‘Over-anxious’ Serena back in familiar swing
THERE is the unusually high count of six mothers in the main singles draw at Wimbledon this year, and the most famous one of all was back, on Court No1.
How the world’s greatest female athlete is embracing parenthood has been a subject of fascination leading into this year’s Championships, fuelled by her very open and honest disclosures of its joys and pitfalls.
This, though, was Williams back in her office, and by the end of her 7-5 6-3 victory over Dutch lefthander Arantxa Rus it was clear that she is deadly serious about one thing this fortnight.
The 36-year-old American knows that time is running out, and she wants to win this title, badly.
You could tell that by the way that Mrs Williams — as umpire Kader Nouni referred to her — accompanied every winner she hit with a faintly blood-curdling, lingering grunt as each one sped towards the back canvas.
The brisk wind that swirled around beneath the reconfigured roof on Court One acted as a leveller, but this was a big improvement on her first outing back at the French Open five weeks ago.
And if Paris is anything to go by she will get better and better with each round, hopefully not concluding in the sort of withdrawal that occurred prior to the fourth round there.
Williams conceded afterwards that an ability to compartmentalise her new life will be crucial to her progress in the coming days. She spent the morning with her daughter Olympia, and then it was off to do business.
‘I’m adjusting well. I really don’t like being away from her, but I also think it’s healthy in a way for me to do what I need to do, be that working mom, then go back home and be the mom,’ she said. ‘But it’s hard. I realised at Roland Garros, if the days were long, that was hard because I felt guilty. I was like, I haven’t seen Olympia.’
What has not changed is the demands she places on herself when out on the court.
‘I expected to win this match,’ she said. ‘I don’t go out there expecting to do well, see what happens. That’s just not me. Not only do I expect to win, I expect to win emphatically. Sometimes I put too much pressure on myself, I’m over-anxious.’
After the dramatic catsuit she wore in Paris there was inevitably much interest on which outfit she would sport for this tournament. She walked out looking vaguely like a judoka in a tracksuit with a band around the waist, and then stripped off to reveal a more conventional tennis outfit that would have been passed by Wimbledon’s clothing censors.
This featured compression tights, which are needed to combat the blood clot issues she has suffered from. ‘I just got to keep compression on my legs for health reasons. So it worked out great, I feel good,’ she said.
Fashion questions are all part of the circus around her which, she hinted, might include a visit from her friend Meghan Markle if she stays in the tournament long enough. On the evidence of yesterday she may be around for some time, assuming that her serve cranks up a little after pectoral muscle issues and her footwork improves, as it should.
She now faces Bulgarian qualifier Viktoriya Tomova, the world number 135, who may not be as tricky as the highly mobile Dutch southpaw she faced yesterday. Williams needed to break back in the second set but the fair test provided by Rus was probably exactly what was required.
Meanwhile, Venus Williams had to get a grip of her stance and then her match to avoid slipping out at the first round a year on from making the Wimbledon final.
Twice in losing the opening set Williams fell badly, victim to the fresh turf that tends to be tricky when the tournament commences. But the 38-year-old regained her sure-footedness as well as her single-mindedness to beat Johanna Larsson 6-7, 6-2, 6-1.
At times Williams reached a level of tennis that made a mockery of her age. Her hitting had heft, her movement was lithe, and it left you thinking that just maybe she is capable of once again going deep.
‘I’d like to take it a step further,’ said the five-time champion afterwards.