Serena Williams Interviews After Win at Fed Cup 2012

Written by: Staff on 6th February 2012

Serena Williams Interviews After Win at Fed Cup 2012

Serena Williams of the United States serves to Ekaterina Makarova of Russia in their fourth round match against at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 23 January 2012. Makarova won in two sets. EPA/BARBARA WALTON |

Q. Obviously you were clearly

frustrated in the first set. How did you turn

things around, cut down on the errors?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I knew it couldn’t get

worse. I was just like, Okay, it’s not going to get

any worse than this, it can only get better.

Q. Can you talk about her game, what

she did. Seemed like she did a good job of

keeping points alive.

SERENA WILLIAMS: She has a real junk

game, you know, where you just hit slice on

everything. Shocking, no one’s really playing like

this. But, you know, you have to be able to face

everybody. I made too many errors.

Q. How big was this win for the U.S.

team?

SERENA WILLIAMS: It was really big for

us. I definitely wanted to get my match and win it

so we could kind of be a little more relaxed. That

was really important for me

Q. After your career has come and

gone, how do you want to be remembered in

the game of tennis?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Oh, my. I don’t

know. I’m not even thinking about that now. I don’t

want to remember yet.

Q. Is your performance a little bit a

function of the fact that you haven’t been

playing that many matches?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I don’t know. I don’t

want to make excuses. I’ve been training and

practicing, so it was a little frustrating.

I mean, I don’t know if that’s the reason. I

will be able to get better, yeah, so it will be fine.

Q. Victoria Azarenka being No. 1,

winning the Australian Open, she has a lot of

points coming up to defend. How hard is it

when you first get to that level to be able to

handle it and keep that momentum going and

defend the points?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I don’t know. I don’t

really even think about it. I just play.

It’s a lot of pressure defending points.

Sometimes the pressure can get to you. So I don’t

know.

Q. I really liked your racquet smash

today. You had a good move where you

smashed it and immediately threw it behind

you. It was impressive.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Thank you

(laughter).

Q. Where do you think that one ranks

amongst your racquet smashing of all time?

SERENA WILLIAMS: That one is way low.

I’ve demolished some racquets. Yeah, that was

nothing. That just goes to show you how frustrated

I was out there today.

I haven’t done that in a match in a very

long time.

Q. Do you have any favorite ones from

your past? You had one in the Miami final a

few years ago that was pretty good.

SERENA WILLIAMS: No, I can’t even

think of them right now. I can’t remember exactly

when they happened.

Q. What do you think it takes to make a

really good smash?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Probably a lot of

power, which I have, and a tremendous amount of

anger. It just goes better when you have more

anger.

Q. Can you tell me how your ankle

feels.

SERENA WILLIAMS: My ankle’s good.

You know, it’s not healed, but it feels fine. It’s

really kind of weird. I don’t understand that. But it

feels fine.

Q. It didn’t affect your game today,

though?

SERENA WILLIAMS: No, no.

Q. Are you planning on being with the

team in April?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I mean, if everything

I hoped to play last year, too, but everything didn’t go well.

I’m just taking it a day at a time. Hopefully

I will be there.

Q. Are you enjoying the team game or

do you prefer being an individual?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I actually prefer

being an individual. I feel too much pressure

playing with a team. I feel like I have to win. Not

that I have to win, but I want to win more than I do

for myself because the last thing I want to do is let

someone else down. So it’s like there is so much

stress. When you are playing by yourself, you

want to win, but it’s a lot less pressure.

I love like having Christina McHale around,

having Mary Joe and Venus, Liezel Huber, Sloane

Stephens. I love the camaraderie. It’s so much

pressure for me. I’m like, I want to win this for you

guys and do the best that I can for them.

Q. Now that you’re preparing for the

hard court season, are you going to stay local,

play in some tournaments before, or get ready

for Indian Wells and Miami?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I’m going to

be at home and training. I’m playing Monterrey,

then Miami. I don’t play Indian Wells. Yeah, I’m

not going back. I’m going to play Monterrey,

Miami. It will be fun.

Q. The points for breaking serve for 5-1

in that first set, how surprised were you that

you let down as much as you did, and she

junked you to pieces, as you said?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I didn’t realize I had

a point to go up 5-1, to be honest. It’s a good thing

that I didn’t realize that during the match. I

probably would have been even more upset.

It was important to stay positive. I was

extremely negative out there. In the past I haven’t

been like that. I think I just wanted to do so well for

the team. I didn’t want Christina having any

pressure going into her match. I took all the

pressure and I shouldn’t have done that. I just kind

of went haywire, yeah.

But, you know, I was able to win playing

like that. That’s pretty awesome.

Q. I asked you something yesterday

about the Olympics. What is your

understanding now about what you have to do

or whether you have already done it to be

eligible to get in the Olympics?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I don’t know. I know

you have to play Fed Cup, I guess. My whole goal

is just to focus while I’m here to win matches for

the team. Clearly, I don’t want to lose for the team.

So I don’t know.

Topics: Serena Williams

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