Serena Williams defeats Lucie Safarova
6-0, 6-1

SERENA WILLIAMS

Q. Greetings. Welcome, and congratulations. My name is Hakim Abdul-Ali. I
write for the black press in South Carolina, the Charleston Chronicle. You're
a heroine, if you will, of course, to all black America. What do you feel
your enduring legacy, not only as a winner, champion is and what it is to
young black females who really adore you?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, I really hope I'm able to inspire my fellow black
females because we need to have good positive role models in the community,
and growing up I loved Zina Garrison, and like when she made the finals of
Wimbledon, like I really wanted to practice that day. I was so excited to see
her do so well.
So hopefully a lot of girls of all color really can look at me and be like,
wow, I want to be like her because she's a good person on the court and off
the court. She has opened two schools, and she sends kids to college, so
hopefully they'll look at that as well.

Q. Earlier in the week you said you didn't even remember the '08 title here,
but is this one to remember for the mere fact of how dominant you played all
week long?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I hope so. I really feel like hopeful ly I'll remember this
so I can play like this more often kind of thing. So I'm looking forward to
remembering it.

Q. Serena, you said on TV that you thought this was one of like the best
tournaments you've had essentially and how dominant you were and consistent
at the later end of the tournament consistently. Do you think that's
something you felt coming before this week and is it something you feel like
you'll be able to keep going after this?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I definitely didn't feel it coming. I know that I wanted to
do certain things on the court, and I was practicing on doing certain things;
and it all came together a little bit, so hopefully I can improve on this and
just use it as one block of building. I don't want to stop here. I just want
to continue to do well.

Q. Serena, masterful in the last two matches, but it's not as though your
opponents were playing particularly poorly. Have you ever played two matches
consecutively at such a high level?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Definitely not, and hopefully I can make it three and four
and five and six and more and more and more, so I definitely want to continue
this, but I've never played I can say consistently at such a high level with
low errors, and the scary thing is I could have served so much better.

Q. Obviously dominant week. What's your motivation, when you play like this,
do you want to now like is it motivation to go back to practice courts and
get better or is it to go and play more tournaments to keep it rolling?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I definitely want to play more tournaments, but
unfortunately I can't, so my next event will be in Madrid. But however, it
definitely is a motivating factor for me to go home and work harder, because
I know Lucie and Sam and everyone else is going to go and work hard, too. And
now they know what to expect even more so when they play me. So this is just
a battle. I want to continue to win.

Q. Serena, what specifically do you feel like you did well today?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I feel I kept my errors down. I returned pretty good today.
I didn't make too many errors off the return.
Like I said, honestly, I could have served a lot better. But overall I think
-- and I moved well, which always helped.

Q. You seem to be in just such a good place. You kind of hinted in the TV
interview that you really appreciate being healthy. Is that part of it? Can
you kind of talk about that?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I'm just focused on the moment. I'm living in the present.
You know, I'm right here doing a conference right now and that's all I'm
thinking about, so when I'm on the court, that's kind of I'm thinking about
that, and sometimes my mind does wander a little bit, but for the most part
I'm just not thinking about too much. Life.

Q. Serena, earlier today John Isner clinched a win for the U. S. Davis Cup on
clay against France, and they'd previously beaten Switzerland on clay as
well, and now you've won a title on clay. Do you think it's sort of time for
Americans to get their swagger back on clay?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I hope so. I mean he's playing really well on the clay
court. He beat Roger on clay, and now he beat Tsonga. That's amazing. Wasn't
it in France, too? Wow.
So I was so happy to see that. And you know, it'll be really good to see the
Americans -- we have so many Americans now doing well from John, to Andy who
beat Roger as well. Ryan is doing well. Then we have the ladies that are
really coming up and playing some great tennis. So I'm pretty excited about
that.

Q. I know, Serena, you said you're in the present and you let your mind
wander a little bit of times, but does No. 1, you have no points to defend
until June.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I know. Rrr, rrr, rrr.

Q. Are you thinking about that? SERENA WILLIAMS: I do have nothing to defend.
June. I didn't do anything. Eastbourne I won one match, so that doesn't count.
And then I did pretty well in the summer, but then I dropped off again until
this tournament. So I really am like a floating bird. So I'm excited about
that.

Q. Serena, looking at this match today, was there a certain point where you
realized that things were going to --
SERENA WILLIAMS: Jack. I'm sorry. Can you get this fellow out of here?
(Laughs.) Seriously, dude. (Serena's dogs entered the media room.)

Q. In the match was there a certain point when you realized this was going to
be your day that you were doing things she could not match you with?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I think around when I was up 3-0, I was like, man, okay, I'm
still playing well from yesterday. So I was like, okay, I'm still in the
moment.
But then I never get excited -- I mean obviously I'm really pumped out there.
I'm pumping my fist, but I never count it over until I'm shaking hands
because people come back. I've been known to come back, so you can never
count an opponent out until match point is over. So I never get too crazy.

Q. Serena, I know you've been so dominant in your matches. In your practice
this week had you thought you would be this dominant?

SERENA WILLIAMS: No. My practices suck really. They couldn't be worse, so the
worse I practice, the better I play.

Q. Serena, what is it you've done to make your forehand more robust than it
used to be?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Nothing. I've been practicing my forehand, I guess. I've
always had a really go od forehand, I think. At least I thought I did. Did I
not have a good forehand?

Q. Your backhand's always struggled.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Really? My backhand's always struggled? I've always thought
opposite. So okay. I do love my backhand, though. That's like my favorite
shot.
I don't know. I just pretend -- I don't know.

Q. Serena, we saw you grooving on court to Madonna. We know you love Karaoke.
If you had to go to Karaoke right after this, what song would you pick to
sing?

SERENA WILLIAMS: To be honest, I'm looking to sing Andrea Bocelli because I
haven't karaoked him yet. So "Time to Say Goodbye."

Q. You said a while ago that you were really staying in the present moment
and that's how you were handling things, and what I'm wondering is are you
doing any kind of special practice to help you stay in the moment or is it
just something you thought of on your own?

SERENA WILLIAMS: No. I'm not doing anything. I'm just trying to keep my mind
busy, and I'm in school. I've been really stressed out about that. So that
keeps me just really kind of focused, and I have papers due that I haven't
done. So that kind of just -- I'm doing so much, it kind of keeps me just
staying in the moment.

Q. And I wouldn't have asked this except for what happened a while ago, but
do you and Jackie still have a really contentious relationship?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Do we ever. I hated seeing her in here. That's my baby girl,
though.

Q. You said on TV you're going to move to Paris. Can you talk about that?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah. I was thinking about it, and I told my mom the other
day, how would she feel if I moved to Paris. I didn't tell my dad, though.
Yeah, you know, I love it there, and you know, I just -- I need a change. Of
course, I'll still be based out of the United States because there's so many
tournaments here. So we'll see.

Q. Serena, you talk about how comfortable you are on the clay now, but the
change from green clay coming up to red clay, how significant do you think
that will be for you and will it be easy to keep up the momentum on green to
red?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I prefer red clay, so hopefully I will be able to keep up
the momentum. I feel so much better on red clay, and I think I've had better
results on red clay. So I definitely will be looking forward to the red clay,
or the blue clay or whatever we have to play on.

Q. Serena, since you won here since '08. You swept here, win the title in
'08. Six years, come back, sweep with the title again. I know you can't see
the future. You don't know what your schedule holds, but could you see
yourself over the next years coming back to Charleston considering the
success you're having and the comfort you have here?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I definitely will. I play well here. I never realized how
well I play here. It's a great atmosphere. I have tons of fans, so there's no
reason that I would not want to come here again. And I definitely if I can,
if it's in the plans, I will for sure be here next year. It's such a nice
place to come to , and I don't want to miss out on the banana pudding again.

Q. Serena, how are you going to celebrate?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I'm going on HSN tonight at midnight. So I will be launching
my new collection. Yeah. And that's how I'll be ce lebrating, with a new line.
I'm actually excited about it. Some great things. So that's kind of going to
be part of my celebration.

End of Interview