Serena says knee is OK

MELBOURNE, Australia – Serena Williams says her left knee is just fine and it won’t keep her from playing both singles and doubles at the Australian Open.

The defending champion on Saturday said that although her knee bothered her for much of the Sydney International final the previous night, the injury wasn’t serious and it wasn’t the reason for her 6-3, 6-2 loss to Elena Dementieva.

“The knee is much better,” Williams said. “It was good for me to get all those matches in. So it was good.”

She said the pain, which she only described as “definitely not ligament” related, hadn’t hampered her preparation for the season’s first major.

“Absolutely not,” she said. “If anything, it helped. I played a lot of matches in a row, back to back. I had a long three-set match. But that was good preparation for me because I do plan on playing both singles and doubles here.”

Williams said Olympic champion Dementieva played a strong match.

“I think Elena played well. She always plays me well ... she played amazing,” Williams said. “It’s very comforting to know that I wasn’t at my best on that particular match. What athlete really is at 100 percent every time? Probably never.”

Williams said she canceled a practice session Saturday because she wanted some rest, and she’d be ready for her first-round match at Melbourne Park against Poland’s Urszula Radwanska on Tuesday.

“Don’t want to push it, go too far,” she said of the canceled session. “Definitely want to do the best I can obviously, but also want to pace myself. Hopefully I can play seven singles rounds and six doubles rounds.”

Urszula Radwanksa is the younger sister of Agnieszka Radwanska. Williams is the younger of the two Williams sisters on the circuit – Venus is 29, Serena 28. (AP)