Last Saturday, Serena Williams appeared at the Wimbledon tennis tournament at Wimbledon, England—a year after sustaining an injury at last year’s Wimbledon. The following Tuesday, she played her first Grand Slam match in months against Harmony Tan on the Centre Court.
Williams, who is 40 years old, was forced to quit the 2021 Wimbledon after she pulled her right hamstring in the first round. That failure motivated her to make a comeback, after an entire year of resting.
“It was a tremendous amount of motivation,” Serena Williams said. “You never want any match to end like that. It’s really unfortunate, but it was definitely something that’s always been at the top of my mind.”
Over the last seven years, Williams has been ranked singles world No. 1 by the Women’s Tennis Association. She has participated at Wimbledon 20 times, and won 7 times. Her ability is undoubtedly, but after a year without competing in a tennis tournament some began to wonder if she could make a successful comeback. And after she split up with Patrick Mouratoglou, her coach of ten years, people doubted if she even intended to continue playing tennis at all.
Her response was simple enough: “I didn’t retire and had no plans to be honest. I just didn’t know when I would come back. I didn’t know how I would come back. Obviously, Wimbledon is such a great place to be, and it just kind of worked out.”
Her new coach, Eric Hechtman, is the director of tennis at the Royal Palm Tennis Club in Miami. He made clear that their goal for this year’s Wimbledon is to win the event. When interviewers asked Williams what she would consider to be a good outcome at the tournament, her answer was bold and confident.
“You know the answer to that,” she smiled. “C’mon now.”
Source:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656283944422x815820355129513100/Serena%20Williams%20Discusses%20Her%20Return%20to%20Wimbledon%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
Williams, who is 40 years old, was forced to quit the 2021 Wimbledon after she pulled her right hamstring in the first round. That failure motivated her to make a comeback, after an entire year of resting.
“It was a tremendous amount of motivation,” Serena Williams said. “You never want any match to end like that. It’s really unfortunate, but it was definitely something that’s always been at the top of my mind.”
Over the last seven years, Williams has been ranked singles world No. 1 by the Women’s Tennis Association. She has participated at Wimbledon 20 times, and won 7 times. Her ability is undoubtedly, but after a year without competing in a tennis tournament some began to wonder if she could make a successful comeback. And after she split up with Patrick Mouratoglou, her coach of ten years, people doubted if she even intended to continue playing tennis at all.
Her response was simple enough: “I didn’t retire and had no plans to be honest. I just didn’t know when I would come back. I didn’t know how I would come back. Obviously, Wimbledon is such a great place to be, and it just kind of worked out.”
Her new coach, Eric Hechtman, is the director of tennis at the Royal Palm Tennis Club in Miami. He made clear that their goal for this year’s Wimbledon is to win the event. When interviewers asked Williams what she would consider to be a good outcome at the tournament, her answer was bold and confident.
“You know the answer to that,” she smiled. “C’mon now.”
Source:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656283944422x815820355129513100/Serena%20Williams%20Discusses%20Her%20Return%20to%20Wimbledon%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
