Excerpts from Venus Williams' post-match interview earlier today.
REPORTER QUESTION. (Through French translation.) Well, talking about your dress, I discussed with the crowd. They watched you. They love it. They think it's very sexy and it's a bit of a change. When we ask the men what they feel about it, when the dress flies a little when you serve, there is a man who said, It's good for my imagination. Was that your objective?
VENUS WILLIAMS: Well, the whole that was never the objective. I mean, it all started in Australia with the slits, and it was about a I had a dress with really long slits in the front, and it was about wearing a dress that it looks like, oh, you have these slits with bareness.
So it has really the design has nothing to do with the rear. It just so happens that I have a very well developed one (laughter.) It's all genetic. If you look at mom and dad, you'll see the same thing happening. If you look at my sister, you'll see the same thing. It's genetic.
But it's really about the illusion. Like you can wear lace, but what's the point of wearing lace when there's just black under. The illusion of just having bare skin is definitely for me a lot more beautiful.
So it's really not about anything else other than just that skin showing. So I'm glad that, you know, it's gotten good reviews. I mean, it could be worse.
REPORTER QUESTION. Some players have actually been fined I think for their outfits and so on. I wondered if there has been anybody here or at Australia who has talked to you and said, You need to cover up a little bit or talk about maybe you've pushed the envelope too far?
VENUS WILLIAMS: No, I mean, I had no idea that it would, first of all, that it would match so well my skin. I had no idea. Like I said, I had no idea. So I just was going for the illusion of, in Australia, the slit. It went a whole other level to the point where I was getting calls from my publicist in the middle of the night.
I was like, well, the last time this happened there were rumors I was married. So what's going on? It's gone on to a whole other plane that I never was designing for.