Good footwork or not, Williams is on the threshold of something special
Serena Williams’ tournament began with her being quizzed about drinking games at the wedding of her good friend Meghan Markle and is ending with her being invited to consider herself “Wimbledon royalty”.
“Oh wow, I never thought about that,” she said. “That’s pretty cool but honestly I’m just me. I don’t feel any different – I know that sounds weird but I don’t. That’s an attitude I want to keep, something I want to teach my daughter – always just have that humility. We’re all human.”
Well, is she? Is it really human to stand on the brink of a 24th Grand Slam title, equalling Margaret Court’s record? And is it really human to be going for your eighth singles crown – only Martina Navratilova
walked away with nine – just ten months after the birth of that child you’re trying to keep humble?
When Williams rocked up in SW19 a fortnight ago there was a feeling that the tournament would be a significant part of her rehab, building towards Slams in the near future. Few were predicting she’d be in today’s Centre Court showpiece, where she plays Germany’s Angelique Kerber, and so it was okay to be jokey with her and ask about the alleged
“beer pong” at Markle and Prince Harry’s nuptials.
In her early matches, Williams barely moved, which must have encouraged belief among her rivals that this would be a Slam too soon. Looking back at those encounters with the benefit of hindsight, it’s obvious she was staying fairly rooted to the baseline because she could; that only Williams could do this. And re-examining the matches in sequence it’s apparent she was taking more and more
steps each time. It was hardly sprinting but then, with Williams, when did it ever need to be that?
She was asked about footwork the other day – whose had improved more over those ten months of momhood – baby Olympia’s or hers? “That’s actually a really good question,” she laughed. “I’m going to say hers because she’s moving those feet now. She’s walking, maybe a little too fast. She’s trying to go faster than her body will allow. She kicks