US OPEN


September 1, 2000


Venus Williams

Flushing Meadows, New York


THE MODERATOR: Questions for Venus.

Q. Now about those double-faults.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, I was pulling down too quickly. I think the main
problem was that I wasn't seeing like how I wanted to hit it clearly in my
mind so it was not translating, how I'm hitting the ball. So I couldn't stop
hitting the net. No matter how hard I tried, at one point there, I couldn't
stop hitting serves in the net. So...

Q. How did you go about self-correcting that?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Well, by the time the second set rolled around, I think it
was pretty much at an end or after those two double-faults in the tiebreak. I
got over with it.

Q. How much of a wake-up call was this, she was up 3-0?

VENUS WILLIAMS: I mean I don't think it was a wake-up call at all. She did
play well to get up 3-Love, it's not like I gave it to her. She hit some nice
shots, she had nice strategy. You expect people to come out and play well,
especially in a Grand Slam. I have a lot of points -- she has a lot of points
to gain if she defeats me. Unfortunately for her it didn't happen tonight.

Q. At that point is it a matter of confidence? You've been in those
situations so many times.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Sure, I think that's it. There's a lot of points there where
I could have lost where I managed to come through, a lot of balls that I
moved up to. Whereas in the past, even a lot of other players would not have
went forward just to attack. So I think that helped me out a lot on my side.

Q. Did you feel you had to break it up by starting --?

VENUS WILLIAMS: I thought the points would be quicker and more effective.
Whenever she was on a run, she hit some hard balls. The only time she
generated power was when I gave her power. Other than that, she was hitting
topspin balls. I felt like I wasn't going to feed her too much.

Q. Was your serve on your mind all day? You were out there doing a little bit
of work on it this afternoon?

VENUS WILLIAMS: No. I think the last match I served quite well, but today I
just -- I think one of the main reasons I wasn't getting a lot of first
serves in is that puts a lot of pressure on your second serve. Especially
today, she was returning very well, that makes you think more. Also, I was
thinking about it much too much. Some of the serves when I wasn't thinking
about it, I was thinking about something totally different, suddenly you hit
a great second serve. So I have to stop thinking too much.

Q. Can you speak a little bit about how much your self-confidence has grown
since you became the Wimbledon champion?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Well... I was pretty good before that.

Q. Perhaps it hasn't.

VENUS WILLIAMS: But I guess now I've been winning quite a few. I guess I have
the longest streak this year, these days, after this match. That's nice. I
think it's gonna be pretty hard to break that this year for anybody. But as
far as confidence, I feel like that in the big points, in the big situations,
I'm at an advantage. Like I'm not gonna back down or make mistakes for no
reason at all, as I might have done in the past.

Q. Is it possible even to trace that kind of level of desire and confidence
back from winning a Grand Slam?

VENUS WILLIAMS: No, I mean in order to win a Grand Slam, a lot of things have
to start before that. So it's not like all of a sudden I won Wimbledon. I
started working hard before. And now it's mine, I suppose. But it's just a
matter of stepping up at the right time. Willing to step up.

Q. You mentioned the other day that you thought maybe some people, when you
play them, might be a little intimidated when they come on the court against
you. How did it feel to have a challenge, someone come up there and say,
"Hey, I'm gonna try to do some different things."

VENUS WILLIAMS: I've seen her play before against Monica and I saw her do the
same exact thing so today I was ready. But she played very well, was mixing
up her shots. There was nothing I could do about it at that time. But I was
-- started reading where she was hitting, and just a few shots that she likes
more than others. So I'm a smart player; I'm watching what's happening.

Q. Did you enjoy the competition?

VENUS WILLIAMS: That's the first thing I said when I walked out on the court
when I was in warm-up. Just to make sure I love competing, I'm enjoying the
competition. If so, then you're playing a little better, she's gonna hit this
shot on me, I'm gonna hit this shot on her. So on and so forth.

Q. You think your winning streak can keep going for an unlimited time?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Sure seems that way. But one match at a time. Who do I play
next? No one knows. I think it was Coetzer and Serna. I'll play Serna. I
prefer to play a higher-ranked player but you can't pick the draw.

Q. Last night your sister shared with us some of her favorite Internet sites.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Pardon me?

Q. Last night your sister shared with us some of her favorite Internet sites.
I was wondering if you could talk about the places you go on the web.

VENUS WILLIAMS: You know, I go to Hotmail, CNNSI, Yahoo, I used to go to
Artnet.com. I don't go very much anymore because the site stopped loading
correctly. But I'm not very big with the Internet. As far as, sure, using it,
but I don't look around a lot.

Q. When you go back to school, did you think about designing some dresses for
your dolls?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Dolls?

Q. Yeah, for the dolls. Designing some for them.

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah.

Q. You're going back to school, right?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, yeah. That's a possibility.

Q. At any time during the first set did you feel tight at all?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, sure. I felt a little bit tight because I was thinking
about what I'm gonna do to turn this around, and also I think the only main
reason I felt tight is because my first two matches, even last week, my balls
have been flying long. So now I'm trying to stay low so they won't fly. But
today I saw that they weren't flying so I was feeling a lot better. I was
able to hit out a lot more.

Q. Is your wrist binding just a precaution?

VENUS WILLIAMS: It's like something I have to do before I play or else --.

Q. Since your injury?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Hmm? I have to do it.