Venus Williams reveals reasons for her lasting athleticism on the tennis court

Venus Williams beat Belinda Bencic, 17 – an opponent nearly half her age in Dubai on February 17. Ali Haider / EPA

DUBAI // Venus Williams launched her defence of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title with an emphatic 6-1, 6-2 win over 17-year-old Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic, an opponent half her age, on Monday night.

The American later suggested not playing the junior circuit might have played a part in her and sister Serena Williams’ longevity on the Tour. Excerpts from the post-match interview:

She’s half your age. Do you just even think about that at all, or like, ‘hey, I just beat this girl’? She’s 17? And a protege of Martina Hingis?

Venus Williams: I know. She's hopefully benefiting from that relationship, because Martina was one of a kind and still is on the doubles court. Hopefully that will be something that will work out for her, because that will be great for tennis and for Swiss tennis, and she's got a lot of enthusiasm. You can tell she wants to play well.

But, no, you know, I don’t think about that out there, because at 34, I mean, I’m hitting a little bit harder than most people and playing, you know, some offense on the run and hitting the ball just as hard.

When I was 17, though, also, I didn’t think about what the age was of someone across the net. All you think of is I want to beat them and that kind of thing. A number doesn’t ever come in the head.

When a player gets to over 30, they have to make some kind of compromise somewhere usually in the way they practice and prepare. What have you done?

I have never spent a ton of time on the practice court. Not that I don’t get the work in, but I stopped practicing twice a day when I was about 20 or 21.

That could possibly be a part of longevity, as well, because the more hours you put in the body, it’s not normal to hit, you know, a thousand forehands a day.

So I think as you start to get older, if you want to have a longer career, then you’ve got to start thinking about quality over quantity.

But how do you maintain such terrific athleticism?

Genetics. Thanks, Mom. Thanks, Dad. And, yeah, I think a lot of that comes natural. I have to work on it. I have different weaknesses than someone who is smaller. As a tall person it’s easy for me to get slow if I don’t work on it. I don’t let that happen, so I’m constantly working on my agility and my movement.

Do you think any of this saving of energy has to do with the fact that you guys didn’t play juniors and like, you know, that kind of thing?

Yeah, I think actually it does. The thing is I can’t compare playing juniors because I didn’t do it. I was talking to [former American pro] Mary Joe at Fed Cup, and she said, yeah, if she didn’t play as many juniors, she feels like she could have played a little bit longer.

It’s just the mental strain it takes when you have been playing so many matches before you even are professional. So I think the longevity is important to pace yourself.

The way you were hitting tonight, how does that compare to, say, five or six years ago?

Oh, I think my strategy is a lot better than even five or six years ago, and, you know, I think I have added another shot to my game in the last few months with my backhand slice. Actually starting to use it if I’m on defense and sometimes in the middle of the point. It’s not a shot I am going to go to, because I like to be aggressive, but I think the strategy is better. And even when you’re not even playing better, the strategy is still better even though you might lose sometimes.

Can you compare the enjoyment levels of a 17-year-old Venus Williams beating big time players and a 34-year-old Venus Williams beating younger players?

I don’t think the enjoyment level ever goes down, but I think at a young age I expected that for myself. I always had a positive outlook, especially back in the day. You got quality points depending on the player you beat. So for me it was exciting to beat a higher ranked player because your ranking went up.

Nowadays it’s different. If you get an easier draw, there’s nothing wrong with that. But it always feels good getting good wins, because also now everyone is playing so well.

The quality that players come out against me is completely different than what they might play against someone lower ranked. So I have to constantly be ready no matter if it’s a top player or not, because their level is automatically coming higher.

Other players come here first round and they struggle with the change in temperature, courts, ball, everything. You, in the first set today, were hitting the ball so clean. How do you explain that and how did you manage to be so ready for this tournament?

I think playing Fed Cup actually helped me. As challenging as it was to get through all the time zones and travel everywhere and hit three continents, actually four continents, I think it helped me to continue the ball, you know, work with Mary Joe a little bit, hearing something a little bit different than what you hear every day.

I think that helps me, and I have been working on trying to hit clean and penetrate in the last couple of weeks.

So I think that helped. Whether I win or lose in matches, I really want to improve my game, because I have been improving steadily, and I know I can get better and more consistent. So I’m also trying to work on my game out there and do the right thing.

You hit with Omar Behroozian. He’s a local guy from here, for a few days. Can you talk about that? It’s not every day someone from here gets this kind of experience.

Yeah, I know. He’s like all over the place on the court. He never gets tired. He’s in awesome shape, very competitive. We have had some really good training. Hopefully he’s enjoyed it, too. I think so.

Follow us on Twitter at our new home at NatSportUAE