ROGERS CUP WOMEN

August 5, 2013

Eugenie Bouchard
Monica Seles
Serena Williams
Venus Williams

TORONTO, ONTARIO

THE MODERATOR:  Thank you so much, everyone, for coming.  We have with us up
here our four participants for tonight's opening night exhibition match:
 Monica Seles, Eugenie Bouchard, Venus Williams, and Serena Williams.

Q.  What does it feel like to be back here in Toronto where you have so many
great memories?  What are your thoughts on taking the court tonight with two
great champions like the Williams sisters and a future champion maybe in
Eugenie Bouchard?
MONICA SELES:  I'm very excited to be back in the Toronto.  Obviously this
city holds, or this tournament, a lot of special memories for me.  It's my
first tournament back after a while, so the crowd's reception I had, any time
I get invited back I say yes.
I'm looking very much forward to tonight's match.  I have never played with
Eugenie, but I played against both Venus and Serena so I'm a little bit
nervous with the balls coming at me.
I think we're all going to have a fun match tonight, show the crowd some
entertaining times.  They will be in for a treat.  That's most important.

Q.  Monica, this is the 40th anniversary of women's tennis and through your
career you have obviously seen a big evolution.  What are your thoughts on
how far the women's game has come?  Do you think that it is getting enough
respect today?
MONICA SELES:  Well, I think each generation, you know, keeps putting women's
tennis further and further.  Obviously our founder, Billie Jean King, has
laid the foundation for it.  All of us were at the Wimbledon W-40 celebration
this year at Wimbledon celebrating 40 years of the WTA Tour.
I think the prize money, the prestige of the tournament is going in the right
direction and the future tennis stars, thanks to the past champions, the
current champions have really greatly built a system for them.

Q.  Genie, how do you feel being onstage with royalty?
EUGENIE BOUCHARD:  Really special.  Obviously it's such an honor for me to be
able to play with three legends tonight.  Going to have a lot of fun, and
hopefully it will be a good match and the fans will enjoy it.

Q.  Does it feel a little strange, or are you kind of looking around...
EUGENIE BOUCHARD:  It's just so cool.  I mean, obviously I have watched all
of them play and I have great respect for all of the champions here.  I look
forward to playing against them.  I haven't played against or with any of
them.
It will be a fun experience.  Hopefully maybe Monica and I can have a chance
at the famous Williams sisters.  (Smiling).

Q.  Genie, just as part of that, when I came in here today, there was a
picture of you, sort of huge, and your name has been on everybody's lips,
including Billie Jean King a few days ago.  Just wondering how you feel about
this burst of, I guess, fame and how you think it's going to affect your game?
EUGENIE BOUCHARD:  It's always special coming back to Canada and playing at
home.  We only have one big tournament a year really, so I try to enjoy it as
much as possible.  It's great.  People know a bit more who I am now, so it's
always fun playing here in front of the home crowd because I get a lot of
support.  I'm just going to enjoy that this week.

Q.  Welcome back, Venus.  It's been since the end of May since you have
played.  An update on how you are feeling, both for the exhibition and coming
into this week?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  Well, yeah, I'm excited about the exhibition, and it's great
to be reunited with Serena on court.  Great to be on court with Monica and
Eugenie.
I'm feeling good.  You know, I have been watching a lot of tennis on TV, so
it will be nice to take part.  (Smiling).

Q.  Is the back fully healed?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  Yeah.  You know, I just started to realize that I couldn't
play, especially since I didn't have a serve.  It was just really hard to
play without a serve, I found out, so especially such a huge part of my game.
Yeah, I feel like I'm at the point now where I can hit the ball pretty well.

Q.  Venus and Serena, is there something special you did in preparation for
the match tonight?  Something that you're planning together?
SERENA WILLIAMS:  We're just going to have a lot of fun.  This is a great
opportunity, always any opportunity to be on the court with Monica, being on
the court with Genie I think is great, as well.  She's the future of tennis.
 She has a great game.  So it will be great also for Canadians to see their
local hero do so well.  We just plan on having a really good time today.

Q.  Monica, as you probably know, John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Jim Courier,
many other legends, the men, have put together their own tour.  I was
thinking, you had such a wonderful rivalry with Steffi Graf, Jennifer
Capriati, Arantxa Sanchez, probably a few others I have forgotten.  I think
so many people would love to see a women's legends exhibition.  I'm curious
if that will happen in the future between you and Steffi and some of the
other rivals of your era.
MONICA SELES:  Obviously I can't speak for the other players, but I think in
my case my singles days are finished.  When I retired, there was a reason I
retired, physically and emotionally.
I love doubles and playing tennis and doing events like this.  But to play
singles against someone like a Graf or Davenport, I mean, you look at with
Martina Hingis, I played against her, some event a month and a half ago, and
it was like, Wow.  Obviously she'd like to come back.  It's a different level.
But for me, I will pass on singles but I love playing doubles.  It's fun.

Q.  Monica, as someone who had so much fan and media attention at such a
young age, do you have any advice for your partner tonight in handling the
newfound attention she's getting now?
MONICA SELES:  Well, I think she already had a taste when she won Juniors
Wimbledon.  So I think she earned already with a lot of hard work.  I think
it's just a fun new world she's entering where, you know, just hard work.
 That's probably No. 1.  Have fun at it.  Enjoy the ride.
Tennis is such a compressed, short career.  Try to make the most of it.
 You're lucky to do something we love, get paid for it, travel the world.
Surround yourself with a good support system.  I think both Serena and Venus
can attest to that.  They played longer than I played, so, you know, I think
probably they can answer better than I.
Taking care of your bodies.  That's key.  I think all of us know how
important that is because tennis is so grueling, day in and day out, to play
at this high level.

Q.  Serena or Venus, either one, you have seen a lot of good young players
get some excitement and get touted as the next thing.  What separates some of
those players who get a lot of attention from those who actually push through
and end up being contenders that you guys play in finals and things like that?
SERENA WILLIAMS:  Oh, it's hard to say.  You never really know who's going to
be that special player to come out and do so well, because I think tennis is
a sport where anything can happen.  Anything can happen.  Someone could have
a bad day.  Someone could play amazing.
I just think there is so many to choose from and everyone is doing so well.
 I just think really for women's tennis it's probably one of the most
exciting times it's ever been.

Q.  I'd like to get back to the fact that this is the 40th year of the WTA.
 Given the champions here, it will be sort of a good question to ask from
your perspective that over these 40 years, the women's tennis is not quite in
parity with the men's yet.  I was wondering, what do you think the WTA needs
to do to really raise it to the next level that would, in fact, you know,
create the kind of excitement that I'm sure all of you would like to have?
SERENA WILLIAMS:  You said women's tennis wasn't exactly what?

Q.  In parity with the men's, ATP.
VENUS WILLIAMS:  I think there is a lot of opinions out there, and I think
all of us ladies on this stage and I know Karl, the tournament director, too,
thinks that's kind of an opinion.  Everybody has their own opinion.  Some
people like men's tennis more and some like women's tennis more.
It's all great tennis, but it's just a perspective.  The competition and the
level of play is higher than ever before, so that's the reality of the matter.

Q.  Venus, you mentioned that you have been watching a lot of tennis
recently.  Is that unusual for you?  What observations have you generally
made?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  Yeah, I have watched a lot of tennis, but during the day I
had to go to the gym and to rehab, so I missed most of Wimbledon.  So like by
the time I got home I missed a lot of it.  But of course I record Serena's
matches if I can't be there, set my alarm to wake up.
Mostly watching --especially Serena Williams, I watch a lot of her matches.

Q.  What do you make of everything that happened at Wimbledon?  Because it
was a pretty eventful tournament.
VENUS WILLIAMS:  You never know what's going to happen in the draw.  Never
guaranteed.  You have to win your match whether you're the best player or the
worst player.  That's pretty much what Wimbledon proved this year, I think.

Q.  Monica, it's been what, 11 years now since your last match?  Right around
there?  2002?  You're watching the games.  Just talk about some of the
fundamental differences you see between the beginning of the century and now.
MONICA SELES:  Well, I think the fitness level of girls has really gone up.
 There are no more easy matches.  Kind of when I came on the tour, you know,
first few rounds you'd be cruising more easier through it.
I think now from round 1 you have to be very on.  I think the schedule is
very tough, because the fitness level, you always have to be in top shape and
that's not so easy to be 11 months of the year, not just physically but also
mentally.
I think probably the tour is a little bit spread out more because a lot of
tournaments are in Asia, Middle East, because it was just coming as I was
leaving the tour.
I also think the offcourt commands, with the social media stuff, there is so
much more demand on the players to be interactive than in my day.  You might
have had the media conference and the sponsor parties, but you didn't have
all this other social media stuff that for me is foreign because I'm that
generation that kind of missed it.
But it is here, and it's very real.  Players participate in it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports