TENNIS WTA MONTREAL – 7th of August 2014. V. Williams d. A. Kerber 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. An interview with Venus Williams
Q. How did you feel out there? You looked really good in the first set. Towards the end did she surprise you when she picked her game up?
VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, I think even in the second set she started to pick her game up. I think it was 6 3 in the first set. She was gaining momentum. She kept that momentum going through the second. I tried to keep it competitive even though I was down a couple breaks.
It’s not always easy to really kind of get your hands around a match when you’re playing her.
In the end, it was unbelievably competitive points from both of us. We’ve always played so competitively. So many matches I’ve been on the short end of the stick. It felt good this time to pull one out.
Q. Hard fought points in that match. Was that fun or nasty out there?
VENUS WILLIAMS: It’s fun when you win those points. When you lose those, it’s anguish. It’s like, What else can I do?
I had a match point, I think it was a match point, where I had her completely off the court. She hit such a great shot. I managed to miss it long. You think, Wow, what else can I do?
You just have to keep trying. That’s the key playing against her. That’s what she’s done so well against me. She probably feels the same way. You just have to keep trying.
Q. Serena earlier said there’s some days she doesn’t know whether her serve, if it’s good in practice, maybe it’s bad during the matches. You double faulted, had some trouble. Can you get a feel of, I can have it now?
VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, serve is so crucial, especially for a big server like me. Today I felt like I missed so many long, always long, always long. So then when it’s not happening, you just have to take some off and try to up the first serve percentage.
On days like this when the first serve isn’t there like I want, you have to be really determined. I felt like, Okay, if I’m making more first serves, the match is going to be a lot easier for me. If I’m not, then I’m going to have to battle it out.
I think the match would be a little bit different if my first serves were going in. When they aren’t, you got to find another way.
Q. If the serve is not going in, do you take the speed off it to get your confidence up or do you keep going for your first serve?
VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, I do a mixture between taking some pace off and going for it. Sometimes I go for it before I know it. I’m like, Shoot, I meant to take some pace off.
I think it’s a combination of both. I think it was really the one bad game where I really came off rhythm and really had those double faults. I can’t remember if I won that game or lost that game.
Other than that, I think my second serve was really effective in terms of not really being in her strike zone. So I think it was really one bad game where I had three or four double faults. Sometimes that happens.
Q. You came down with your illness, it was diagnosed, you could have walked away, nobody would have blinked. The match was so incredible tonight, the crowd was incredible. I’m wondering if this is one of those reasons you are still around?
VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, for me absolutely, because in life, at least me, I want to do things on my own terms. I don’t want to be pushed out of the game for something completely out of my control. I want it to continue. I don’t have anything to prove to anyone or even to myself, but I want to not be defeated by anything.
So for me it’s more rising up to the challenge no matter what life throws at me, that I’m going to be brave, I’m going to give it my best, I’m going to conquer, no matter how many times I have to get up when I fall.
The last couple years I’ve fallen a lot, but I just got up and went back to practice, got up and kept getting treatments, whatever that was. So I like to think it’s paying off.
I pray every day for good health. If I don’t get it, then I wait for the next day.
Q. Fans may be hoping now come semifinals you and Serena face each other. That’s never old hat, right?
VENUS WILLIAMS: I know last week I fell a little bit short. So today felt good, when you get late into the third, to actually pull through. All these players are playing great. To be able to pull through these matches, play top 20, top 10 players, play well.
But really the depth in the game is so deep now you have to play well against every single player. Nothing is a given. Everyone thinks they should get the win.
I don’t even know who Serena’s playing.
Q. Wozniacki.
VENUS WILLIAMS: Wozniacki, okay. So hopefully we both will be able to get through.
