they say. So hopefully the whirlwind will die down and I'll
just get used to hopefully getting a lot of wins.

Q. Are you working on anything specifically with your dad this week or are you
just taking it match by match?

VENUS WILLIAMS: More than anything I just was having really light practices and
just trying to conserve all my energy for the tournament.
So nothing in particular, just keeping the rhythm and not rushing too much on
this court and trying not to hit -- maybe add a little more spin.

Q. You were hitting pretty consistently above 110 a lot of your first serves.
Can you talk a little bit about that?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah. I'm not trying to hit the ball that hard anymore on my
serve. More than anything I'm trying to get my first serve in, and I mix it up
a lot more with the off paces and try to serve a little smarter, keep my
opponents off balance. But when I swing, it just goes. So that's how it is.
Works out, thank God.

Q. You've played Jankovic plenty obviously over the years. Playing her here
she's pretty tough on clay and she's had some success. I guess a fairly
daunting task for you tomorrow. Just talk about the confidence you have going
into it.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I think I played her here a long time ago, maybe a semifinal or
something. It was a long, long match. I think I may have won. I'm not sure.
But we've always had some long matches and especially when she was at the top
of the game. We haven't played since that time. I think we both had some things
we were dealing with with injuries, so it'll be an important match for both of
us.

Q. Venus, she seemed to stick you on the drop shots two or three times there.
What are you going to do differently to adjust your game?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Those shots are almost untouchable. She had hands like
feathers, and some of them were just inexplicably good. So I have to give her
those. If she can hit those every point, then I have to give them to her. Those
are tough shots to hit, and she did them. Kudos. I sure didn't do any of them.

Q. I know you said you don't try to calculate your rankings as far as the
Olympics go, but you did have a big jump after Miami getting back into the top
100, top 90 now. Seeing that number next to your name shrink, does that make
you happy you're on the right road?

VENUS WILLIAMS: I'm very happy I'm on the right road, but I'm very unhappy that
I didn't do more. That's pretty much how I feel, like if I only would have done
this, that or the other, prepared better or rested more or something. But
that's the past. There's so many opportunities going forward and try to focus
on the forward and focus on every day, and today's win takes me closer.

Q. You look fit out there and running around. Can you talk a little bit about
your recovery between matches and now between tournaments?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah. I do a lot of ice baths, unfortunately. They're very cold
and miserable, but if I can keep it to two sets like today, wow, I don't have
to do one. Or if I straight set win or loss.
But after Miami I just took three days off just to rest, and then I hit balls
once I came here, actually. For me it's just about having energy at this point. So
I try not to worry about tomorrow.

Q. As the match went on today, did you feel yourself becoming more energized? I
mean when I look at you, I always wonder is she moving slower, or is this part
of the disease? And my perceptions are whacky because of what I know about your
ailment. And I'm wondering if you are or do you feel like that you picked up?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah. I actually do feel like I picked up. The first set I
played within myself and then I felt like I really picked it up from about 3-3,
4-3. I actually felt pretty solid at 4-3. It was nice. And yeah.

Q. Also, this is the fourth time you've played her, and this is the first time
you've played her on clay. She was keeping the ball really, really deep --

VENUS WILLIAMS: Uh-huh.

Q. -- throughout a lot of the match. Did that affect you in any way or did you
think that she was playing better than you had played her before?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah. I hadn't played her in so long and I actually didn't
remember -- I didn't remember the other times. I do remember her game, though,
very penetrating, more risky.
I think her game is more suited for a faster surface, though, and the balls
above her head and the spins, you know, are not as good for her on this surface.
So I tried to make that advantage for me today, especially on the second serves.
They're just a good place for me. But she can take the ball early, so I tried
not to let that happen too much, but she hit them very deep.

THE MODERATOR: Anything else? Thank you.

End of Interview