INTERNAZIONALI BNL D'ITALIA (WOMEN)

May 15, 2007

Serena Williams

ROME, ITALY

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Very happy very saw on television.
SERENA WILLIAMS: Oh, really?

Q. With your interview before.
SERENA WILLIAMS: I was playing around trying to stay warm.

Q. You seem to be moving pretty well.
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah? Good. I don't think so. I think I could move better.
But I'm moving better, and if I had to move more I would have moved more.

Q. And you're sliding well.
SERENA WILLIAMS: It's easier to slide on European clay for me. It's harder to
slide on the Hard-Tru. This is much easier. I was struggling before but, the
moment I got over here I just started sliding immediately. Yeah. It was good.

Q. You got off it to a fairly slow start. You seemed to be struggling to get
the radar right in the early stages.
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah. I kept missing and hitting balls out. I wasn't doing
what -- I was doing everything wrong basically. I was just flat.

Q. Would you have rather been playing in the day?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I always prefer to play in the day because you have the rest
of the day off, and the next day.
So now it's like I had to wait all day to play and then play at night, and
then I only have tomorrow off, if I have tomorrow off.

Q. Was there anything in particular that enabled you to turn it around so
dramatically from that early loss?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah. I felt like I wasn't playing my game at all. I felt
like I was just making a lot of errors and I was letting her dictate play,
and that wasn't my game at all.
So I was out there not doing the way I practiced. Second set I tried to do
that a little bit more and it worked out better.

Q. What about your opponent?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I thought she played really well. I think she has a great
game, all-around game. I thought she played really well and she's really
young, so she has a great future.

Q. Did you feel frustration after 4-2 and you cannot play your game?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I was a little bit frustrated, but I knew that I was
going to stay calm no matter what. And I knew if, I happened to lose the
first set, there was no way I wouldn't be involved in a three-set match.
I knew I was going to stay out there all night if I had to, so I just had to
relax.

Q. It has been a good start for you. Because sometimes you had a worse start
other tournament, also here in Rome.
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I haven't played a while on clay. It's a good start,
and it wasn't a really easy match. I got to run and she moved me a lot, so I
came to the net.
It was a little bit of everything, so it was a good first-round match for me.

Q. The tension that you had in first set, was that just routine or was there
any problem to your thigh?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Oh, with the trainer?

Q. Yeah.
SERENA WILLIAMS: No. I had to wrap my thigh and I wrapped it the other day
and my other leg got sore from the rubbing, so I just had to get some
Vaseline on it. It wasn't injured or anything.

Q. After a match like this, an hour, I mean do you go to eat? You go to
sleep. I don't think you go to dance. But do you eat later?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah. I have to eat because I have to replace some carbs.
I'm not really hungry. I'm just going to go to sleep after this. That's it,
like I said, my day has been boring.
I usually could have had the rest of the day, but -- watched some TV on my
DVD.

Q. And are you surprised about so many players retired here, this tournament,
so many don't play?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Oh, really?

Q. Yeah.
SERENA WILLIAMS: I'm here. I don't know who came out and who didn't.

Q. You know you are here.
SERENA WILLIAMS: I know Martina a didn't play, but that's the only person I
know that didn't play. I think Maria was in it and she pulled out a long time
ago though. I keep up mainly with Serena Williams. She's my No. 1 concern.
And Venus. She is my No. 2, sometimes No. 1.