ROGERS CUP

August 15, 2015

Serena Williams

TORONTO, ONTARIO

B. BENCIC/S. Williams
3-6, 7-5, 6-4

Q. Serena, did you feel tonight with your ball toss on serve that the most
difficulty you had with it the whole entire year and was there anything
physical with your ball toss on your serve or was it just the rhythm just
wasn't there tonight?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I was just really struggling with my serve today and
everything wasn't right with it. My toss was off, and just struggling to try
to get that normal lift off, but didn't work out.

Q. And with a match like this tonight showing how tough the depth of the
women's game is do you feel like people underestimate the quality of the tour
in regards to how strong it is and maybe it's the strongest it's ever been in
terms of its depth?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't think anyone's underestimating it so much.

Q. Serena, a loss is never fun, obviously, but I guess looking at the bigger
picture is it better to lose now rather than somewhere bigger later on?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Absolutely. Every loss for me is a big learning session and
a learning experience. So I'm looking forward to learning and getting better
from this.

Q. You said that Belinda is like the future of the game. I just wanted to
find out what you felt she did well today.
SERENA WILLIAMS: I thought she did really well everything. She really reads
the ball well, and she really fought really well, and I knew that about her
already, that she never gives up and she fights hard.
Yeah, I thought she-- I thought she played an excellent game. I think she
played really well today as opposed to a lot of her other matches.

Q. Serena, it's a very unusual taping on your hand. Is that an injury or
what's that for?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I injured it when I was playing Vinci.

Q. Can you just talk a little bit about when it happened and where it was?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, I was running for a drop shot, and I slipped and I
fell, and I sprained my fingers. So it's just really sore.

Q. How much is it affecting you today?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't know. I can play with swollen fingers, I guess, and
my hand. I don't think it should take away from anyone's win in particular.
So yeah, it's fine.

Q. You were pretty much in control to start the match. When did you feel
things starting to change?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I never felt it really change until I lost the match, so,
you know, I always felt that I still had an opportunity to stay in there. And
obviously I was down and stuff, but I was just not-- you know what, I haven't
playing well today. Today was not my day, and hopefully I can rectify that
going into next week and then going into hopefully the Open. Hopefully I can
have a few more better days.

Q. After the match you and Belinda seemed to have a little chat afterwards.
What did you say to her at the net?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I just told her good job, and she played well and I was
proud of her. You know, she did a really good job today. So yeah.

Q. Was this you chalk it up in your mind as a bad day at the office or did
you feel like maybe it wasn't there today, like when you stepped on the court
that there might be issues?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, I think I played really crappy today. I'll try to be
politically correct. And I don't think you would disagree. So yeah. You know,
I haven't played like this-- I actually played a couple of matches like this
this year, but I was able to get through them, but against the better players
you have to not play like this. So yeah, it just-- I missed a lot. I hit a
lot of doubles faults. Yeah, I just-- honestly, I could have made one or two
more shots and the results could have been different, but I just really,
really didn't play up to par today, what a professional tennis player should
play like. I played like an amateur, to be honest.

Q. How important do you think a night like this is to the rest of the women
on tour and their confidence level? Some of them were commenting earlier
today that they don't think a lot of the players have a lot of confidence
going up against you?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I think they do have a lot of confidence. Everyone I play,
they play with me like if they don't win, they don't get to go home and
something happen to them. So I don't know what that's about. But every match
I play, I play they're going incredibly hard and they're playing really well.
So that's confidence for me.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports