Taste of Big Apple will tempt Serena
WILLIAMS FEELS US OPEN WIN IS WITHIN HER GRASP
SERENA WILLIAMS’ return to Wimbledon – brief though it was – has convinced her to extend her Grand Slam career.
Williams was feeling the pain both of first-round defeat by Harmony Tan and its draining impact on her 40-year-old body yesterday.
But the experience told her she is not yet done at the top level.
It may be wishful thinking from the super competitor inside but for Williams the show feels like it has more episodes to run. September’s US Open suddenly has a much sharper definition around it.
She said: “It definitely makes me want to hit the practice courts because when you’re playing not bad and you’re so close I feel like it’s actually kind of like: ‘OK Serena, you can do this if you want’.
“There’s definitely lots of motivation to get better and to play at home.
“I mean, when you’re at home, especially in New York at the US Open, that being the first place I’ve won a Grand Slam, is something that’s always super special.”
The fact that the first of her 23 Grand Slam titles was secured at Flushing Meadows in the last century underlines her incredible longevity.
If losing to the World No.115 is not something Williams has made a habit of in her long and richly upholstered career – in her pomp she would have swatted away an opponent like Tan like an annoying fly – then the reality is that the days of yore have gone.
But Williams still feels she has something to offer after the punishment of her first singles match in a year.
It might have looked towards the end of a three-hour contest, settled in a final-set tiebreak, that she was playing in diving boot.
But her self-analysis was more upbeat. She said: “Physically I was fine. The last couple of points I really started to feel it but I’m moving well, I’m getting a lot of balls back. I’m moving well in practice as well.
“That wasn’t surprising for me because I knew I was doing that well. I didn’t practise for a three-hour match, so I guess that’s where I went wrong!”
Tan, 16 years Williams’ junior, was sufficiently wiped out by it to pull out of the women’s doubles yesterday.
There would be a logic to a US Open farewell for an American idol like Williams. She has a four-year-old daughter, Alexis, and business interests to occupy her time. Equally Wimbledon is so close to her heart that she may feel she has one more lap in her. After all, her elder sister, Venus, left, is still going at the All England Club at 42 – albeit in the mixed doubles.
The adrenaline rush of playing on Centre Court is intoxicating and damnably hard to replace – something Williams reflected on wistfully after her exit.
“It was an incredible, incredible crowd,” she said. “I was just so happy to be out there playing in front of them. I was just so grateful for the claps and the cheers – for everything.”