Bill Simons
No other tennis player has given such a wide range of press conferences as Serena. Some have been insightful. Others have been boring or perfunctory. Many have had an edge – sometimes extraordinary, sometimes hostile (like when she suffered a key 2015 US Open loss, or after being defaulted from the Open in 2009, or when she has called an end to her own pressers). Her joint pressers with Venus are giddy celebrations of sisterhood. “I’ve got your back” is the unwritten rule. Other times Serena can be moody or indrawn. The theater is grand. But we’ve never been at a presser like tonight’s confrontational, revealing and quite wonderful session. Here’s an edited version.
Q. Looked a little bit of a scrappy performance. A few more unforced errors, a few double-faults.
SERENA WILLIAMS: I think that’s a very negative thing to say. Are you serious?
Q. Just my observation.
SW: Well, you should have been out there. That wasn’t very kind. You should apologize. Do you want to apologize?
Q. I do. I’m sorry.
SW: Thank you very much. That was a great performance. I played well. She’s [Lucie Safarova] a former top-10 player…You know, it’s not an easy match. She’s a really good player. You have to go for more, which obviously makes a few more errors.
Q. What did you think coming into tonight about winning?
SW: She’s not someone you see in a second-round match…I knew that I wanted to just be Serena. That’s what I’m good at doing, is being Serena.
Q. Everyone in this room knows you’re an incredible person, that you have done one extraordinary thing after another. When you say ‘being Serena,’ what does that mean to you?
SW: To me, it’s being a champion, but not only by the way I play, but the things I do off the court…Being Serena on the court is in a way being calm, which is in my name, but always having that fire as well. Most of all, being confident. I should be confident ’cause there’s no other Serena. I mean, I’m Serena. Maybe there is another one, but she’s not in tennis.
So I think sometimes I forget. I try to be so humble that I forget I have accomplished so much. I really wanted today to just have confidence when I was out there.
Q. How important is it for you to have a kind of self-talk to yourself, Hey, Serena, be Serena?
SW: It’s really important, because I’ve worked all my life. I worked so many years. I work hard. I work really hard to win, to lose. I think everyone out here works really, really hard.
Even if we don’t win, we always come back and we always fight for a second chance, and there’s always another week. A lot of times, you don’t realize how hard everyone, all of us tennis players, works.
I felt I just had to realize I’ve been doing this for years. I mean, I should be able to do it really well.
Q. Your next opponent, Nicole Gibbs, has gained more of a voice in past years, as she has been speaking out on social issues. In recent years, you’ve also become more vocal about those sort of things. How important is that to you and how does it complement [your] being on court, being able to speak your mind, [and] that sometimes you’re bigger than tennis?
SW: I think Nicole definitely speaks her mind a lot…That’s really awesome. Having that opportunity and that platform that we have, to be able to say things we feel and speak up for social issues or things that aren’t right or things that are right, good things and bad things, I think it’s really important.
I really admire her for always speaking out. She’s such a smart individual. It’s so good to see her doing that.
Q. For you, personally, has it been easy? You’ve been in the spotlight for decades. Has it been easy for you to gain more of a voice and be more outspoken?
SW: It is because of the platforms that are available now. Ten years ago these social networks weren’t available, so it was…more difficult, more [of an] effort to speak out.
But now you just open up your phone and you can say or post something, you can shoot a video. It can reach so many people and impact so many lives by just taking 10 seconds.
Q. Is that something you enjoy?
SW: I do. It’s not only enjoyable, but it’s a good opportunity to stand up for social issues and things I find important.
Q. Did it take you time for you to get to where you felt comfortable doing that?
SW: No. I really just think that time’s changed drastically. One decade [ago], the only way to get a message through [was through] you all. Now [there are] so many different ways to do it.
It’s just been an unbelievable change with technology.
Q. Caroline [Wozniaki] said she wished social media was available when she was younger so that she could follow her idols.
SW: That would have been really cool. I would have followed so many amazing people…Every girl on tour would have followed Monica Seles, for sure. I would have followed Steffi. I would have followed Zina. So many people I would have followed. Muhammad Ali – can you imagine?
Q. What would Martin Luther King have been like on Twitter?
SW: I think he would be really good on Twitter, actually (laughter). I don’t know. It’s crazy. It would be amazing to have had that. But, of course, we didn’t. Can you imagine? I think it would have been so, like, inspiring to see what he would say in 140 characters.
Q. Are you aware of a controversy surrounding a comment made by Doug Adler on ESPN about your sister yesterday [when he referred to her as a gorilla]? Is there anything you want to say about that?
SW: I’m not aware of it. Never heard of it. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Probably better not let me know (smiling).
