INSIDE TENNIS: It’s 2006, your 12th year on the tour. Does it seem like that?
VENUS WILLIAMS: No. Those first years were destiny. I was still feeling like a high schooler. It’s been a while - many good times.
IT: All of them?
VW: A lot of learning every day. If you can’t learn anymore, it’s over. [The key is] getting better, bringing yourself to the next level.
IT: Every year, there seems to be more tall, strong teens. But you have gotten better in a lot of ways, too. You knew your weak spots and managed to cover some up and play to your strengths. It’s hard to find a weakness in your game if you’re playing well.
VW: My only weakness is my unforced errors. If someone plays me, they know they have to play their best and hope I’m having a really bad day; otherwise, things more or less go my way.
IT: You can win with offense and defense, which a lot of players can’t.
VW: At my height, most players don’t really cover the court and aren’t as agile as I am. It’s just a blessing. It’s not something I’ve necessarily worked on.
IT: Has there been a time when you’ve thought, “This girl might be too good for me?”
VW: When I’m hurt that definitely takes away some confidence. But I try not to go out on court hurt, unprepared. I’ve done that a lot before. But I’m over it now. I’ve taken a few blows this year. I wasn’t able to play Antwerp and Miami, and my ranking went down. But it was worth it because I’m not used to going out there and being beaten when I should win. If someone beats me now, hopefully it won’t be because I’m not prepared.
IT: Do you have a different kind of enjoyment now that you’re almost 26 and not a kid anymore?
VW: I feel grateful that I have this opportunity, that my parents started me. God’s blessed me so that I get to do what I do. When I go to an event like a basketball game, it is so exciting and I think like, I get to do this, too. Wow!
IT: Because you’re a star and sit in those celebrity seats?
VW: Not that. I get this feeling like, wow, those players are out here. Everyone’s watching. It’s so fantastic what they’re doing. I get this feeling that I too get to do that. I get to play this wonderful sport, and people enjoy what I do; it’s wonderful. Whenever I go to a concert, I’m really ready to play and get really pumped up.
IT: So you like performances and performing in a highly charged atmosphere.

VW: I love concerts.
IT: There are similarities between tennis matches and the ups and downs of music, the hard stuff, the soft stuff, and different melodies.
VW: In music, you have the opportunity to enjoy and take in the stage more. But in tennis, or maybe any other sport, you have to stay completely focused because the game can turn on a dime. You are not necessarily saying, “Yeah, this is nice what I’ve got here.”
IT: If you’re in a band, you’re not playing against an opponent and the musicians are more or less in control. On court, you can put on the greatest performance, but you don’t know necessarily what’s coming from your opponent.
VW: But it’s just a beautiful sport. It’s challenging to see what’s coming from the other side.
IT: How long are you going to play? It’s a tough sport to play beyond 30.
VW: It’s unfortunate because the way tennis is structured, it runs away its top players just when they should be at the height of their wisdom and playing better. But it’s impossible to play 10 years in a row, 11 months of the year and be physically and mentally ready. It’s too brutal. We lose a lot of our star power because of how relentless it is. At the end of the day, you realize that no one is going to watch out for you except you.
IT: You’ve generally done well not over-scheduling, but you’ve also taken big risks with your body. In 2003, you played the Wimbledon final against Serena with a torn abdominal muscle, and then you were unable to play the rest of the year. Last year, six days after you won Wimbledon, you played Fed Cup in Moscow on clay and then had injuries going on court every week until mid August.
VW: Fed Cup was really tough. I almost died. I did a lot of media afterwards. It was a joke because I was so burned out. I took like 10 flights in 13 days all over the place...Moscow, I had to stop in Paris and do something. It was just crazy. Then I had to go to L.A. and do a lot more press.
IT: And you played Stanford.
VW: I got to go to a Beck concert, though.
IT: That’s always good.
VW: I plan my schedule around concerts. I know when they’ll be around. That was the highlight of my summer.
IT: Do you have your mother’s love of music and sing a lot?
VW: I love music [but] I wouldn’t say that I’m a singer, but I could sing all day like I was doing [in the food line], just hum and sing and dance.
IT: You’re confident, too. A lot of people won’t sing out loud with other players around. But you are accustomed to hearing your mom who sings really well?
VW: Yeah. In fact, I didn’t know how well she sang until this year in Hong Kong at a lunch with a sponsor. So they asked my mom to sing. She got up and sang this Billie Holiday song, “God Loves the Child That’s Got.” I was so blown away. And the guy who was moderator said, “We don’t know if we will ask for the Williams sisters back, but we want Miss Price back.” I had no idea. When you share a room with my mom, you have to know what you’re up to. She’s running water, opening the curtains, singing opera. No one wants to be in her room. She watches TV all night. She moves around a lot. She always has cookies or packages. She’s so noisy. She’s fun, though, but not an ideal roommate. I don’t share rooms with her anymore.
IT: You’ve been fortunate to have had parents who’ve been so involved in your life. They still spend a lot of time with you and are devoted to you. There are so many working parents who don’t have that time, or they go their own way.
VW: I’m really blessed. Someone told me the other day, “Your parents really raised you well.” I said that would be the happiest thing that my parents would want to hear. They don’t care about “you’re an awesome tennis player, blah blah blah.” But if they heard that, they’d be so proud.
IT: They wanted the good citizen, the polite, nice person?
VW: Yeah. My dad said he wanted me to be the politest person in the world. When we said, “huh,” he said, “pardon me, excuse me,” and then we got in trouble. It paid off.
IT: It takes a while to sink in. It certainly doesn’t go that easy with my kids. We have to convince them it’s worth it.
VW: You have to let your yes mean yes and your no mean no. If I have kids, I don’t want to be arguing. Life’s already tough without having to argue with your kids.

IT: Good luck with that one.
VW: I didn’t argue.
IT: You never argued with your parents?
VW: No way.
IT: I bet a couple of your sisters did. There’s usually some who argue and some who don’t.
VW: Serena is a little more volatile, but not arguing.
IT: Your parents did a good job then.
VW: Never with my mom, ever. Maybe once in a while she might, like, blow off some steam with my dad. But no words back.
IT: Your mom seems tougher.
VW: Everyone thinks my dad is, but my mom is the scary one. My dad’s the easy one. I’m still scared of her [laughs].
IT: How important are results to you now, or is your mind-set just play well and enjoy it?
VW: Results are the name of the game. I’m here for results. I’m not here just to enjoy it. But at the same time, you have to enjoy it and not let all these years pass and not have had fun. No way. Not the way I roll.
IT: Do you say to yourself, I’m 26 now, I probably won’t play until I’m 35. I’ve got just so many years left, so I better get those major titles when I can?
VW: I don’t see it that way. The last thing you need to do is put pressure on yourself. You just have to go out there and try to flow as free as possible. I never really put pressure on myself. If anything, I try to make sure that I don’t. It’s enough to have people all around you asking, “Will you win?” My thing is, you’re not in the draw, so you aren’t going to win, either.
IT: I’ve been around enough to know that you’re not a big fan of losing.
VW: I don’t think too many players are, especially the top ones. The biggest expectations I have are from myself. So, if anything, I have to watch that to make sure I don’t get too crazy.
IT: So you can wake up in the morning and say, “Venus, this is what I want to do for myself today, regardless of what anyone else says?”
VW: Most certainly. Because what everyone else may want, they can’t do anything for me. I can only do for me.
IT: But it’s got to be hard not to hear the chatter. We all do. Everyone hears other people talking.
VW: Yeah, but I’m really, really, really, really over it. I didn’t start out my career like that. We were all about our own and what we needed to get done. We ran our program. It was pretty effective. It still is, as long as I’m healthy.
IT: Are you good at shutting things out? When you’ve been off for months with injuries, do you read your own press?
VW: No, but I do look at pictures.
IT: Never? You watch TV, so you must hear a little commentary.
VW: The mute button. I like TV, but especially if I’m watching tennis, I put it on mute.
IT: But what about when you know the praise is coming? You had to be tempted after Wimbledon when everyone was saying Venus had this fantastic comeback, one of the greatest wins ever over Lindsay.
VW: Well, I read two papers when I got home.
IT: Was that one of your top five wins of all time?
VW: Most certainly. I hate to classify them because one leads to the other, and each one is more special, and I couldn’t give one up for the other. Obviously, that one was extremely awesome. I keep that trophy by my bed. But that one’s exposed to the sun, so it’s tarnishing. The other ones are in the trophy room. But there is no memory more special than Oklahoma City.
IT: Oklahoma City? You’re kidding.
VW: Absolutely. C’mon, that was my first title. Serena and I won the doubles. We were really happy. Those are extra special.
IT: The first-win memories, like beating Shaun Stafford in your first match in Oakland in ‘94.
VW: I don’t know how I won that match.
IT: You were better than she was. That was one way.
VW: I didn’t know what I was doing.
IT: She was nervous, too.
VW: I was just swinging.
IT: Do you remember not sitting down during changeovers? That was crazy.
VW: I’m old now. I’ve got to sit down.
IT: And the Arantxa match after that, when you lost in three, do you remember that?
VW: I should have won, but I didn’t know what I was doing. The Venus today probably would win that. But Arantxa, when I first came on tour, she was a tough player because she’d trick you, whereas, you get older, you get wiser.
IT: She had just taken No. 1 from Steffi because she won the U.S. Open. She came to Oakland wearing a No. 1 necklace her mom just bought her. She was very prideful and didn’t want to lose to a hyped kid.
VW: I guess that was a big deal to her. I was just playing, not thinking too much.
IT: When you leave the sport, do you see yourself in tennis or being an interior designer?
VW: I’ll never say that I’ll never be in tennis, but I see myself maybe like Lendl, coming around every once in a while.
IT: So you’re going to send all your kids to Bollettieri’s and have them play golf like Lendl’s girls do?
VW: I don’t know if I’m going to send my kids to a camp. I think I need them at home so I can make sure they’re doing it right; monitor every move just the way I was monitored pretty good. Not like I’m spying, the peeking-through-your-door type. But I came out pretty good.
IT: But you and Serena are really independent now.
VW: Yeah, we weren’t too dependent. They were just careful with who we hung out with. We grew up in a house where you knew what the rules were and you followed them, or else. It’s the best way. You come out with respect for those around you and what you do and who you are. And a lot of it had to do with religion, too.

IT: Are you still a Jehovah’s Witness? Do you attend services?
VW: Yeah, when I’m home, but I’m never really home.
IT: So you’re saying prayers when you are on the road? It’s still a serious part of your life?
VW: Most certainly. Who knows what I would have done, because that’s definitely what reins me in from doing anything I shouldn’t do.
IT: A lot of kids rebel. It’s pretty natural. Some come back to their faith. Some don’t. You never had that point when you had doubts?
VW: I took it to heart. And to me it seemed to be the truth, so it was important for me to please God. So if I’m not listening to my parents and rebellious to them, that’s not what God wants.
IT: I’ve never heard you preach, and you haven’t taken a missionary role like Michael Chang.
VW: In press, if people ask me about it, I’ll tell them about my faith. I like to feel the way I live my life that I’m a good example, the way I act on court, as to what I believe in.
IT: You can separate your career from your religion?
VW: Religion is every thread in my life. It’s made my career what it is now.
IT: So do you think that if you weren’t Jehovah’s Witness, you might not have gotten to where you are now?
VW: I think the pressures probably would have been a lot. I credit my relationship with God, my spiritual beliefs, to being able to see the pressure not as pressure and to see that this is my job and my life, but there are so many more important things that can make you happy. That’s the reason why I think I was able to stay on the tour. And it seems like the women players get a lot more pressure. There are a lot of girls who started with Serena and me who aren’t around and maybe that’s because they didn’t have that.
IT: You are taught that there is a series of tests that you have to go through in life, and you have to learn to deal with them.
VW: Every day is a challenge. The spirit is strong, the flesh is weak. Every day you have to be diligent.
IT: Some, when they talk about Venus and Serena, talk about you two as a pair, the Williamses instead of Venus and Serena. Does it bother you, or do you feel connected at the hip?
VW: I love the Williams sisters. Can you imagine if there weren’t Williams sisters? There would be just one Williams? I love the Williams sisters.
IT: I get that, but if you’re talked about in the same breath as someone who has a different life, somewhat different interests - there’s no separation of you from your sister. So when it’s good analysis, it’s all good. When it’s somewhat critical, it’s not that good for you.
VW: It’s still all good. She’s my partner.
IT: I’m guessing she’s going to try to make a comeback in L.A. this summer.
VW: To be honest, we don’t talk about tennis that much.
IT: The sport misses her, you’ve got to know that.
VW: Yeah, I miss her, too. The Williams sisters, I think we’ll ride again.
IT: What about winning your fourth Wimbledon? Last year was incredible. No slam titles in four years, then you come and knock out Pierce and Sharapova and then save match points against Davenport [4-6, 7-6, 9-7] in two hours, 45 minutes, the longest Wimbledon women’s singles final in history.
VW: That would be awesome. I’m thinking that I’ll be more fit and stronger than now. But it’s really not about being at the top of your game; it’s about knowing what to do at the right time. So even if I’m not at the top or don’t feel like I’m doing something right, I don’t need that in my head. I need to walk out and play the game. That’s what it’s about.
IT: That’s what you did last year from the quarters on.
VW: From the quarters on, I was like [snaps fingers]. I was moving up to it. It was nice. It was good times. I had to play really well. Lindsay played very well. I just somehow came out on top. After, I was thinking, oh my God, she was serving at 5-2, 40-15. Wow. The only thing I can think of is that I just wanted it more.

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