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Tennis star talks about how her training is evolving as she gets older. (1:32)
 

Full Interview (24:26)
 

Tavis: Pleased to welcome Serena Williams to this program. The tennis great is once again atop the world of women's tennis after regaining the top ranking in the sport just last week. She's won two Grand Slam singles titles this year at both the Australian and Wimbledon. She's out now with a new book. Her memoir is called "On the Line," which is filled with great stories and lessons from her life and career to date. Serena, nice to have you back on the set.

Serena Williams: Thank you, it's so awesome to be here.

Tavis: Last time you were here you were actually with your sister, Venus.

Williams: Yes, I was.

Tavis: We were celebrating - it's been a few years now.

Williams: It's been a while ago.

Tavis: Venus, as you know, designed - trivia for those who watch our show every night. Venus Williams, as in her sister, designed this set. So when you see me sitting here or we're doing satellite interviews on the other side, Venus designed the whole set. She came to me - actually sent me an email.

Williams: Yes.

Tavis: When I was starting to do this show, and she said, "Tavis, I heard you're doing a new show and I want to get into design when my career is over. Would you give me a shot at designing your set?"

Williams: That was so nice of you, and she does a great job. She just designed - I just got renovating a place and she designed it, and my apartment as well. She does a good job. I love this set, but we've got to get her to come back and get you some new stuff.

Tavis: Yeah, as soon as I get some more money, she can come back and do another one. She still wants to move in that direction post-tennis?

Williams: Yeah, absolutely. She has a really good eye for it, she's really good at it, and I think she's awesome, so yeah.

Tavis: And this is way ahead, but I'll come back - what do you want to do post-tennis, when that day comes?

Williams: Well, I love fashion design, I love writing, actually. Recently I've gotten into writing, which includes this book that I just came out with, "On the Line," and I'm really artsy, so I like a little bit of everything that has to do with things like art.

Tavis: Speaking of writing, there's a great picture in the book of you and Venus years ago reading, and you make the point in the book that when you get a chance, between matches and rainouts and practices, you actually like to read a lot.

Williams: Yeah, I love reading. I read all the time. Venus and I used to have this book club where we would read just tons of books and we would pass it along. It was only like a two - actually, it was a three-person book club because at the time my physiotherapist was in it too. So we passed the books amongst ourselves.

We're a little - you wouldn't think it, but we're a little geeky. That could be a good thing, though.

Tavis: Before I get into the book itself, what did you make of the process of actually writing a book?

Williams: Well, I had a wonderful co-author, Dan Paisner, who did a really good job. But what I really loved about this is that we sat down together a ton. He sent me things; I crossed a lot of stuff out and actually literally rewrote a lot. He wrote a lot. It was a real team effort.

Sometimes people write memoirs and it's not really their voice. When you read this book it's really my voice, and I would go to him for direction. I was like, "Do you think this is good, or do you like this?" It's cool, because actually in the back of my book it's a little bit of the diary that I kept during the U.S. Open when I won last year.

Tavis: What is the message, primarily, that you wanted to communicate? Everybody writes books for different reasons. At this point in your career, with so much more to do, what did you want this book to communicate?

Williams: Well, at the time that I wrote this book I had just become number one in the world again. I thought life for me is all about timing, and I thought the timing was great because maybe a year prior to that I was ranked almost 200 in the world, I had fallen off. I got injured and had to take some time off. Everyone said that I would never be number one again; I would never win Grand Slams again. Everyone called me fat. Everyone said I wasn't fit, I was never - it was just no, no, no, never, never, never.

All of a sudden, here I do - I come back, I win Grand Slams, and boom, I'm number one again, which no one ever thought that would happen to me. So I thought it was a good opportunity for me to share to the world that when people kind of say no, then you can just look them in the face and say, "Yeah, I can do it. I can do anything as long as I want to do."

Tavis: Great segue for the cover of "ESPN." How about that? Thank you very much. There's fat for you. (Laughs)

Williams: That's hot fat.

Tavis: Yeah. (Laughs) This is the body issue of "ESPN." Everybody in the country - every brother I know is certainly talking about the cover of "ESPN." Are you happy with that cover? Did it come out okay for you?

Williams: Yeah, I'm really happy with it. I wanted to do something super-classy and super-tasteful and just super - I want people to know that you can have great curves like me and still be awesomely sexy, and that's kind of the direction I was going. It was the body issue; I felt completely flattered that they wanted me to be on the cover of it. I was like, "Okay, cool, that's so awesome."

I was just really excited. I thought the picture came out really, really well. We worked with a great photographer and I was just really - I'm really excited about it.

Tavis: There are a lot of women who celebrate the fact that you and your sister have made it vogue for Black women's bodies to be celebrated. A lot of talk about the fact that when Barack Obama got elected that a Black woman in the White House could put a different style, a different spin, on what is fashion and what is beauty. Talk to me about your own journey as a Black woman having this body, the way it's crafted and constructed, appreciated and not ridiculed as not being what we tend to think of when we think of what's beautiful.

Williams: Well, that's a lot of problems that I ran into, which I wrote inside of my book, "On the Line." I ran into a lot of things where people were like, "Well, she's big." I'm thinking, well, honestly, it doesn't matter how much weight I lose, I'll never be a size two. And at the time, I even said, "I'm always going to have these giant boobs and this great, big tush, but this is just who I am."

There's so many people out there that actually have my body type as opposed to someone on the runway, and I think it's important for you to just excel in what you have and just be you and just love who you are. There are times I even say it - I'm looking in the mirror, I'm like, "Oh, I hate - my legs are too fat or my arms are too this."

But it's important for me to let everyone know that everyone has these feelings and everyone has this moment, but I also just realize this is what I am and I love who I am and what I am.

Tavis: You write about this, as you said, in the book. One of the things, it seems to me, that you and your sister have done with these body types is to redefine the woman's game in terms of the physicality of it, not unlike what Tiger's done in golf.

Tiger goes to the gym and everybody realizes he ain't hitting that ball 300, 400 yards just because -

Williams: He's lucky.

Tavis: - because he's lucky. He's in the gym. He has structured his body in such a way that he gets the most out of it. Talk to me about how you think the game has changed with regard to your competition because of the emphasis on the body itself.

Williams: Yeah, you know what? The game has completely changed. When we first came along people weren't as fit, as strong, and now people are living in the gym, practically, and hitting much harder than what I can hit. You can just see a total difference in the game, in the way people approach, and even in the beginning.

We kind of had our own physiotherapist that traveled with us that did exercises with us, and people started doing that on their - they started doing it, too. Not only on the women's tour, but on the men's tour as well. So it was just like a whole kind of evolve - the whole tennis kind of evolved into this new thing where it's all about the gym and not just about being on the court.

Tavis: There is this line in the tennis world that many people believe that the younger sibling never really measures up to the older. You know this well. There are all kinds of examples in history in the tennis game where younger siblings have not done what - I think of Patrick McEnroe and John McEnroe. That's just one example. There are a lot of examples like that. Did you ever wrestle with that or internalize that when you heard that the younger sister - and people told you that you weren't never going to be what Venus was.

Williams: Yeah, you know what? I always got told that I would never be as good as Venus and I was just the younger sister. I never understood how people could say I can't be good because of history. I'm thinking, well, just because of what someone else did in the past has nothing to do with me.

But it was really, really hard for me because Venus got all the attention, she got all the love, which I appreciated - I was never really jealous. That kind of actually motivated me because it was all about - I remember when I was really young, and I write about this in the book, it really scarred me because (laughs) it was this article that said how Venus was going to be good and I would just end up being, like - because at the time, Chris Everett had a sister who didn't do well - I'll end up being like her, just maybe do a little bit and then come a little bit more.

I was just really devastated by that, and if anything I think that helped me work harder and realize that I'm going to have to prove myself more than what my sister had to prove herself. I'm going to have to work harder, and I think that at the end of the day it just ended up helping me.

Tavis: How did you keep - you and Venus - how have you kept this competition from causing consternation in your relationship?

Williams: Well, it's impossible for me to have a bad relationship with Venus because she is the sweetest girl in the world. I give some great examples in the book of how one time she - this is just to explain how nice she was. I had spent all my allowance at the ice cream truck, because we were living in Compton. (Laughter)

We would always go to the ice cream truck and so I ended up spending all my money and I didn't realize that my allowance was - some of it was for my lunch money. And so I never had lunch food that whole week, so Venus ended up giving me her money to have lunch food and she would have the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day to make sure I could eat the real lunch.

I probably needed the peanut butter and jelly sandwich so I could learn the lesson, but she took it.

That's the kind of sister she is, and for me, I can hit a tennis ball back and forth really easy for 10 years, 20 years. At the end of the day, my sister is always going to be there and that's kind of how I've always looked at it.

Tavis: So you don't need to borrow money from Venus anymore, though, do you?

Williams: Well, I love it because I live with Venus (laughter) and every time I come home she changes the house. Now we have whole new furniture, we have new every - she loves designing, like we talked about in the beginning, so now we have a whole new, like, big room that she kind of knocked down a wall, and I love it. I don't have to pay for anything, so I'm like (laughter) I get to live in a brand new house every month.

Tavis: Why did you - I wish - I would like that too. Why do you and Venus choose to - that's the key phrase here, because you can both do what you want to do - why do you choose to still live together?

Williams: Well, I don't want to be away from her. I'm not ready. I love living with her. I don't ever envision myself not living with her. I don't know how that's going to work if we ever decide -

Tavis: That's going to be tough with husbands and babies.

Williams: To get married and have kids.

Tavis: It could be a really big house, I guess.

Williams: It's just how - I just want to - I love being with her. Besides the fact that she pays the bills, besides all that, it's just a great, great feeling. We've been together our whole lives, so it will be very tough one day to realize that I have to move on. But I don't know if I'm even ready to even think about that.

Tavis: You've won so many tournaments now; I'm trying to think of the term. I want to say the Australian, I could be wrong - you were 81st and you came back and won?

Williams: Yes, that was Australia.

Tavis: Australia, that's what I thought. You were 81st in the world, you came back and won. I mentioned at the top of this show you're back to being number one again for the fifth time. What's the most difficult part, whether it's an injury or something else happens in your life, of having been number one and trying to get back there again? What's the toughest part about that journey?

Williams: Really beating the girls who get number one by not winning the big tournaments. Just playing every week. (Laughter) That's the toughest part.

Tavis: Yeah, okay.

Williams: Because I don't play every week. I just try to do the best I can in the few tournaments that I play. But other than that, it's just you have to continue to have drive and everyone is improving. I'm playing people - so many new people that are a lot younger than I am, and they -

Tavis: You're getting to be an old lady now in tennis.

Williams: I know, I'm practically everyone's grandmother out there. So that's different, seeing all these new faces and all these new girls who are fresher and younger and they have so much energy, especially playing someone that they looked up to and they're like, "Oh, my God, I can't believe I'm playing Serena Williams," and I'm like, "Oh, my God, I can't believe you looked up to me," because I feel so young that it's just kind of weird. I think that's a big adjustment that you have to just kind of make.

Tavis: As you get older - you're still young, but by sports standards you're getting older - as you get older, you specifically, for your game, what have you found yourself - I don't want you to give your strategies away, but what kind of adjustments do you find yourself having to make to remain competitive as you get older?

Williams: Well, I find myself working out more off the court. Before I used to do a lot more time on the court, but now I'm doing a lot more training and more physio work off the court and even slimming down more so I can move faster on the court and things like that.

I just figure with each year the slimmer I get the better I'll be in my performance, and so it's been interesting. These are some things that people are telling me that I do, like the people that I work with. They're like, "Okay, so this is what you need to do. You need to put more time being more fit and outlast everyone."

Tavis: What part of your game, even at number one in the world, do you think you can still get better at? What part of your game?

Williams: Oh, my gosh. I feel like I can - I never - I've always felt like I can always do it. I've never felt like I've reached the peak of my game. I feel like I can serve better, I can return better, I can definitely move faster. I can come to the net more than just to shake my opponent's hand at the end of the match or to do the coin toss. I can just do so many things more. I watch some of the men play tennis; I'm like, "Wow, if I can do that and incorporate that into my game, I could just be so much better."

Tavis: What part of your game have you heard critics talk about - I got my own answer, I want to hear yours, though - what part of your game have you heard your critics talk about most consistently that you think they underrate? What part of your game is most underrated over the years?

Williams: I think my strategy a lot is underrated, because everyone says I hit really hard. I play people who hit much harder than me, and I don't even - for me. I don't know, I'm not playing against myself, but I don't even think that I hit as hard as a lot of people think I do. I think that lately I've been really moving the ball around and even last week when I played I did little to no moving but I moved my opponent so much that I ended up winning. So I think that that probably would be the most under -

Tavis: Strategy?

Williams: Yeah. What do you think?

Tavis: This may get me in some trouble, so let me say it and not you. Actually, let's go there. There are two things that I think of lately - of late - where you're concerned, and even Venus, to a certain degree, I think where race plays a factor and sex plays a factor. Let me put my thought out there and I'll get your take on it, how about that? Since you asked me, I'll answer it.

Williams: Okay

Tavis: I think that part - sometimes what people in sports do where African Americans and other people of color are concerned is that they give us too much credit for our athletic prowess, as if somehow we aren't thinking and strategic in how we play the game, whatever it might be, and that troubles me sometimes when they give all the - Serena's great because she's so healthy -

Williams: Athletic.

Tavis: - she's so athletic, as if she's not thinking strategically on the court, so I agree with you on that. That bothers me. Since you went there, the other thing now - we'll hit it and move on - my camera crew are mostly guys around here, of all races, I might add. We were talking before you came on the set about the U.S. Open, about what people have referred to as the meltdown and your going off on the umpire.

I thought - so first was race - I thought that was sexist. Men have meltdowns every day. Coaches are kicking dirt on the umpires in baseball (unintelligible) had a meltdown the day after you did, McEnroe would throw racquets and cuss and scream and yell. Men do it - and I'm not casting aspersion on people; I'm not condoning it, either. We do this all the time.

But the exposure that was placed, the overexposure, on what happened with you I thought had to do with the fact that it was a bit sexist on the part of our industry, but those are my thoughts. Do you want to respond to that at all?

Williams: Yeah. I agree with you 100 percent. I feel like a lot of guys do different things and it's just a double standard sometimes from being a female, especially an African American female, and then from being a male athlete or someone like that.

Also, I think that the athleticism - I totally - if I could hear one more person say, "Oh, she's great, she's a great athlete," which I am. I am a wonderful athlete. But also, I use my brain.

Tavis: Which you apologized for that thing, too, which was the appropriate thing to do.

Williams: Right.

Tavis: Yeah, so that was cool.

Tavis: What's amazing about this story - I know this because I live here in California; I remember when you and Venus were here in California. What's amazing about this story is looking at you where you are now and juxtaposing that from whence you came. What do you make of all that you have been blessed to do? A lot of hard work went into this. What do you make of where you are now and where you started?

Williams: Wow. I feel like now I'm just way more into myself as in calm, way more inside of me. When I started I was really just a hope. I was really hoping, like I wanted to be number one and I wanted to win Grand Slams and I wanted to do A, B, C, and D. Now I've done a lot of stuff. I've done A, B, C, and D, but I still want to do more and I feel like now it's about chasing records as opposed to trying to prove myself, that I can play, even though I'm the younger sister.

Tavis: One of the things also that I come to appreciate going through the book, and I know this watching you, and I've been blessed to some degree in my own life to have access to this. I wonder sometimes how much more - how much better the lives of African American youth would be if they could be exposed.

I have a foundation and I say all the time that the only difference between Black kids and other kids is other kids get exposed and Black kids don't. I say all the time that Black kids are like Kodak film - they just need some exposure. When I look at you and Venus I see all the exposure you have. Just talk to me about what you have learned, how your life has changed, just by the travel. You guys are all over the world all the time.

Williams: Yeah, it makes a big difference to be able to travel or to be able to even - sometimes Black kids don't even leave the community when they - I used to live in an area in middle Florida where some people didn't leave their city and they were 20 years old and they're 18. For me, that was just literally unbelievable.

I think it's really important to have a round - a balanced life by getting out and seeing things, and if you can't do it, go online. Do research, read, learn, better yourself through education, which is one of - my foundation deals - the Serena Williams Foundation deals a lot with education. I think that all encompasses just learning about life and about other cultures and about what you can do as an individual to contribute.

Tavis: Talk to me - at this point in your career, as you look back on your parents, I know we all appreciate our parents differently at different stages of our life. At the stage you are now, talk to me about your parents, Oracene and Richard.

Williams: My parents, they mean so much to me. I feel like I'm not the best daughter because I feel like I should call them absolutely every day and talk to them every day. But sometimes I get so busy and my schedule's so hectic and I don't get a chance to do that.

I love my dad with all my heart. I've dedicated the book to him. If it wasn't for him then I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you. Because of him and his dream I've been able to live my life and be so blessed. There no words or anything that can ever show my appreciation for that.

My mom is great too, because sometimes you have parents who have such an amazing dream like my dad, and you have the other parent, like my mom, who might be a little wary of that dream. But she was never that way. She actually encouraged my dad every step of the way.

I always describe my mom as the spine of a human body - she was the spine and my dad was the body. You need both of them to function and both of them is extremely important, and one can't go without the other.

So I think that I've been so blessed to have two parents, let alone two parents that had such amazing dedication. Because it takes so much - I was trying to train my dog to do something and I got tired. I didn't have the dedication. (Laughing)

Tavis: I'm just laughing (unintelligible).

Williams: That is, like, a terrible example but it just goes to show you what dedication my parents had. I hope I have the same dedication if I'm ever blessed to have kids.

Tavis: You don't have to answer this question, but I'm curious because I thought about this immediately when I saw it - back to this U.S. Open thing right quick. I'm sure it was a private conversation; you ain't got to reveal it unless you want to. What did your dad say to you after that? How did he encourage you after that?

Williams: My dad gave me a hug and he said - he didn't say anything. He just said -

Tavis: Just gave you a hug?

Williams: My dad is so supportive, the most supportive person in the world. Everyone kind of thinks he's tough, and actually, it's my mom who's super-tough. My dad is super, super nice. So yeah, no, no, no, he just gave me a hug and asked me was I okay, and that was it. He was like, "Okay," and then the next day we had to do doubles or something - I had a doubles match and so he just told me to make sure I stayed happy and calm and (unintelligible) and I think that really helped me out, to know that I had his support.

Because at the end of the day, my family means the most to me and the support means the most to me.

Tavis: At some point in your life, because you are so young, you're going to write another one of these. Maya Angelou, who comes on this show often, has written five memoirs in her 80-plus years of living - five different books that tell her whole story.

Williams: Wow.

Tavis: So with you, there'll be others because you've got a lot more to do. What, ultimately, do you want to accomplish with your life, even beyond tennis? What do you want to do with the rest of these years?

Williams: Well, I have two dreams. My dream of dreams is to play an action star in a movie. I think I would look good as an action hero.

Tavis: I can see that, I can see that.

Williams: Don't you think? Like, I have the body.

Tavis: I think so, yeah.

Williams: I have the moves, I can kick.

Tavis: I see that, I see that.

Williams: Another one is I love - like I said, I love writing and I've been working very slowly on writing a screenplay which I call a dramedy, which is a drama mixed with a comedy, and I would love to write a TV show that evolves around just something that I would make up, a little fiction, maybe a little truth here and there.

But I've called it a mixture between "Desperate Housewives," "Sex in the City," and "Family Guy," and I've already started that. I have to just finish it. I haven't had time to finish it. But that is my, like - I don't say wildest dream, because that's something that I totally think I can do and I can completely achieve, but that is some of my biggest dreams.

Williams: And then I have my fashion line. One's called Aneres and the other is called Serena's Signature Statement, which is available exclusively on HSN. I'm actually wearing some of my jewelry now.

Tavis: Cool.

Williams: So those would be the things that I would love to do, and hopefully that's good.

Tavis: Well, those are the things that - yeah, I expect you will do. I will never bet against Serena Williams. Her new book is called "On the Line." Serena, it's a great book and a great life so far, and so much more to come from you. Thanks for coming on, and tell Venus I said hello.

Williams: I will. Thank you very much. I'll have to have her come back.

Tavis: Have her come on back.

Williams: Thank you.

Tavis: Good to see you.