Me against the Russians–Serena Williams’ Australian Open Interview
Serena’s interviews are almost as entertaining as her tennis performance. She doesn’t make any efforts to hide her mood, whether it is good, bad, feisty, PMSy or whatever. 
Here are some excerpts from her interview after she beat Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia 5-7, 7-5, 6-1. She next plays Elena Dementieva in the semifinals whom she lost at the past three encounters. Olympic silver medalist Dinara Safina and No. 7-seeded Vera Zvonareva meet in Thursday’s other semifinal.
Q. You spoiled the “all Russian” party.
SERENA WILLIAMS: You were expecting an all “Russian final” Who was expecting that?
Q. Elena said playing against you is a mental battle. Do you feel the same way?
SERENA WILLIAMS: You know, I don’t understand that statement.
Q. She said playing against you was a mental battle; that it wasn’t really about forehands or backhands. Do you feel like playing against you is a mental battle or something else?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Maybe it is for her. You know, I think that’s maybe her thing. But, uhm, I don’t know. I never thought about that.
Q. When your opponent is serving for the match, can you give us an idea what you’re thinking at that point? Do you think she’s going to be nervous? What are you feeling?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, I was thinking, Okay, if you lose, you’re going to fly coach all the way back to Florida (laughter), how uncomfortable that would be. That motivated me to do a little better.
Q. Do you fly coach?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I do. I mean, gosh, prices have soared nowadays. I told you, I’m really economic. I wouldn’t necessarily want to go back 16 hours. I wouldn’t allow myself to have the emergency row either. I would be so mad, I would have to sit like the last row, the tightest row. That way I wouldn’t do it again.
Q. Are you mentally strong because you’re fascinated by punk rock music?
SERENA WILLIAMS: No. But it helps, I guess, me have a punk rock attitude. I don’t know.
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[TIB: Why is she complaining about the money all the time? Last year alone she made 14 million dollars. What do you think?]
[…] in women’s sports history. YES, history! Wow… congratulations! Would she please stop whining about the money? [I had to say something nasty, no? After all I was rooting for […]
Serena Williams’s brilliant father, Richard Williams long ago told his wonderful tennis-playing daughters that he didn’t want them to be the kind of celebrities who were spend-thrifts who went through their hard-earned money like water. He wanted them to live by the tried-and-true Ben Franklin adage: A penny saved is a penny earned. The Williams sisters are SMART in soooo many ways. Frugality is just ONE of them!