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WIMBLEDON, England – The great soul walking through the door and climbing the steps to the podium in the elegant Wimbledon interview room on Saturday turned out to be Serena Williams, a name that can ring a bell and a presence that can make Wimbledon feel more complete. It turns out that she somehow can’t stand the thought that the last Wimbledon is her last Wimbledon.
“It was a lot of motivation, to be honest,” she said of her 2021 Wimbledon, when she opened a game on the central court, played 3-3 in the first set with Alexandra Sasnovich, then lost support, felt her right leg clasped and left with various forms of pain. “You know, she’s a great champion and that’s a sad story,” Sasnovich said the day after her own father told her he had long dreamed she could face Williams on Central Court.
The rest of this Wimbledon plus the long game of the big three has since passed without Williams, leaving minds both curious and rational to sense the impending retirement. And yet, all the while, that pathetic 111 match from Wimbledon’s 23-year career just wasn’t going to end, and “it was always something that was always on my mind after that game was over,” Williams said. which “Absolutely” provided a difficult workout. Here comes match no. 112 and 24 in the first round on Tuesday against Harmony Tan, a 24-year-old Frenchwoman ranked 113.
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Williams is under number 1204, which makes her probably the best player under number 1204 in the history of the sport. She once won the Australian Open (2007) at 81. In doubles with Ons Jabeur in Eastbourne last week and in practice she said: “I felt better prepared than I thought I would have wanted a month or two months ago or three months ago. months. Much more.”
She had worked hard last summer to make the US Open 2021, she said, but her thigh protested and a moment of realization came that “I will fail”, so she “hooked my rockets” and called it “a severe injury that (There was no fun, “she said.) So, in the months that followed,” I don’t know, “she said.” I haven’t retired. “I honestly didn’t know when I was coming back, I didn’t know how I was going to come back, and obviously Wimbledon is a great place and it just worked out.”
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Not wanting to end her career at Wimbledon in torture with a record of 98-13 matches, seven titles and four finalists, she returned at the age of 40, returning to singles tennis for the first time after a grim 3-3 and back sounds quite like Tiger Woods at the Masters and PGA Championships when this fellow star decides whether he is capable of winning.
“You know the answer to that,” Williams said when asked what could be a good result here.
To the laughter in the room, she added, “Come on, now.”
She said: “I have high goals, but we will also see. I will not answer that. “
She used that right not to answer two questions, the US Supreme Court ruling against Wade on Friday and the All England Club’s decision in April to ban Russian and Belarusian players this year due to the invasion of Ukraine. Regarding Rowe v. Wade, she said: “Yes, I think this is a very interesting question. I do not have any thoughts that I am ready to share about this decision. ” She said of Ukraine: “Another difficult topic, which involves a huge amount of politics, as far as I understand, and the government, and I will withdraw from it.
She spoke fondly of many things: her year almost out of the game, her amazement at the fact that the film she helped produce (“King Richard”), nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, from her commitment to her work as an investor. “Honestly, it was completely different,” she said. “Part of me feels like it’s a little more than my life now than tournaments,” and she laughed lightly.
“When you have a risky company, you have to go all-in, and that definitely takes literally all my extra time,” she said. “And it’s fun. I am currently out of the office for the next few weeks. If you email me, you will receive the “out of office” notification, “she said with aerial quotes. “I absolutely love what I do. I like to invest in companies. And then the Oscars were really fun, just the whole tour, the whole tour of this whole moment, it was amazing to be a part of such an amazing movie, it was something I just don’t think about. At best, you’re thinking of winning Grand Slam tournaments, not being nominated for an Oscar for a film you’re producing, so it was pretty great. “
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On the question of mental health, she examines her own longevity, which she has so far attributed to her prudence in the number of her tournaments from a long time ago. “There are often times when I think I’m subconsciously pausing,” she said. “I’ve never played as much as the next player in my entire career. And I think it was all subconscious, I took care of myself and I knew how to take care of myself. And a lot of people have to learn that, and I think that was something that my parents built into me, like it was already programmed into me, so it was just something that I always did naturally. ”
She is now 40 and is here, and as the French Open finalist Coco Gauff said on Saturday: “I think that whenever she is in a tournament, she is always a contender to win, even if she hasn’t played for a year. Then Williams said, “Who knows where I’ll jump next time?” You have to be ready. ”
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