S. Williams - 23.01.2013

S. STEPHENS/S. Williams
3-6 7-5 6-4

Q.  How is the physical injury?  How is the back?
SERENA WILLIAMS:  It's fine.  You know, just nothing.  I think everyone at this stage in the locker room has something wrong with them, so it's fine.
There's no excuse there.

Q.  You were serving at about 130 kilometer an hour after the back problem.  What exactly happened?  Was it tight?
SERENA WILLIAMS:  Well, a few days ago it just got really tight and I had no rotation on it.  I went for this dropshot in the second set and it just locked up on me, so...
I think that it just    I couldn't really rotate after that, which I guess is normal.  I don't know.

Q.  Is it the worst couple weeks you've had at a Grand Slam?
SERENA WILLIAMS:  For a Grand Slam, absolutely.  Absolutely.  Oh, my gosh, I'm almost relieved that it's over because there's only so much I felt I could do.  I was unaware the microphones picked that up.
But, oh my gosh, it's been a little difficult.  I've been thrown a lot of balls these two weeks.

Q.  Did you ever think about retiring at any point?
SERENA WILLIAMS:  Doug, are you kidding me?  I'm not retiring.
Oh, you mean, retiring in the match (laughter).  Oh, I'm sorry.  I thought you meant my career.  Like, you're crazy.
Uhm, I mean, I thought about it like for a nanosecond.  I mean, it's a quarterfinal of a Grand Slam.  Even if I have to take off in a wheeler before I retire.

Q.  What did you think of the quality of the match before you tweaked the back?
SERENA WILLIAMS:  I don't think my level was high.  I don't know how many unforced errors I ended up hitting, but for sure more in one set than I probably did in the whole tournament.
So I think her level was high.  But as for my end, I mean, you can tell.  You each can say this is definitely not my best match in months.

Q.  Obviously your serve speed went way down when you had the injury.  You started to work your way back in the match in the third set.  How much of that were you fighting yourself and how much were you fighting injury in that third set?
SERENA WILLIAMS:  Well, at that point you just have to pretend like nothing's wrong.  You think of worst case scenarios.  You know, I just thought, Okay, just pretend nothing's wrong and just try your best.
That's what I tried to do.  Even tried to hit my serves harder.  My legs were fine, so running was fine.  Just rotating was a little tough.