WIMBLEDON

July 7, 2012

Venus Williams
Serena Williams

LONDON, ENGLAND

WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS/Hlavackova-Hradecka
7-5, 6-4

THE MODERATOR:  Questions, please.

Q.  Venus, how does it feel to be women's doubles champions?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  Oh, wow, it's amazing.  I was definitely inspired by
Serena's single's performance.  Obviously it's wonderful to play on the court
with her.  I couldn't have done it without her, so it's great.

Q.  You've never lost in a doubles final at any of the Grand Slams.  Why is
that?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  Well, I think a lot of it has to do with the serve.
SERENA WILLIAMS:  Yeah, for sure.
VENUS WILLIAMS:  I think it helps.  Serena and I both put so much pressure on
our opponents with our serves, and our returns are also, you know, very good.
I think maybe that has something to do with it.
SERENA WILLIAMS:  Yeah.
VENUS WILLIAMS:  I think we just stay really relaxed when we play with each
other because we believe in each other so much it helps the other one to stay
relaxed.

Q.  Is it more fun than singles?
SERENA WILLIAMS:  It's definitely more fun.  At the same time, the last thing
I want to do is let Venus down.  In singles it's okay if I let myself down,
but I don't want to let her down.
Sometimes it's almost a little bit tougher because you put so much pressure
on yourself, so...

Q.  Did you feel like you were racing the curfew?
SERENA WILLIAMS:  I told Venus on the court like it doesn't matter.
 Regardless, we're here.  We go longer, we'll be here tomorrow in this.  Have
a nice, late match, it should be fine.
We weren't really racing the clock, we were just playing our opponents who
were playing really tough and really good.

Q.  Venus, can you describe what it was like for you to watch Serena today
with what she's come back from?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  Yeah, I mean, she hasn't had an easy road.  You know, things
have happened in her life that you can't predict or control, so it's hard to
be in that situation.  You know, things happen, that you didn't deserve.
For her to fight through that and come back and be a champion, and not only
that, but to have made the finals of the US Open, reached the top five, all
these achievements that she's done, you know, I don't think anyone else can
do is just amazing.
It was definitely emotional.  I was so nervous.  I felt like I was trying to
play the match, too.  I couldn't.  You never miss in the stands.
But she played amazing.

Q.  Were you surprised by the dropshot?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  The dropshot?

Q.  Did you think it was coming?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  I was just glad it went in.  It was very exciting,
definitely.  She had a worthy opponent.  Agnieszka plays so well on the grass
and uses it to her advantage.

Q.  Does she dropshot much in practice?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  She does dropshot in practice.  You know, so, hey, it was
genius at the time.  If she makes it, it's genius.  If she doesn't, maybe
it's not as genius.  But she made it.

Q.  The comeback is complete.  How scary was that whole time with Serena in
the hospital?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  I mean, I think it's all about faith.  I think we all had
faith that things have to come out right.  You have to be positive in those
kind of situations.  You have to put it away to a higher power.  So I think
that's what we did.
She's such a fighter, you never say die.  I think positivity really brought
her a long way in that.  I don't think either of us believe that we can be
defeated by anything.  Nothing has defeated us yet, so we're going to keep
that track record.

Q.  Serena said earlier today in her press conference that she didn't know
where she would be without you.  What are your feelings about her on that
level?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  I wouldn't be doing this without her.  I mean, I feel like
Serena was my role model.  I couldn't have done any of this without her
because she showed me how to win.
I think, you know, it was a match made in heaven basically.  We couldn't have
done this without each other.

Q.  Compared to when you first played when you were kids, how much more do
you know about doubles strategy and that sort of stuff?  What were you like
way pack then?
SERENA WILLIAMS:  Man, I remember - sorry - but I remember my dad told Venus
to get aggressive at the net.  I don't know if we were playing together or
against each other.  So he was like, You need to be more aggressive
(laughter).
So Venus crossed while the guy was serving.  So she ended up crossing on the
serve and hitting a volley on the serve.  That just goes to show you her
attitude.  It's so funny.  I think about that all the time on the doubles
court.  It's not appropriate.
But we've been playing doubles a long time.  When we were young we played
doubles, so it's been really, really fun.

Q.  Venus, you're battling a situation yourself now.  What Serena went
through, is that any help to you for your own comeback?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  Yeah.  For me it's been definitely a journey.  I'm sure it
still will be.  But I'm definitely very inspired by her and everything that
she's done.  Like I said, we're not into the whole getting defeated thing;
we're into the conquering thing.
For me, I want to try to do the same thing she's done.

Q.  Do you think this is going to help you in the Olympics?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  I fought everything to be in the Olympics.  I mean, really.
 I mean, after Rome, I was in tears in the press conference because, you
know, I'd come close to making it.  I almost made it.  I fought hard to be in
that Olympics.
So for me it was really important to be in the doubles and play well because
we hadn't played in two years.  I think throughout this tournament we were
really able to get our doubles game back.
SERENA WILLIAMS:  To feel it more.
VENUS WILLIAMS:  To feel it more.  So that was important for us.
Of course, to win the title was amazing.  Just to be able to be a doubles
team again was huge.

Q.  Why was that so important to you?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  My dad made us watching documentaries growing up.  We
watched it for years.
SERENA WILLIAMS:  He recorded it.  So it wasn't like we watched it live.  He
recorded it and we always watched the Olympic documentary.  It was so cool.
VENUS WILLIAMS:  He wanted us to play for him, so in the beginning we played
because he wanted us to, but it became our dream.  It's definitely the
pinnacle of sport.  People live and die in those Olympic moments with you, so
for us it's about sharing that moment with our country and the world and each
other.

Q.  In those documentaries, was there a favorite gold medal moment?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  We watched a lot of Greg Louganis.  We watched a lot of
Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
SERENA WILLIAMS:  Mine was Greg Louganis when he hit his head and still came
back.  I was thinking the other day how we totally-- he totally had it on a--
VENUS WILLIAMS: -- VHS.
SERENA WILLIAMS:  He allowed us to watch it.  We didn't see it live.  It was
really cool.

Q.  Do you have any awareness of L.A. or was that--
VENUS WILLIAMS:  We were far too young.  Far too young.

Q.  Did you watch track and field and think that you could have done that?
SERENA WILLIAMS:  I always felt that way about gymnastics if I didn't get
tall.
VENUS WILLIAMS:  I think we ended up in the right spot.
SERENA WILLIAMS:  You're right, we ended up in the right spot.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports