WIMBLEDON


July 5, 2000


Venus Williams

WIMBLEDON


MODERATOR: Ladies and Gentlemen, Venus and Serena.

Q. Today you were on the same side of the net, tomorrow on the opposite side.
How do you look at that?

VENUS WILLIAMS: I don't know. We feel like we answered enough of these
questions yesterday. We think that the request right now is because of
doubles or else we wouldn't be here.

Q. Who played the better tennis today between the two of you?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't know.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I think we played even. We both held each other up.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Some parts. Some parts, you know, one of us were down, the
other partner was there. The best thing about us, if one of us is down, the
other one is definitely going to be there. I don't think there's been too
many matches where both of us were down.

Q. Which of you hit Martina harder?

VENUS WILLIAMS: I think that she turned her back a little bit, that's all.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yes.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Otherwise she maybe would have got it back.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Probably made another winner.

Q. What's it like to play her?

VENUS WILLIAMS: This is a one-time opportunity for us.

SERENA WILLIAMS: She used to be my favourite player. When I was younger, I
used to admire her. My dad would say, Who is your favourite player? I always
used to say, Martina Navratilova. I always wanted to play against her. She
retired. I'm grad I had an opportunity.

Q. What did you admire?

SERENA WILLIAMS: She's really playing some decent tennis. Really her serve
has a lot of weird stuff on it. She's definitely -- how old is she?

Q. 43.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Definitely not acting her age out there. She's playing a lot
better. Pretty exciting.

Q. What did you admire about her when you were younger?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Oh, I don't know. She was a serve-and-volleyer. I guess I
must have liked her. Look at me, I'm not serving and volleying. I don't know.

Q. Venus, any residue of the cramping you had yesterday? Did you have to do
any therapy or IV after the match?

VENUS WILLIAMS: No (laughter). No, I didn't have any IV treatment. I think it
was a matter of not hydrating myself the night before apparently because
there's only so much water you can drink out on the court before you start
feeling sick to your stomach. Next time I'm going to have to do a better job
of hydrating before the match. This is something I didn't know.

Q. Are you a little bit worried about that after the US Open last year?

VENUS WILLIAMS: No, no, not at all. This time I just decided that I didn't
have time for the cramps. I wouldn't be able to accept it. I think that's
mainly why they went away.

Q. What are your thoughts on Martina, Venus?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Navratilova? She came out playing better than what we ever
expected. Our power didn't seem to get to her usually. Her hands were quick
as ever, probably quicker than Serena and I's. She really watches the ball.
She was returning our serve, when she got the opportunity, just with the best
of us, on the same level as Serena and I.

Q. Have you talked to her at all over your time as a pro tennis player or
today?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Not really. About what?

Q. Just anything. Has she ever said, "Here is some advice"?

VENUS WILLIAMS: No, not really. Well, sure, "Good job, great match," regular
things like that. Not really advice.

Q. How do you think she'd do if she came back and played singles right now
with what you saw?

VENUS WILLIAMS: I don't know. It's tough to say. She was only covering half
the court today. These days, being mobile is pretty important. The girls are
pretty more powerful than what they had been ten years ago. But from what she
did today, sure, I would say she would do pretty well.

Q. What sort of things would you say between points to each other as a pep
talk?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, just, you know, "Let's go. Let's make it happen." The
usual, things like that. Sometimes we don't get much into tennis, we just try
to stay relaxed.

Q. Is it nice to have this distraction today to take your mind off tomorrow?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yes, because I like playing doubles. Then we don't have to
go out and have some intense practises. We can play our doubles match. Yes,
we got a good practise. Since today was three sets, that was really good for
us.

Q. Will you warm up against each other tomorrow?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Most likely, yes - maybe.

Q. Martina has won nine times. Can either of you imagine winning nine times,
this title?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't know because nine years from now, I don't know if
I'll still be playing. She's played a great feat. If I still play, yes,
maybe. But that was a really impressive number.

Q. (Inaudible) not playing?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, I just think, you know, I just want to play tennis for
a little while in my career, move on. Nine years from now, I'll be almost 29
-- 28.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I'll be 29.

Q. Do you remember watching Martina's last Wimbledon win here, 1990?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yes.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah.

Q. You saw it on TV?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yes.

VENUS WILLIAMS: No. I think we saw a tape of it. I knew we were practising
that day, I remember.

SERENA WILLIAMS: It was a big thing.

Q. What do you two intend to do in the buildup to your game tomorrow?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Nothing.

Q. Talked your dad into coming yet?

VENUS WILLIAMS: You know, we haven't talked to him.

Q. Didn't talk to him about coming?

VENUS WILLIAMS: No.

Q. Do you want him to come?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, sure.

Q. Before most singles matches you've relied on your father's advice and
coaching. Now prior to this one, you feel like you're on your own; together
you have to support one another going through the questions?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Like we said earlier, we've had enough of these questions.
It's really beginning to be repetitive. What can I say? We're going to go out
there, we're going to play. What more do you want us to say?

Q. Have you sensed that your father has felt a bit awkward because he's the
coach of both of you, you're both playing this big match tomorrow?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't think he feels awkward. I think, if anything, he's
excited because two of his players are in the semifinals. What more could you
want besides two of his players to be in the finals?

Q. Do you think you'll be able to smile tomorrow on court or the tension will
prevail?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I definitely think we'll be able to smile tomorrow. We're
always filled with smiles. We like to smile.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah.

Q. Can you imagine playing doubles with anyone besides Venus?

SERENA WILLIAMS: It's kind of hard to imagine because I've always played with
her, ever since I was younger. We always played together. I've never played
with anyone else on the tour. It would be kind of tough. If she retires
before me, I might retire from doubles.

Q. What's so great about playing with each other?

SERENA WILLIAMS: It's fun because I know Venus is going to get a big first
serve in. I know I just have to put it away. I'm just there. Sometimes now,
my serve, I hit a big serve, she's going to put it away. Playing with her,
you get to smile, not only talking about tennis. Not talking about, "Do this,
do this." We can relax and talk about something that happened earlier in the
week, whatnot. It's just so much better.

Q. In those huddles after almost every serve when you were serving, you were
talking about things that weren't strategy? No strategy at all?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Mostly today we were talking about strategy because we knew
we couldn't lapse up because this team has had a few comebacks in this
tournament. I've seen one. Maybe they've had a few. But usually we talk about
a lot of things.

Q. Do you think that tennis just won't hold your interest, to have a career
as long as Martina did? She stayed with it well into her 30s.

VENUS WILLIAMS: I think it was different back then. The tour wasn't as long
as it is these days, there weren't as many girls playing, girls didn't start
at age 14. There were different things happening.

Q. Have you spoken to your mother since all this happened and you're playing
tomorrow? Is she very excited about it?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, she's really excited. We talked to her yesterday, all
of us. We all were talking to her, trying to convince her to come down.

Q. Was she not up for it?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Not really. She's been traveling so much all these years. At
one point she traveled more than me because she had to go to my tournaments
and Venus' tournaments.

Q. She's just going to sit and watch the TV?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah.

Q. Only one Williams can get to the singles final. Obviously you can get both
to the doubles final. Is that what's motivating you?

VENUS WILLIAMS: We love winning doubles.

SERENA WILLIAMS: We really do.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Since we have no ranking, we want --.

SERENA WILLIAMS: This is the first year we've ever played doubles here. We
want to go ahead and get a title. We want to start out with a perfect record
here.

Q. Serena, how much of Wimbledon did you watch last year?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I watched a pretty good deal. I didn't watch too much. If
it's on the TV and there's nothing else to watch, I watched it.

Q. Did you see the final?

SERENA WILLIAMS: No, I didn't see the final at all.

Q. Did you see Venus' match against Steffi?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yes, of course.

Q. The four previous matches that you played against each other were not at
the height could have been, at the level could have been, probably because of
tension prevailed. Do you think tomorrow could be a different story or you
don't know it yourself?

SERENA WILLIAMS: We don't know it ourselves.

VENUS WILLIAMS: We don't know.

Q. No idea?

VENUS WILLIAMS: No.

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