Imagine being in a wide, grassy stadium and being ushered out in tears after slipping and ripping the hamstring in your thigh. Well, that is just what Serena Williams had to experience at 2021’s Wimbledon Grand Slam, and so, with many changes for the better, this year’s Grand Slam, which started on June 20 in Wimbledon, England, was quite different from all of Williams’s other tournaments.
Williams, seven-time Wimbledon singles and 23-time Grand Slam champion, returned to England after tearing her right hamstring in the Wimbledon competition last year, which resulted in lots of tears and frustration. She was unable to continue the match and took about 12 months to recover and go back to her tour, missing three Grand Slams and tons of other competitions.
When asked in an interview with Christopher Clarey how much she was motivated to come back to Wimbledon, she replied, “It was a tremendous amount of motivation. You never want any match to end like that. It’s really unfortunate, but it was definitely something that’s always been on my mind.”
However, other than that, there have been many positive changes in her life. First of all, her prior coach, a noted Frenchman by the name of Patrik Mouratoglou, broke up with her. Williams is now coached by the former tennis player from Miami, Eric Hechtman, who is also teaching her sister, Venus.
Also, Williams has started numerous business endeavors, including a venture-capital company called Serena Ventures, and motherhood, namely in the form of her daughter Olympia, who is now four, to absorb most of her free time and attention.
Despite her injury and troubles, William’s goal is not just to perform better than last time, though. Her coach Hechtman agrees with her: “She’s a champion, right? And she’s playing Wimbledon for a reason,” he said. “Just like I think anybody that walks into a tournament, their goal is to win the event. And that’s our goal.”
So, the question that almost everybody is asking is whether Serena Williams will remain undefeated, or whether she will fall into another black hole of struggles, frustrations, and tears.
Link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/25/sports/tennis/serena-williams-wimbledon.html
Williams, seven-time Wimbledon singles and 23-time Grand Slam champion, returned to England after tearing her right hamstring in the Wimbledon competition last year, which resulted in lots of tears and frustration. She was unable to continue the match and took about 12 months to recover and go back to her tour, missing three Grand Slams and tons of other competitions.
When asked in an interview with Christopher Clarey how much she was motivated to come back to Wimbledon, she replied, “It was a tremendous amount of motivation. You never want any match to end like that. It’s really unfortunate, but it was definitely something that’s always been on my mind.”
However, other than that, there have been many positive changes in her life. First of all, her prior coach, a noted Frenchman by the name of Patrik Mouratoglou, broke up with her. Williams is now coached by the former tennis player from Miami, Eric Hechtman, who is also teaching her sister, Venus.
Also, Williams has started numerous business endeavors, including a venture-capital company called Serena Ventures, and motherhood, namely in the form of her daughter Olympia, who is now four, to absorb most of her free time and attention.
Despite her injury and troubles, William’s goal is not just to perform better than last time, though. Her coach Hechtman agrees with her: “She’s a champion, right? And she’s playing Wimbledon for a reason,” he said. “Just like I think anybody that walks into a tournament, their goal is to win the event. And that’s our goal.”
So, the question that almost everybody is asking is whether Serena Williams will remain undefeated, or whether she will fall into another black hole of struggles, frustrations, and tears.
Link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/25/sports/tennis/serena-williams-wimbledon.html
