uh over the july fourth weekend our first guest defeated her sister venus to win the
2002 wimbledon singles championship please welcome
the number one women's tennis player in the world serena williams everybody
how you doing good thanks welcome to the program congratulations on your win over there in england
what was that like what did that mean to you that must have been uh exciting career highlight i
would think yeah it was definitely very exciting it's always my dream to go out there and and win
wimbledon and it was just like a apex i was able to reach for my career now i know nothing about
tennis so explain to me is the uh the uh uh the french open that's clay right yeah that's clay
okay and and the the wimbledon championship that's grass right so uh it seems like both would be hard
to play on but what's the difference people say that the french open is a bit difficult to win
because it's slow and you have to be in really good shape and you have to be very consistent and
you have to be able to play on clay and it's just and then wimbledon is very very fast so
it's just you the ball hits and it's just like skidding well i see so when the ball
hits the clay it just sort of drops dead where it hits more or less it's not quite it doesn't fly
yeah and which of those do you prefer uh wow actually i like them both i can play
on any surface whether it's hardcore or grass court or clay court what what is your best game
what complements your game best what surface i'd have to say hard because i grew up on the
heart but a lot of people think grass because i hit very hard and so when i'm hitting on the
grass it's very hard for the opponent to get the ball because the ball just kind of flies
and your your serve what kind of serve are we looking at here's a big booming box for 120
no well i am my fastest serve is a 123. so wow
wow 123 miles 123 miles but i i normally average like 110
because you know i had to slow it down a little bit right and and let's say
say your average now this is your first serve you're talking about how does it how
what does it come off for the second serve if you got to shoot in another
no well nowadays you have to have a tough second server people are going to attack it so that's in
the 80s 90s yeah oh man that's still traveling but the 123 you killed a guy with that right i wish
no i didn't
now what uh when you're how many times have you uh met your sister in the finals of a major tennis
tournament oh that would be three times we played in the u.s open la in 2000 right one and then
we played the french open in 2002 and then the wimbledon that just passed and what is that what
is the record standard well she won the one in the us open and i won the last two so wow good for you
when you're playing your sister
how does it work do you know something about her game that other people don't know because
you practiced and grew up together so do you know a weakness of her game to exploit or uh
do you then know a strength of yours that you you have to maximize how does that work well you know
it's a little tough to say venus is she doesn't really have a weakness in her game everything
she does is just very strong she plays pretty much very immaculate so it's hard to say that she has a
weakness i just have to whenever i play her i know that i have to play at a 10 out of a 10.
or else i'm not going to be winning and so that's that must be incredible pressure for you then
maybe a little bit but you've i've been playing for you know a long time
16 years so i just there's really no pressure only pressure i have is what i put on myself and i try
not to put any pressure on me but you must be tired of playing her aren't you tired of playing
controversy no not at all not at all i mean but i mean when it when it comes up
that when you're both going into the finals don't you think oh geez it would be nice to
play somebody easy in the finals you know maybe no it's so tough playing venus though but uh
no because i would actually like to see her do her best and she's playing a grand slam obviously
i would love to see her win unless she's playing me and the same for her so
if she's in the final that means she did good and to get in the final of a grand slam it
it's really tough now is is it uh uh your folks do they do you secretly think oh they
really like me as a player better or they like they like venus as a player better do
you have any of that going on psychologically does that happen i like to think they like me
they're they love they love boba's just the same you know parents you can't really do that
and you played the the doubles championship yeah we won the doubles too so we're really excited
a lot of people don't do that do they no is there anything about the doubles game that
you can work on that helps in your singles game or anything that transfers to be honest to be honest
i never practice on the doubles unfortunately and we haven't actually practiced doubles since
september of last year when we played the us open so we haven't actually played doubles again until
you know just july so so the championship game for you is just a little tune-up is what you're saying
you know that's remarkable it was we played some really good doubles considering that we
wasn't able to practice ahead of time that we really hadn't done anything
but i don't know we just came up with this new method of trying not to lose serve so much and
see what happens yes and whatever happened to men's tennis why did they stop you know our devils
i'm not i'm not you know i'm not
no
uh our doubles rating um our final actually had more than sure it did well yeah of course
she said women's right now uh the do you watch her the who of the men players who
do you like anybody that you like well i just i really don't know it's just nobody
i don't really have time to watch
and then and then the the trophy presentation at center court there
and this [ __ ] is running around without his clothes on it oh my goodness oh my goodness
i'm still i'm still in shock you know have you been there all day naked
i don't know don't want to know but apparently uh was it was for the men's final i don't you
know he was ran out and i was passing by in the locker room you know i was gonna look on
the tv and i was looking at the tv and i see this guy taking off his shoes and he was just
completely you know as they would say naked that's right
and my eyes and i'm still i'm just naked but that's that's not going to help men's tennis
honestly that's if they think they got something there they're wrong yeah you know they need to
come up with a better scheme yeah uh and so what kind of things are you doing now do you you get
anytime if you're playing tennis 365 days a year almost aren't you almost almost but um
i don't know i'm just trying to relax now and now it's my off season and just do a little different
things and just have fun you know just in a month you'll be back here for the us overall yeah in a
month i'll be back here for the open so i really don't have much off time in between i'm actually
playing two tournaments that last a week each now if you if you keep meeting your sister in in
the finals of these big matches couldn't we just say okay that's it we're not playing the finals
no you know what people people say that you know is it tough but when i actually
meet her it's a grand slam and in tennis this is this is like the super bowl of tennis is a
grand slam especially wimbledon the u.s open if you beat her does she get a little hissy
well she's two years older than you know
she you know venus is a you know i have to say she's a great champion she she just is remarkable
and i've actually learned a lot of my class from venus because she's just if she's the epitome of
a champion someone were to tell me to describe a champion i would just say venus because she's a
great winner and loser that's right and and now the little sister is running her ragged so you
know that no no no no no i had a tough match at wimbledon i don't really think i was a bit lucky
to win that one well that's very sweet of you to say that's very gracious that's a very nice thing
yeah uh well listen i hope you have some fun between now and then and
if you win even if you don't win come back and see us okay pleasure meeting you
congratulations serena williams everybody tom arnold be right back you