As long as I was hitting the ball hard and hitting it deep, our rallies were not that long. ... There was one way to beat her, and that was to be aggressive first.

[Exerting pressure from the opening game, Pierce drove the ball deep with her forehand. She is supremely confident in her game and her life, and thinks she has tennis in perspective.] It's all great and this is what I love to do, and I feel like God has blessed me with this gift, ... At the same time, there are lots of things going on in this world. The last hurricane down south, there's people struggling with their lives . . . I'm very excited and happy to be in the semifinals. It's part of my life, but it's not everything.

I enjoy hitting the ball as hard as I can.

The hits are nice, but the important thing for me is I was hitting the ball hard, ... I had a rough night and I had to correct  things.

You never know, this could be my last one, ... Not because I want it to be, but who knows what can happen in life? So each time that I get farther and do better, yeah, it means a lot more to me now than before.

Both teams hit the ball very well, and I don't know if that's attributed to good hitting or not great pitching, probably a a little bit of both would be my guess.