Serena: Unfit? No, but I've a big ass and knockers

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Trophy girl: Serena Williams strikes a glamorous pose after winning the Australian Open

Bashing the new world No 1 into submission and allowing her just three games, as Serena Williams did to Maria Sharapova in less than an hour over Saturday lunchtime, entitles one to a certain freedom of expression.

In Serena's case, that expression was fighting talk - and with a fruity choice of words at that.

Read more:

• Serena makes stunning return to form to leave Sharapova humiliated

• Federer wins Australian Open final

Swinging as fiercely as she had on court, the 25-year-old pointed to the women's singles trophy, the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup, sitting beside her as justification of her questionable fitness and stamina.

Walk the walk and you can talk for as long as someone will listen. And Serena was coming through loud and clear.

She said: "I've answered every criticism that I've had. And I plan on keeping answering them. The ones that hurt the most were that I wasn't fit. I felt that I was really fit.

"I felt that people said I wasn't fit because I'm larger in some areas than other girls. I don't have a flat chest, I don't have a flat ass.

"But I was looking in the mirror today. My waist is still 28 inches and I think it's all because I have a large bosom and a large ass.

"If I lost 20lbs, I'm still going to have these knockers - forgive me - and I'm still going to have this ass. It's just the way it is. I'm the same size and the same weight I was five years ago.

"I went three sets with Shahar Peer, and I went three sets with Nadia Petrova, and the next day I practised at seven in the morning. I wasn't tired at all and I was ready for the whole tournament. I was never not ready."

She may rail against the criticism, but without it Serena may not have been stung into action.

'I was put on this earth to play tennis'

Equally, had she won her warmup low-level tournament in Hobart in the week prior to the Australian Open, the inner hunger to succeed may not have been triggered.

As it was, her quarter-final defeat to Austrian journeywoman Sybille Bammer in Tasmania set off a chain of events that led to the eighth Grand Slam title of her career.

Serena added: "After I lost in Hobart, I was so upset. I was crying and just mad, I didn't want to lose. The next day my mom called me and she wrote me upwards of 10 e-mails. I read a few of them.

"I locked myself in my room and then I left and just ran to a local park. I didn't know where I was running. I was just running to get in shape, to stay fit.

"I was running and running and I was just so, so mad because I felt like, 'I'm never going to win another title again. I can't even win a tier IV event'. It was just awful and I was just running. It was like a scene from Rocky."

Williams said she was desperate to secure victory to honour her sister Yetunde Price, who was shot dead in Compton in September 2003.

"Every day I write notes for my match. My note for the final was just 'Yetunde'. Usually I write 'Look at the ball, move forward, do this, do that'. I just had that one word.

"I feel that I'm a great tennis player. I was put on this earth to play tennis. Serena Williams is not a thinker. Serena Williams is a tennis player. I love tennis. I love the competition. I'm here to play tennis and I think that I do that the best. I'm the best."

A full-frontal freedom of expression. Serena is back.

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