After Berlin exit, Serena Williams talks Wimbledon wild card, inspiration and more

Serena Williams' time in Berlin has come to an end.

Giuliana Olmos and Erin Routliffe, fueled by a timely break in each set and winning 4-of-6 deciding points, edged out Williams and her partner World No. 10 Karolina Muchova 6-4, 6-4 to close play at Steffi Graf Stadium on Saturday.

Olmos and Routliffe next face No. 3-seeded pair Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Sara Errani in the quarterfinals. As for Muchova, she still remains in the singles draw after a convincing 6-1, 6-3 win over Zhang Shuai. 

"We love that Serena is playing doubles," Routliffe said. "We play doubles all the time, and it makes people watch more doubles, so we love it."

For Routliffe, the win avenges a defeat she suffered last week to Williams at the HSBC Championships at Queen's Club. Partnering Melichar-Martinez, the duo fell to Williams and Victoria Mboko in the legend's first competitive match back in four years. On court, Routliffe was asked her feelings of seeing Williams in her draw for both tournaments.

"The first time, excited. The second time, I was like, 'Oh my God,'" Routliffe said. "Obviously, the draw happens every week, and you never know, and everyone is going to be watching her match, so to be able to be on the other side of the net is such an honor."

Alongside Muchova, Williams discussed a wide range of topics during her post-match media session, ranging from her thoughts on the Wimbledon doubles wild card to her comeback's motivation. Here are some of the takeaways:

'My daughter, Olympia, told me that I should play with Venus'

Wimbledon released its initial list of wild cards for the Championships beginning in late June, and Serena will compete alongside her sister Venus Williams. The 14-time doubles Grand Slam champions have won six doubles titles at Wimbledon.

The initial push to reunite the Williams sisters didn't come from one of them. Rather, Serena's 8-year-old daughter Olympia had the idea.

"Well, I think it's going to be fun," Serena said. "My daughter Olympia told me that I should play with Venus. She's always right.

"She's like 'Mom you should play with Venus'. She's very serious, she's very smart. She's very wise. I said 'OK Olympia, we'll see if we can do it.'" 

Williams was also asked about her interest in the remaining singles main-draw wild card that's to be announced in the future. Williams, who won seven of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles there, had a playful exchange with the journalist on her interest in hypothetically receiving that wild card.

"Oh my Gosh, there's some left? Would you be interested if I took it? You think I'm ready for singles," Williams laughed in the exchange. "I need to go to work."

As for Muchova's thoughts?

"I think I would be interested in it," Muchova said in potentially seeing Williams play singles.

'All these women coming back being so gosh darn good, I just felt why not?'

Williams was asked about her motivation to come back to the sport that she had left in 2022. She pointed out two specific women: her sister Venus and three-time Olympic medalist alpine skier Lindsey Vonn.

"I was really motivated by what Venus was doing at US Open, I thought she played really well. Quarterfinals in doubles, I thought was really interesting," Williams said. "At the time, she was always telling me I should play. I felt a lot of pressure, but I wasn't practicing at all.

"That wasn't my goal at the time [to come back], but I said if I ever change my mind, it will take six months to get off. I was like 'Sure I'll get on' but that doesn't mean anything, I just had no intention of being here today to be perfectly honest with you.

Williams' extra nudge came while watching close friend Vonn compete at the Milano-Cortina Games earlier this year. Vonn sat in Williams' box last week at Queen's. 

"Watching Lindsey [Vonn] and everyone do so well, all these women as you mentioned coming back being so Gosh darn good, I just felt 'why not? A least for a little bit -- this is not obviously forever. It's not sustainable for me. 

"I did feel motivated after the Olympics"

More top quotes from Williams:

"I would really love to play with Coco [Gauff], she was on my list of people that I wanted to play with. I should have done better research on who was on the charts.

"She's so focused on singles nowadays, you never really know if [players] are playing doubles. I guess I should have asked her though."

-- Williams on potentially playing doubles with Gauff, who joked at a separate media session that she'd switch out her Berlin doubles partner Jessica Pegula for Williams

"Karolina is such a great player. She's such a beautiful player. She's someone that I love to watch."

"She's sitting right next to me [laughing]"

-- Williams on what she likes about Muchova's game and one player she'd want to play singles against 

"I felt pretty good out there, I felt more nimble, more sturdy and quicker than the first match. I felt pretty good just physically"

-- Williams on how she's felt physically compared to the Queen's match

"The Czech players have given me nothing but trouble in my career. If you can't beat them, join them [laughing]"

-- Williams when asked about potentially partnering Czech Katerina Siniakova in Berlin before partnering Muchova