THE LIPTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 28, 1999

Richard Williams

KEY BISCAYNE, FLORIDA

MIKE BROEKER: Questions for Mr. Williams.

Q. What was going through your mind watching the match? Why did you leave?
Where did you go when you left?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I left the match because I really thought I was going to
cry. I felt too ugly to be out there crying so I left.

Q. What was going through your mind watching the match? Was it what you
expected?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Well, what I thought would go through my mind was not what
was going through my mind. What I thought actually would be going through my
mind was how happy I was to see both my girls being out there. That's what
really was going through my mind was, I guess, all the problem we've had in
tennis, bringing the girls up, how difficult it was, all the gang members,
all the peoples out there. I guess I was just thinking about those things. I
was saying, "Look where you are today." It was so difficult for me to believe
it. I think I was going to cry, so I left and went out.

Q. Do you feel they both played up to their potential?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: No, I do not. I know Serena did not.

Q. You said you were feeling Venus didn't play up to her potential.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: No, Serena did not. Serena's knee was actually hurting her.
I could tell her knee was hurting her. I heard a reporter named Mr. Bud
Collins say it was Venus house, but there was a thief in it. I really thought
the thief would steal that match today, Serena Williams.

BUD COLLINS: That's a good quote that you gave me (laughter). We give you
quotes, too.

Q. Did you have any instructions for the girls today?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: No, not at all. They was out to practice. I stayed out
there for about maybe five or ten minutes, and I left because it became sort
of very boring for me. What was boring for me about their practice today was
that I really felt that if I was them, I would be so happy, I don't know if I
would have had the intensity to practice at all, not at all. As a matter of
fact, what I did, I left the practice and came down to Mr. Butch Buchholz and
Cliff Buchholz's office instead.

Q. You didn't give them any advice?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: No. I didn't know anything to give them at all, no.

Q. Was the match too emotional? Do you think both of them couldn't play their
best because of the emotions involved?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I think Serena might have been a little emotional at first.
That's not to say that she was. Serena tends to feel her way through a match
to find out what her opponents like and do not like. As soon as she figures
out what they like or do not like, she usually hit her way straight through
them. She tend to do like a big train: run over them.

Q. Surely she knew what Venus was like. They practice every day.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Practice is different than playing. What makes it
different, in practice, Venus and Serena usually laugh their way through
practice. You get to know what a person will do. That's on a laughing, joking
level. I didn't see Serena play enough angles today. She stood up a little
too high on her serve. Her ball toss dropped too low. I really think that
Serena was out of it today.

Q. There's a certain body of thought in the stadium today that Venus tanked
the second set in order for it to go three sets, and that you might have told
them, "Girls, be sure and play at least three sets."

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Yes, sir.

Q. What's your response to that?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I would never tell my daughters to do that. As a matter of
fact, I really think my daughters should get off that concrete as soon as
possible. I wouldn't care who win. If they could have won it in ten minutes,
that would have been great enough for me. I would have been sad for TV, but I
would love to see my daughters off that concrete as soon as possible. I would
never tell my daughters to tank a match. It's like telling a person to give
up. We don't teach giving up. We teach our kids that, You didn't come here to
start a match, you came to win the match.

Q. You've taken a number of hits from folks inside the professional tennis
world. What do you have to say to everybody now?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Actually, I don't think I took a hit. I think in America,
according to the Fifth Amendment, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
I just felt people were giving their own opinion. My opinion is that I've
always been that no one here knew what they was doing to start off with. I
think as people probably took hits at me because I was speaking my opinion. I
think that if you look at the tennis world, where it is, we don't have anyone
in America that's playing tennis. I think it's disgraceful. You have a girl,
I think she's No. 29 on the ITF list, you have one boy. So I never thought
they was taking a cheap shot at me. As a matter of fact, I thought that they
was doing me a favor. I think that we have been able to show peoples that if
you give a person a opportunity to show what they can do, if it can be done
the correct way, this would be the way. But running to a junior tournament
every weekend, forgetting the rest of your family is not the way. Forgetting
about education is the wrong way. Forgetting about other languages - those
two girls, when they come in here, they speak more than one languages, they
write their own newsletters, they are up-to-date on computers, they do a lot
of community service. I make them give back as much as they earn. I have to
do because they earn a lot. I don't think no one was taking a shot at me at
no time. I think that people have a right to say what they have to say. I
love what they was saying.

Q. Could Venus maybe have subconsciously let up, not wanting to embarrass
Serena?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Knowing Venus, Venus is not like that.

Q. Playing her sister, maybe she could be.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I wouldn't think Venus is like that at all. I think this is
their third time playing each other. I think that every time Venus went out
to play Serena, she tried to murder Serena. I think that's what she tried to
do today. Serena has this tendency, if you've been watching her game, she can
hit winners anytime, from the forehand or backhand. I think Serena got a
little bit shaky when Venus started running those balls down. I don't think
Serena played no one in this tournament that could run down as many balls as
Venus. I think she just kind of gave up a little bit when her knee started
hurting.

Q. Do you think there was any psychological factor of the two being sisters?
Did that affect play at all?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I doubt it. I haven't talked to either one of the girls,
except for to say, I love you very much, I'm really proud of you, and I think
that you have done very well. I don't think there was nothing psychological
about it at all.

Q. Do you think that each of the girls was capable of focusing as intensely
on each other as they would have been on another opponent who wasn't a sister?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I would say no, I don't think so. I think that if it would
have been someone else, maybe they might have focused a little bit harder,
maybe. But I can't say for sure because I can't speak for my girls. But sort
of watching what I seen today, it did not look like they was as focused as
they have been the matches I have seen. Of course, some of the matches I've
seen, they gave away points anyway, for the hell of it, especially Serena's
match against Hingis.

Q. This is the first of many finals, there's talk about this. Do you think
this will get easier to deal with?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I hope so.

Q. What made you decide to bring the message board today, sign board?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I work with a lot of underprivileged kids and kids that
have AIDS and so on, kids that no school would like to have. Doing the sign
boards, we're trying to teach the kids that you can do anything you wish to
do. Some of the messages was for them to do reports on. One of the reports
that they will be doing is on FOX Television. Whoever carried the finals that
my girls are in, they actually have to do a report on the television station.
Last year, it was ESPN, I believe, I'm more than sure it was. But this year
they be doing it on FOX. This year it will just be a little different,
they'll be asked to send the reports to FOX. That's why we put the message
boards up.

Q. A couple years ago you predicted your daughters would be 1 and 2 in
women's tennis. Are they there yet?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I think that they are a long ways from being there, but I
really believe that they on track to getting there. I think they will be
there, yes.

Q. When do you first find out that your daughters could be in the top of the
game?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: That question usually get me in troubles. The first person
that got me in troubles with was my wife because the first time I ever took
my daughter to the tennis court, I actually walked home, left my raggedy
Volkswagen at the tennis court, walked two miles. I said, Baby we have a
champion. You just a proud father. I said, I know a champion. I work with
athletes. This girl is rough, tough, strong, mentally she's sound. Those are
the four qualities all champions has. Doesn't matter how old or how young
they are. Venus and Serena demonstrated that the first time we went out. I
knew they were a champion.

Q. How old were they?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Four years, six months and one day.

Q. Venus?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Venus. And at five years old, I took the racquet out of her
hand. I wouldn't let her play for a year because she loved it too much.

Q. These trophies are going to the garage?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: This trophy, here, no, it will not go in the garage. It
will probably have to go in their room. It will be the first one in our
house. I usually don't allow trophies in our home.

Q. How old was Serena when she started?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Serena was the same age. She was just further up in the
future. But I really think Serena had a better chance at making it than
Venus. I really didn't feel the same way. By the time we really got Serena
involved, we had Mr. John McEnroe, she would hit sometime with him. Pete
Sampras, before Pete Sampras became really as huge as he is right now, we had
a lot of professional peoples. Because Serena couldn't beat those guys with
power, she had to learn to do angles and dropshots. Right now Serena is
hitting angles and dropshots better than anyone. I think she have a better
chance than Venus.

Q. 14 years later, looking out at all of this, is this a rather strange place
for you and your family to be?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Yes, sir, because we're used to being on the corner in
Compton where people shouting and doing drugs. This is very strange to me
sitting up here and you peoples talking to me. I actually feel like a fool.

Q. You haven't lived in Compton in four or five years?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: No, we moved from Compton back in the third week of
September of 1991. But we make it a point to go back at least twice a year.
Right now we have I think it's a ten million -- either ten million or twenty
million dollar building going up where we once practiced there in Compton and
Atlantic.

Q. Did you say where you were during those nine games?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I was outside smoking a cigarette. I was out there teasing
this girl. I wanted to buy, I don't know what it's called, but it costs three
dollars. I say, I only have a dollar and a half. She said, I can't sell you
half of it. I was out there arguing with her.

Q. You weren't watching at all?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: No. I was having fun arguing with this girl about buying
something for a dollar and a half. Some guy came up and said, You don't know
who this is? The girl said, I don't care who it is, I want three dollars.

Q. What was it you were trying to buy?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I think it's one of those pretzel things, you buy it, they
heat it up, put salt on it. I don't know what it is, but it costs three
dollars.

Q. What is the building going to be in Compton?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I don't know if it's ten million or twenty million. Do you
remember which one it is?

MR. HARDING (phonetic): It's going to be a $15 million building, youth center
with computers, educational programs.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Compton and Atlantic in the City of Compton. We try not
only to give. A lot of peoples talks about giving back. What is that?
Richard, can you come over and speak. I want you to give back. First, I never
had anything to give back. Giving back to us is simply setting up a center
that can actually run with people with people that is in a position to help
underprivileged kids, to live in a computer world because we live in an
information age today. What's so interesting about that is Reebok's has been
a major help to us, and so is Puma now, helping us to get our message out and
so on. One of the key factors that I think helped us more than anything one
of our programs here in Florida, I have no problem calling Butch Buchholz or
Cliff Buchholz to help us out and our program. The Buchholz brothers are very
good at helping us. Two years ago, I went to Cliff and Butch about a girl
that was in my program out in California. The girl today is dead. She died
with lupus disease. But I remember Venus was here playing two years ago and I
couldn't come because I was raising money. The Buchholz brothers was kind
enough to help us out a great deal. We are very thankful to them as well.

Q. When your daughters were coming up, I understand you made a point to not
enter them in the same tournaments so they wouldn't play each other. Could
you go over why you thought that would be a good thing to do? Are they ready
to play one another regularly today?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I don't know if it's true what I think. But we paid a guy,
his name is Michael J. Goldstein, he's a psychiatrist. I wanted him to go out
and find out what happens when brothers and sisters play each other. Well, in
the study we found out more than what we needed to know. But it was very
helpful. We learned that tennis is the only game that's extremely rough on a
family. You can see how tennis has taken place with some of the families
that's involved today. So we employed two more doctors, Dr. James Malord
(phonetic), to do the same thing. And I learned that it wouldn't be good to
enter Venus in this tournament and Serena in this tournament because we
wanted two girls to grow up with a bunch of love for each other. And that
love needed to be cultivated and developed, and it needed time to do so. So
Venus was going to play Long Beach, Serena was going to play someplace else.
So Venus might be in one place, and Serena might be in another. Today it
works the same way. And they really happy to do it that way.

Q. You're not going to change the rule, except for the big tournaments?

RICHARD WILLIAMS: Actually, I don't make the rules no more. I'm out of it.
They the ones make those decisions now. I told them as soon as they got to be
18, they could do it. Serena yet 17, but she's so close to 18, "You just make
those decisions." I'm just out of it now.

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