SERENA STORMS INTO FINAL
Williams rolls back years with a bounce in her step
MIXED DOUBLES and that jazz put aside, Serena Williams sat down yesterday morning and thought about what it would be like to be an eager young teenager again.
Then, a few hours later on Centre Court, she went out and played as if she was a teen at heart. Only one with 23 Grand Slam title wins already under her belt – one short of Margaret Court’s all-time record.
She was simply unstoppable. Barbora Strycova did not stand a chance in losing 6-1, 6-2 in just 59 minutes.
She was still bouncing with energy in her press conference afterwards – a very different person to the slightly sulky, reluctant subject the media are often forced to suffer.
Williams, 37, joked that, after every volley she made, she thanked Andy Murray for getting her to play mixed doubles and sharpening her reflexes. Her sortie into an unfamiliar event has had a more fundamental effect than that, though. Spending most of the fortnight as merely first lady to the great home hope’s Wimbledon return, Williams suddenly arrived on the second Thursday completely fresh, as though the serious stuff was only just starting.
It was time to handle her business head-on. “The process of sitting down to think this morning was definitely deliberate,” she said. “I was thinking about when I won my first Wimbledon – it was against Venus.
“I was trying to tap into those emotions, trying to tap into that younger Serena, trying to tap into how to win, basically. I was really calm. I remember I hit an ace. I thought about how it’s so, so different when you’re younger as opposed to now. Now I just need to relax and do what I can do.
“I was calm today. I’m not always. It’s a day-to-day basis with me. We all know that. I’m far from perfect.
“Even this morning, as I was thinking, other thoughts were popping in my brain. I thought about my 24th Slam.
“But I actually haven’t thought about it since, because it’s really not about 24 or 23 or 25. It’s really just about going out there and giving my best effort no matter what. So I just kind of let it go this morning and I feel really calm about it.”
This is her third final since becoming a mum to Olympia just under two years ago and, after last year’s defeat to Angelique Kerber, she has dedicated it to mothers everywhere.
“To all the moms out there,” she said on Centre Court. “I was playing out there for you today and I tried.”