ROGERS CUP WOMEN

August 8, 2013

Serena Williams

TORONTO, ONTARIO

S. WILLIAMS/K. Flipkens
6-0, 6-3

THE MODERATOR:  Questions, please.

Q.  Do you often hit the practice court after a win, or did you not have
enough time in the match today to work on what you wanted to?
SERENA WILLIAMS:  I don't often hit the court after a win, only if I'm trying
to do things better.
So I wasn't really happy with the way I was returning.  I made a lot of
unforced errors on the return.  I have been returning really well, and I just
wanted to hit more returns.

Q.  When you were up 6-Love, did you think at all about your sister's match
the other day when she was in a similar position?  And did she give you any
insight, or did watching her match help you for facing Flipkens today?
SERENA WILLIAMS:  I definitely thought about Venus, and I thought what a good
comeback Kirsten had, so I thought, I'm not going to get overconfident.
 She's obviously a really good player, so I was just trying to stay focused
as well as intense.  I really wanted to stay intense at that moment.

Q.  Overall you didn't think you played at a pretty good level?
SERENA WILLIAMS:  I think I played really well today.  I think I played
really well.
I think I was up 30-Love on her serve a few times, and I probably could have
won those games, but I made just some makable errors, makable shots, and,
yeah, so it was just --when you're going into big tournaments you want to be
able to do better with that.

Q.  You almost didn't let her play her game.  She wasn't able to work any
points.  You were on top of her pretty quickly.
SERENA WILLIAMS:  Yeah, she wasn't able to play her game as much as she
wanted to.  When you play such a high ranked player, you have to go in there
with the mindset of to do the best you can before they can step all over you
and do well.

Q.  Should have looked at the head-to-heads, but have you played Rybarikova
before?
SERENA WILLIAMS:  I don't think I have.  I'm pretty sure I haven't.  With me
I never know.  I have played so many players.

Q.  You get another funky serve-and-volleying mix-up player, third in a row,
which is not that common.
SERENA WILLIAMS:  Yeah, I know, exactly.  So it's okay.  Happened to me in
Madrid.  I played only girls that are like 5'4" or lower, and they all had
great spin and they're all hitting high, and I was like --and they're all
clay court specialists.  So now I'm in this phase.  So we'll see.

Q.  Maybe you can throw in a little serve and volley yourself?
SERENA WILLIAMS:  Yeah, I highly, highly doubt it but we'll see.

Q.  It's not like you're not capable.
SERENA WILLIAMS:  I do it all the time in practice.  We'll see.

Q.  Li Na is doing it a little bit.  You're not even tempted if you're up
6-0, 5-1, 4-1, to say, All right, I'm way up in this game, and I'm just going
to go in after my first serve?
SERENA WILLIAMS:  I have done it.  I did it a lot in Sweden, so that was kind
of the first time I started doing a little more serving and volleying, so
maybe I will get back to doing it here.

Q.  Patrick wants you to do it a little more?
SERENA WILLIAMS:  You know, I don't know, to be honest.

Q.  He is your coach.
SERENA WILLIAMS:  Yeah, I don't think we talk about that as much as other
things.

Q.  Your dad used to talk about it.
SERENA WILLIAMS:  Oh, my dad is always talking about it.  It's definitely
more him.  I was doing it a lot in Sweden, butyeah.

Q.  And that was on clay.
SERENA WILLIAMS:  Yeah.  For me on clay it's a slower surface so you have
more time to get to the net and hit a better shot, so...

Q.  Even though Venus is no longer in the tournament, what does it mean for
you to have her back on the tour with you, and does she make a big difference
just being around?
SERENA WILLIAMS:  Yeah, it's good for her to be on the tour.  I'm happy she's
around.  Yeah, she's just trying to get in the swing of things and play some
matches and get more match tough, but it's always good to have her around.

Q.  Can we maybe meet him (pointing to Serena's puppy  inside a pet carrier).
SERENA WILLIAMS:  I think he's sleeping, or he should be sleeping now.

Q.  He's moving around.
SERENA WILLIAMS:  Should have been sleeping.  (Smiling).

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports