ONE STEP FROM THE MOTHER OF ALL COMEBACKS
Williams earns chance to reclaim SW19 crown
SERENA WILLIAMS, Duchesses Kate and Meghan — Centre Court tomorrow for the Wimbledon women’s final will be one giant intersection of sport, celebrity and royalty.
Angelique Kerber might feel something of an unwanted interloper as she tries to spoil Williams’ attempts to reassert herself as the Queen of SW19.
It will all be more colourful than the possible all-German final, the prospect of which was extinguished when Williams staged a command performance in this semi-final.
This time a year ago the world No 181 — because that is what she is until Monday — was seven months pregnant. Now she is about to go for her 24th Grand Slam title in what is only her fourth tournament back since going through an extremely traumatic birth on September 1.
Small wonder that her run here has resonated way beyond the realms of mere tennis and attracted attention reaching all the way to the most glamorous end of the royal family.
‘I’ll just have to keep winning,’ said Williams last week when responding to questions about whether her friend Meghan Markle would pay her first visit to the All England Club. Williams has kept her end of the bargain, and never more convincingly than yesterday, when she displayed a champion’s ability to lift her game in response to a more potent challenge.
Making the whole narrative more compelling has been the unsparing detail Williams has provided of her journey back to the pinnacle of the sport.
‘It’s no secret I had a super tough delivery,’ said the 36-year-old, referring to the blood clots that threatened her life. ‘I lost count after four surgeries because I was in so many.
‘Because of all the blood issues I have, I was really touch-and-go for a minute. I’m glad no one told me at the time I was going through that. It was tough. There was a time I could barely walk to my mailbox.’
While her mailbox might not necessarily be one of those on the front door at the bottom of the stairs, that is an indication of how far she has travelled in a short time.
And as Serena Williams, the expectations have not been much different, even though she came in with a modest 5-2 match record since returning to the tour in March.
‘I was still pregnant at this time last year, that’s something I have to keep reminding myself,’ she said. ‘Also, going out there, being a mom, is super cool.
‘A lot of people were saying, “Oh, she should be in the final”. For me it’s such a pleasure and a joy because less than a year ago I was going through so much stuff.’
While not shying away from spelling out the scale of her achievement, she did also add a note of self-deprecation: ‘When I wasn’t a favourite, I was kind of upset about that. It’s like, “C’mon, what can make me happy?’”
Fielding the inevitable questions about her elevated connections, she replied: ‘If there was a Wimbledon royalty, I would like to believe I would be Wimbledon royalty, because I’ve done pretty well here in the past.’ She has, in truth, had a favourable draw to the final, and this is by no means a vintage top 10 in the women’s game, far from it. A look at the players’ boxes yesterday was also a reminder that Williams is also doing all this aided — as is her contemporary and fellow parent Roger Federer — by an enormous retinue of support staff, on and off the court. Hers was bulging at the seams, while across the stairs sat the sum of Goerges’s team, her coach and her physio. The 29-year-old from near Hamburg
was, though, a formidable opponent. She came armed with a powerful and aesthetically pleasing serve, and an all-round game that had seen off a succession of very good players.
She did not look overawed by the situation, unlike when she played Williams in Paris six weeks ago. There were high quality rallies throughout, but it was just that the American was clearly too good, both in terms of power and precision.
What she is doing here is remarkable, especially as she has become a totem for working mothers, those coming back from giving birth, and having had medical problems. In those terms she is not simply playing free from pressure.
‘I don’t want to limit myself, I think that’s what I was doing in the past,’ she remarked.
Perhaps most startling in technical terms is the way that her movement now looks so good. It will need to be against the astute Kerber, whom she played in her last Wimbledon final, two years ago.