Serena Williams defeats Lucie Safarova
6-4, 6-1

Quarterfinal Round

SERENA WILLIAMS

Q. Serena, were you thinking Venus held up her end of the bargain earlier in
the day, so were you thinking this could happen tomorrow, and your thoughts
on winning two in one day?

SERENA WILLIAMS: It was really motivating for Venus to win today. I figured
if she can win two matches, I have no excuse not to win my two matches.
It's good. I feel great to be in the semis. Obviously I play Venus. It's
never an easy opponent. She's my toughest opponent I've ever played, and I
think she's beaten me the most of any player, I think.
We'll see how it goes.

Q. I think you said on court after your first match you'd never played two
singles matches in a day before. Is that right? Can you remember?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Actually I have. In Toronto in I want to say 2000.

Q. What are the challenges of that, though?
SERENA WILLIAMS: It's actually not that bad, you know. It's not ideal, but I
play doubles all the time, and so I looked at it like, okay, I play singles
and I play with Venus in doubles the same day, so that's how I looked at it.

Q. What do you make of the order of play that has
back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back Williams sisters? Like that's never
going to happen again.

SERENA WILLIAMS: No. Definitely not. I mean you never know. Never say never,
but it was pretty awesome. It was a pretty intense schedule. But obviously we
had to win our matches to have all four Williams matches on center in one
day. So it was very intense.

Q. Does it feel like a long time ago when you last played Venus or does it
feel like yesterday?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah. It definitely feels like a long time ago. But you
know, I know her game and she knows my game and it'll be a great match.

Q. Is it the knowledge of each other's games that can make the matches a
little bit more tense? They seemingly seem tense from the outside watching
you guys play in the past.

SERENA WILLIAMS: It's difficult because we know each other. I know where
she's going to serve. She knows where I'm going to serve. And I know her
patterns and she knows mine. She probably knows mine better than I do. I
don't know. I'm happy to be in the semis. I've had some tough matches this
tournament, so it's good.

Q. What's like the one matchup that you've had that's the most memorable with
Venus that you can remember, the one that sticks out?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't remember any. I don't love playing her. If I win,
it's not super excited, and if I lose I'm really not excited. So I don't know
any good -- I mean for me the best match that we've ever -- well, one of the
best matches was I think it's Doha a couple of years ago was ridiculous. And
unfortunately I had to play her again in the final, which I was just dreading
because she was playing so well. And I always say Australia in '03 was a
really good one.

Q. Has it gotten any easier at all over the last decade plus playing your own
sister on court?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I think it has. I don't think about it if I'm playing -- I
look at it as playing a great champion. She's won so many Grand Slams, so you
know it's not going to be easy.

Q. Obviously Venus has gone through a lot of things with finding out about
her disease, and you've had a front-row seat to kind of see how she changed
her diet and her work. How hard is it and how inspiring is it to watch her go
through that?

SERENA WILLIAMS: It's so inspiring and hard at the same time. I've been her
biggest fan even more so ever since she found out about her disease. I don't
make excuses. I think ultimately I play better because of that. Like I think
about my sister and her not even being able to play at some days at her best
level, and I think I have zero excuses. You know, zero. So it motivates me to
hopefully not lose, because I have no excuse.

Q. You guys haven't played on clay since the French Open final back in '02.
Does that add a different wrinkle to this match at all do you think?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I think she's a great clay court player. She has more titles
on clay than I do. So we'll see. I think some of her best tennis besides
grass is on clay. So then again, it's not going to be easy.

Q. A little off subject. Just wondering are you still -- I know you guys like
to Karaoke a lot. Are you still in the 80s genre frame of mind with your
Karaoke or have you moved on or what do you do to kind of download and have
fun?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Actually I'm more into 90s right now. I'm into 90s rock,
really random. I definitely was -- I'm into like Foreigner and Journey and
anything -- I don't even know the songs of the artists, but I look them up
and I find out what their famous songs are and I learn them and then I go
Karaoke them. So it's fun.

Q. Do you have a Karaoke bar already planned out that you know of one in
Charleston should you win the title here?

SERENA WILLIAMS: No. Although they do have a Karaoke machine the players'
lounge. But I've been waiting for a lot of the players to leave so I don't
force them out of the tournament with my voice.

Q. Have you heard anyone performing on there that's impressed you this week?

SERENA WILLIAMS: No one's picked it up yet.

Q. You gotta get the ball rolling then.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah. I will. But I'm waiting.

End of Interview...