Serena: You all get why I’m here
SERENA WILLIAMS is back at Wimbledon and it is not just to add some gloss to a slightly depleted women’s field.
Absent from the singles court for a whole year, she was asked yesterday what her ambitions were for the coming fortnight.
‘You know the answer to that, come on now,’ she said. ‘I have high goals.’
The mind is always willing but how co-operative the flesh will be is open to question, with her not far off her 41st birthday.
The only tennis she has banked since hobbling off the Centre Court a year ago are the two doubles matches she played at Eastbourne this past week.
Her visit there had the air — and apparently a few demands — of a presidential visit but there is no doubt she still enjoys a status in the game above her peers, even with a ranking of 1,204. How well she fares at SW19 will revolve around how well she is able to cover the singles court after so long out. At least she has a seemingly gentle introduction, against the world No 113 Harmony Tan of France.
Williams revealed that a big part of making what might be a farewell appearance at the All England Club is not leaving on the note of last year, when she had to withdraw from her first round after slipping on the fresh grass.
‘It was a lot of motivation, to be honest,’ she said. ‘It was always something since the match ended that was always on my mind.’
The 23-time Grand Slam champion decided that she would be coming back to Wimbledon before the French Open, sometime in May.
Therefore she will have been putting plenty of work in. While she should be competitive on the grass courts, getting deep into the second week is a huge ask.
‘I didn’t retire. I just needed to heal physically, mentally,’ she said, referring to most of the past 12 months when she was seen purely at launches and premieres, rather than on the tennis court.
‘Wimbledon was tough last year. I felt like I was injured for most of it, then I ripped my hamstring. So in general the whole experience was rough.’ She turned her attention to helping promote King Richard, the film centred mainly on her father, and to her venture capital business.
This remains something she is highly interested in, although she declined to say whether she had been part of a consortium that was interested in buying Chelsea FC, despite the rumours.
And coming back to competition after a long break is nothing to new to her. She has often had long hiatuses between events.
‘I’m currently out of office for the next few weeks, so if you email me, you’ll get the nice ‘out-of-office’ reply, she said. ‘Everyone knows that I’ll be back in a few weeks.
‘I never played as much as the next player throughout my whole career. I think that was all subconscious, me taking care of myself and knowing how to take care of myself.
‘I went into this saying I’d play Eastbourne. I would never be ready for singles, I’ll just kind of play doubles and see how I felt. But probably I could have played singles there.
‘The doubles was great with Ons [Jabeur, of Tunisia] who has been playing well.
‘I felt more prepared than I thought I would like a month or two months or three months ago. Way, way more. So it was kind of surprising.’