U.S. OPEN

August 30, 2017

Venus Williams

New York, NY, USA

V. WILLIAMS/O. Dodin

7-5, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How do you feel tonight's match compares to the first round? Any
improvements?
VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, I mean, I played two big servers in both rounds. When
you get your opportunities, you do have to close on them, then sometimes they
don't come back, so...

Today by the stats the match was super clean. Obviously there was an
opportunity there to get a 2-2 match perhaps. But, you know, I feel like each
round is a time to improve.

Q. You talk about experience a lot in your press conferences. It was on
display. Did you sense that as well when she was coming back from 5-2?
VENUS WILLIAMS: I don't know. I just try to win the game, try to win the
match. Experience should help hopefully.

Q. Especially after this year in which you've made deep runs in two Grand
Slams, do you have a feeling this early in tournaments that you're playing
where you want to be, you have a possibility to make another deep run?
VENUS WILLIAMS: I don't know. I mean, when you come to the tournament, nobody
plans on when they're losing. Let's put it that way. My goal's to win every
match. That's all I can do.

Q. Do you like the first weeks of the tournament compared to the second where
you're a little bit more under the radar, nobody is asking you the intense
questions every day? Do you like the anonymity, as much as possible with you?
VENUS WILLIAMS: For me, I'm just going on the court, practicing, preparing,
and recovering and playing the match. I'm not out there reading press,
watching TV or trying to see who said I was going to win. At the end of the
day there's people who are talking about the winning and there are people who
are actually playing the matches.

I need to play the match.

Q. You play Maria Sakkari next. What are some of your memories of facing her?
VENUS WILLIAMS: It will be a little bit different than the first two matches,
especially in terms of the service games. We did play a well-contested match.
I'm going to have a lot of opportunities and I'm going to want to capitalize
on them. I'm looking forward to it.

Good night, y'all.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports