Venus Williams - 13.1.2013

TENNIS - Australian Open, WILLIAMS d. Voskoboeva 61 60

Q.  That may be the best match you've played   at   a   slam   since   your   comeback. Would you agree with that?
VENUS WILLIAMS:     I don't know. (Smiling.)
I mean, the stats looked good for me.   I haven't seen them all yet, but I got a high first-serve percentage   and  more  winners  than  errors,  so that always makes a good match.
I don't  think  my opponent  quite  got  the hang  of  -- you  know,  it's  hard  to  play  the  first match in a major, first thing of the year, and that can be a lot of pressure.
I did my best to just close it out.

Q.   But  you had enough  energy  and your   body   was   responding   the   way   you wanted it to?
VENUS  WILLIAMS:       Yeah,  sure. (Smiling.)

Q.   This  is the  kind  of  match  in  the past  that  you  would  have  expected  yourself to  win.    It would  have  been  routine  to  win. Did it feel at all that way today?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  I don't know.  I don't think  about  the  score  when  I'm  out  there.    So even if I'm up 5-Love, I don't see 5-Love.   I just see I need to get the set.

Q.  Are you still trying to maintain that kind of vegan whatever diet?
VENUS  WILLIAMS:     Yeah  I  think  it's pretty well known I'm a cheagan.

Q.    What  do  you  get  to  cheat  with when you get to cheat?
VENUS WILLIAMS:   If it's on your plate I might get to cheat.   If you're sitting next to me, good  luck.   You turn  your head  once and  your food might be gone. (Laughing.)
I'm not perfect, but I try.

Q.  You have been coming down here for a long time.   How has this tournament changed in your eyes?
VENUS WILLIAMS:    I feel like this tournament definitely has the best facilities out of any of the majors.   Constantly improving.   I think it's unbelievable what they have done at the National    Tennis   Center    over   there   in   just improving the player facilities.
So that's fantastic, you know, reinvesting back into the tournament.

Q.  I think this is the 18th season you have gone into as a player.   Talk about your nongeneric    goals.       I'm   sure   they   have changed since, you know, '94 to '95.
VENUS WILLIAMS:    Yeah, trying to celebrate the 20th anniversary.

Q.  Of Venus.
VENUS WILLIAMS:   Trying to make it there, 20 years. My goals in '95, I didn't even know what I was  doing.    I  just  thought  I had  a  dream  and thought I could do it. Now  I have  done  a lot  of  things  and  I don't  really  have  anything  to prove  except  for I have my desire to play and to play well. That really is what it's about at this point, is getting the best out of me.

Q.   Yeah.    Are  you  going  to  play  in Italy?
VENUS WILLIAMS:  Yeah, yeah.

Q.  100%?
VENUS WILLIAMS:   Yeah, I think I'm confirmed  for the team, but I don't know.   But at this moment, honestly, I'm thinking about the Australian Open, and everything else is after this. Yeah.

Q.     I  have  heard  Hisense   is  a  lot slower than the outer courts that maybe you practiced  on also.   Did you sense  that at all today?
VENUS  WILLIAMS:       I'm  a  very unsensitive player.   (Laughter.)   I can't sense anything almost.  No feel.
Yeah, I'm not the one to ask because  I don't  notice  differences  that  much.    I just  play, and I don't care if the racquet is tight or not tight. I just play. So I'm not really a sensitive player.

Q.  How much more patient has the illness  forced  you  to  be  in  the  last  year  or two?
VENUS WILLIAMS:   Not much.   I'm not a patient person.  (Smiling.)
But  I  think   what   I  have   learned   more   than anything  is for me to focus  on the things  I can accomplish and not to think about the things that I can't do.
So  that's,  I  think,  what  I  have  learned more than anything than last year.