(Wimbledon) It’s tough, but she wants to keep going: Serena Williams’ surprise return to competition at Wimbledon was cut short, but the 40-year-old American doesn’t seem to be done with tennis, she wants to play “home” the United States Open.
Posted at 9:36
Asked about her future a few minutes after her defeat 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (10/7) against the French Harmony Tan (115e world) on Center Court where she lifted the trophy seven times, Queen Serena was very evasive.
” I do not know. Who knows ? Who knows where I’ll respawn? she mumbled, still in disappointment.
Because she expected a very different reunion with this court that she had left last year on an abandonment in the first round after only a few games due to a thigh injury.
“It was better than last year…”, she noted on Tuesday without much conviction.
Since retiring in July 2021, she had no longer played competitive singles and had only played two doubles matches in all the previous week.
Fallout, during these 12 months, of the 8e at the 1204e world place, it appeared too often borrowed, even lost on the court.
“Intimidation Factor”
And above all, she did not scare her young 24-year-old opponent who nevertheless considers her a “superstar” and who above all hoped to manage to take “one or two games” from her.
“She no longer has this intimidation factor, believes the ex-N. 1 worldwide Mats Wilander, consultant on Eurosport. She doesn’t intimidate young players anymore, because they haven’t seen her win much.
Williams may still be hoping to win a 24e Grand Slam title to equal Margaret Court’s record, but her last, on 23edates back to the 2017 Australian Open and since then has failed in the final four times (Wimbledon and US Open 2018 and 2019).
And she had significantly reduced her calendar in recent years, down to those twelve totally blank months.
However, can she be satisfied with staying on such a defeat at Wimbledon? “Of course not! Certainly not ! “, she retorted, saying she was “motivated” to play the next United States Open which begins on August 29.
“The United States Open, that’s where I won my first Grand Slam title (in 1999, editor’s note), it’s super special. I’m definitely very motivated to improve and play at home,” she said.
She considers that she was physically ready for her recovery on Tuesday while acknowledging a weakness at the end of the match.
Matter of trust
“I move well, I return a lot of balls that you have to go get. But I didn’t train for three-hour matches… that’s, I think, where I made a mistake,” she said.
It is mentally that she feels she has sinned.
“On the key points of the match, you always have to be mentally ready to win them. I did quite a bit on maybe one or two of those points, but it was clearly not enough,” she pointed out.
She lacked confidence “when it became tight at the end of the meeting”, abounds Wilander.
But to regain her devastating confidence, she needs to play games.
What she herself admitted: “You have to say to yourself that if I had played matches, I would not have missed some of these key points or lost the match”.
Despite her immense experience, her exacerbated champion character – is it still so? – and her talent, Serena Williams “will take time to recover from this defeat when she came so close”, predicts Kim Clijsters, ex-world No.1 who has become a consultant on Eurosport.
Nevertheless, if she wants to play in New York, she will have to discuss with her coach in particular to “find matches to play” by then, estimates the Belgian.
However in this quest for renewal, Serena will no longer be able to count on the help of her French coach Patrick Mouratoglou, who had succeeded in this operation and who accompanied her in the conquest of her last ten Majors (from 2012 to 2017), but from which she separated in April.