Memories of defeat drive Serena

WIMBLEDON, England — There are, of course, many reasons why Serena Williams has been as successful as she has been, for as long as she has been.

The serve. The returns. The groundstrokes. The court coverage. And more.

A little insight into one aspect of the way she approaches matches arrived via her answer to a question about Saturday’s 9 a.m. (ET) Wimbledon final against No. 7-seeded Simona Halep.

Williams, who can collect her eighth title at the All England Club and 24th Grand Slam singles trophy overall, was asked why she has been able to accumulate a 9-1 head-to-head mark against the Romanian.

“The biggest key with our matches is the loss that I had. I never forgot it. She played unbelievable,” Williams said. “That makes me know that level she played at — she can get there again. So I have to be better than that.”

It doesn’t matter, apparently, that the result came in 2014, in a relatively inconsequential round-robin meeting at the season-ending championships. Or that Williams soundly beat Halep later at that same tournament. Or that Williams won their only matchup this season, at the Australian Open in January.

If it’s going to help to have a reminder that Halep is capable of beating her because she did beat her once, why not focus on that?

Plus, Williams enters her 11th final at the All England Club well aware that she has lost her past two championship matches at Grand Slam tournaments — against Angelique Kerber at Wimbledon and against Naomi Osaka at the U.S. Open, both in 2018.

The Open final descended into chaos after Williams was penalized a game for a heated argument with the chair umpire. She said in a first-person essay she wrote for Harper’s Bazaar that she met with a therapist and wrote to Osaka to apologize for the whole episode.

As for the loss to Kerber at the All England Club?

“I remember after that, I just trained and I trained and I trained to get physically more fit,” Williams said. “So I’m definitely at a different place.”