Ungracious in lopsided defeat, a grumpy Serena Williams humiliated herself with terse words Tuesday after Justine Henin humbled her on the court in a US Open quarter-final.
Giving no credit where credit was due after Henin spanked her 7-6 (7/3), 6-1 in 97 minutes, the eighth-seeded American and reigning Australian Open champion moped through a session with the media to avoid being fined by the WTA.
"I really don't feel like talking about it. I don't want to get fined. That's the only reason I came," she admitted. "I can't afford the fines because I keep losing."
Henin improved to 6-6 lifetime against the younger Williams sister after ousting Serena from a third consecutive Grand Slam, having also dispatched her in the quarter-finals of the French Open and Wimbledon.
"I think she played better. I think she made a lot of lucky shots and I made a lot of errors," Serena Williams said. "I don't think my level dropped.
"I guess in a way my level did drop. I definitely made a lot of errors. She started playing a lot more aggressive and played a lot of hard balls."
While understandably disappointed after a frustrating defeat, Williams blamed defeat on her own mistakes rather than Henin's ability to cause them.
"Absolutely. I think that's usually the case for me. It's my match to win or lose," Williams said.
"It definitely wasn't my best serving day. I wasn't my best."
Williams had said earlier in the event that the thumb injury which kept her idle between Wimbledon and the US Open was healed, so asked what went wrong against Henin, a seemingly stunned and shaken Williams had no explanation.
"I can't explain that right now. I just don't know," Williams said.
"I was really excited to go into it. I was ready to play.
"I've got to go back and study and figure out how to beat her. That's it. Bottom line."
Fitness was not an issue, Williams claimed.
"I was very fit," she said. "I can run for hours."
She also shrugged off the lack of tuneup matches as a weakness.
Asked if she was devastated, Williams replied in a monotone, "No, I'm very happy."
Williams was ahead 0-30 on Henin's first two service games of the second set but could not make a breakthrough.
"I thought I was going to be able to recover all those things but I guess it didn't happen."
